there is absolutely no requirement for an ACCA person to know Sage as thats is just the software that a business chooses to use and of no consequence to one's knowledge base.

The actual information though in whatever format should be understood by a chartered certified as all of the above are covered at F3, F7 and P2 plus required knowledge for F8 and P7.

It is possible to miss F3 dependant upon your route to membership (i.e. if you came from full AAT). Plus F7 could be skipped with some degree's from selected universities.

I believe that there is a flaw in the exemptions in that with some universities bookkeeping is an options module but the gaining of a degree still gains exemption from F3 if they are going to get exemption from F5.

To the best of my knowledge there is no way to get past P2 although at P2 you would not be looking at trial balances which are really F3 level studies.

I'm studying (almost completed) ACCA and would have no problem with any of the above. (the format of the reports if not obvious may slow me down a little but I know the information that I want to find and know that it has to be there).

Also, I did ICB (not a member anymore but I was for a while) passing the first two papers with 99% and 98% respectively and I used only ACCA study materials.

I sense that the question is loaded?

I think that a few slip through the net with every professional body.

You know the sort, great at passing exams, lousy at real work.

If everything was perfect then the ACCA disciplinary commitee would be out of a job but unfortunately they are not.

Its annoying that the occassional bad apple affects the rest of us, and it does as James from the ICB is prone to quoting their statistics about accountants being unable to do bookkeeping.

My experience with the accountants that I know is anything but that. (I don't actually know any bad ones but I do figure that I'm just lucky there).

The greatest influence upon me was an ACCA who is now an ACA and she loved nothing better than sitting down with trial balance to a basic set of accounts questions and doing them how most people do Suduku's.

The other question that comes to mind of course is are you sure that the accountant that you are talking about is what he claims to be? Just another variable to think about there.

For reference when I'm realing off papers, here's the full list (I've just got P7 to go) :

Fundamentals Knowledge

F1 Accountant in Business
F2 Management Accounting
F3 Financial Accounting

Fundamentals Skills

F4 Corporate and Business Law
F5 Performance Management
F6 Taxation
F7 Financial Reporting
F8 Audit and Assurance
F9 Financial Management

Professional Essentials

P1 Governance, Risk and Ethics
P2 Corporate Reporting
P3 Business Analysis

Professional Options (two to be completed)

P4 Advanced Financial Management
P5 Advanced Performance Management
P6 Advanced Taxation
P7 Advanced Audit and Assurance

FoxAccountancyServices wrote:

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 You crazy freak of nature! 

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According to my ex! lol.

EEEEK!!!! Shaun I agree with you about proof of qualifications! I even test people now before employing them as a result of some dreadful past experiences.

In my experience there are lots of reasons why this could happen. SOME are

1) Some people rote learn very effectively and learn how to pass exams but not necessarily understand what they're doing although this is a minority in my experience. E.g. I employed somebody once who admitted learning a question bank for the first part of professional studies and not studying the syllabus and understanding the basics
2) I'm not familiar with exemptions for ACCA but sadly (especially with the current QCF) some are receiving exemptions from essential fundamental knowledge and skills when quite frankly they shouldn't be in my opinion. There is a particular issue with currency of knowledge and skills!
3) I suppose there's the motto 'if you don't use it you lose it'? Especially if you've never had the opportunity to put learning into practise through work experience. I had an ACCA friend who was pigeon holed in one of the big four and she said she feels frustrated as all her knowledge and skills were slipping away.

But running a practice?

EEEEEEEK!

Hope you're all fine. Sonya.

with two EEEEK's in one post I've got this impression of you running around the room waving your hands abopve your head in panic Sonya. lol

Hope that you are well too. We've not chatted in a while.

On the pigeon holed comment, I had an ACCA freind with one of the big four and he seemed to spend his entire life frustrated that he had spent all this time learning all of this stuff in order to manage an IT project (to be fair in was a big project).

At the time I didn't understand his anguish from both sides of the fence but now in hindsight, despite his protestations about not being fully used in his role I think that he was wrong and I think that he would not have been able to do the role without the ACCA training that he had... Well, he could have done it with CIMA just as well but you know what I mean.

Is your freind in a similar position in that she is focusing upon the things that she is not using but missing the fact that the qualification really made her think outside the box and that skill is what is really being utilised despite some of the peripheral bits being wasted?

I have found that whilst things do get left by the wayside if ever you need them you (a) know where to look and (b) you don't need them explained to you as you are just rekindling skills put in storage.

On that matter the human brain is a funny old thing. I had a freind who had a serious breakdown which took the form that something tripped in the old grey matter and he litterally lost about the last twelve years of his life.

In the hospital they were asking him about what was in the news, what he had eaten that day, etc. and he remembered everything in the most intricate detail as though it really had happened that day.

Basically his brain reset to a restore point.

Now, whilst it may seem that I'm going off at an angle there, what I am trying to come around to is that if the brain has the capability to do that then absolutely everything that we say and do is stored in there... Which means that all of our studies are in there and our real issue is not that we cannot remember but that our indexing is messed up.

So in conclusion, we never actually really lose anything... We just cannot remember where we put it.

I know what you mean. And perhaps they did ACCA to facilitate some other need in their employment, which didn't involve doing accounts... just seems strange setting up a practice doing accounts for small businesses, and then not actually being able to do a set, without someone at a lower level telling them the basics. Especially when they are selling themselves like some kind of god!

Hi Shaun. Good to read from you!

Well I got into the conversation with my friend many years ago because I was studying at the time and I asked her about debits and credits and she couldn't answer my questions! She worked in auditing at the time.

Well my brain may have archived the info but I've extracted some from deep down inside the stores. When studying brain friendly learning techniques I seem to recall learning that the brain dsposes of what it doesn't use. But that could mean 'archived'. I have a vague recollection it's linked to survival! I remember reading a Homer Simpson poster which said every time I learn something new it pushes the old stuff out! For me very true. You know my brain refuses to retain any general knowledge whatsoever! BUT then Derren brown I guess would disagree. It's quite incredible what he appears to recover from the archives!

Who knows - lost/left/irrecoverable???

Sonya

Cool does that work when they're rolling when you're drunk hehehehehe

Show your son this. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4

Nanight all!

It is interesting and certainky a valid question. I am an ACCA member, mid thirties, running own practice and even won an award here once - was worried it could be me However, I learnt my trade from the bottom up, modern apprentice Aat then Acca. The key reason for mentioning this is that it gives massive grounding for the basics, notjust Sage but Quickbooks and manual bookkkeping. This was vital for me. One key thing I noticed when studying for ACCA in a mid tier practice, working particularly with graduates was that the ACCA and ICAEW graduates do not always study the basics. They are learning how to read or measure a set of accounts, computate tax etc. rather than prepare from 'source'. Source accounts to them meant a TB, to me it would mean a purchase invoice. I was often the go to point for fellow trainees on audit jobs when it came to understanding the audit trail the transactions.

Sorry for lack of paragraphs. Posting from tablet and seems to have omitted them!