My question is the following. Doing the first 4 papers of ACCA FIA (FA1, MA1, FA2, MA2) plus their Foundations in Professionalism module seems to get you exemptions from 8 out 9 papers for AAT Levels 2&3, plus both of the projects. In view of the fact that i) ACCA CBE dates are very flexible, ii) you don't need tuition providers at any step of the way (whereas you would need them for the 2 AAT projects), and iii) you only need buy 4 books (+1 for the one AAT paper) as opposed to 11, what is the disadvantage of going this route?
I am aware that ACCA papers will likely be of a higher calibre, but am not worried about that. I am more concerned with disadvantages to employability, plus any hidden disadvantages with regard to final cost.
Regards!
-- Edited by Cargyrop on Thursday 10th of April 2014 06:51:32 PM
As you note you can move from FIA to AAT or CAT or PQ status.
With AAT you can practice (But don't move up to MAAT status until you have the experience requirement) where under FIA you can only practice to trial balance (plus VAT and Payroll).
Personal view is that anything touched by ACCA is second to non.
For employability you would be wise to move from FIA to PQ or AAT as many employers do not know the FIA qualification yet.
Good luck with whatever route that you take,
kind regards,
Shaun
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Thanks for the speedy reply. My real worry, if I'm honest, was that FIA provides you little to no practice with any software, eg SAGE. Would I be correct in guessing this can be made up for with a short course leading to some kind of certificate?
If you need Sage (I don't use it at all) then there are loads of courses including the Sage course in a box that comes in Beginner, intermediate and advanced with 180 trial of Sage 50 and Certification.
I'm a strong advocate that the software in completely seperate to the theory as with qualifications such as ACCA, AAT, FIA, CAT, CIMA, etc. you learn accounting theory, regulation and application. Whereas with Sage one is simply learning how to be an end user of a piece of software.
What career are you going for? Practice or corporate?
On the Corporate side of the fence its mostly SAP or bespoke packages. In Practice and SME businesses Sage still have the lions share.
Going back to the question, I would treat learning Sage and Learning accountancy totally seperately with Sage being an add on rather than a lead qualification unless you are looking to support your studies with a role in practice or within the finance department of a smaller business in which case you may need certification to win a relevant position.
The above is not saying that there is no Sage used by larger companies. Just that in my experience it's not the norm.
HTH,
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
