ACCA kind suggestions - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

mash · Newbie

ACCA kind suggestions

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi Mash,

your age is not an issue to study. I was two years older than you when I first went down that path and was in my early 50's when I got my letters. The issue as will discuss later will be getting a training contract as practices do tend to favour younger candidates.

You can sit exams multiple times if you fail but the rules have recently changed over time limts. It used to be that you had ten years from start to end. That has now changed to an indefinite period for the first nine but only seven years for the final five.... Not so far different to the old system as the bulk of people would pass the first nine in three years but the one's at MSc level could prove problematic.

For study you need to be looking at 24+ hours per week. Many people are like yourself and work long days but you still need to try and find at least 4 hours per day study time. You will be surprised where you find the time. For instance I always had a set of index cards in my pocket that I would whizz through if I had just five minutes spare.

The issue that you are not seeing is regulation 8 which may prove problematic for you.

As soon as you start down the ACCA path you are restricted to only being able to work up to trial balance (plus VAT and Payroll work). No accounts, no advice, no filing, unless supervised by a suitably qualified accountant.

To gain membership yo have to have three years signed off experience. There are many pages of criteria that you need evidenced that you have achieved to gain sign off.

Even as a member you are not allowed to go beyond trial balance unsupervised.

If your membership signoff was gained by supervision from a practice recognised for practice certificate supervision then one year of your three years pre membership experience can count towards post qualification practice certificate supervision (reducing experience requirement from six years to five but still remember that at least two years need to be gained after you are allowed to move up to membership).

If you cannot recycle one of the pre membership years then you need to do another full three years (rather than just another two years) after qualification (at least 4620 hours) in a practice recognised by the ACCA for practice certificate supervision. Finding one of those can prove problematic.

During all of this time you cannot produce accounts for your bookkeeping clients.

All in all, yes you could do ACCA and it is one of the top qualifications that you can get up there on the top shelf with the likes of ACA and CTA.... But the question to ask is whether it is right for you.

Some people study ACCA and then abandon the qualification opting to practice under a lesser one where a practice certificate is easier to achieve. To be honest, if you are one of those who can get through all of the ACCA exams (many drop out along the way) then other bodies are crying out for you to join them and you would have your pick of the likes of AAT, AIA, IFA, ICPA, etc.

The knowledge that you gain with ACCA is the very best that you can get and I would certainly recommend it... But you just have to realise up front that you may end up practicing under someone elses flag due to the ACCA experience requirements combined with your age meaning that many practices would not consider taking you on for practice supervision.... Doing the exams and then moving to a different qualification may sound ok to you now but after you have sweated blood with your studies for years to the point where you are able to regurgitate chunks of accounting, audit and ethical standards from memory, to gain one of the best qualifications available then try accepting being a member of anyone else and see how it feels!

As an alternative to the ACCA if your main goal is basic accounting for SME clients have you thought of combining AAT and ATT qualifications? (do them in that sequence).

How about CIMA which is a little less stringent with their rules than ACCA but still highly regarded (although more widely recognised on the corporate rather than practice side of the fence).

Whatever you choose you are going to need to find more time for study than you are allocating currently. Accountancy qualifications take over your life for their duration and will consume as much time as you can invest in them (and you will always feel as though you need more study time. It doesn't seem to get much better after you have finished them either as you are entering into life long learning to maintain your qualification).

Oh, I missed one question in your post. At the end of the skills level you get a certificate. It does not give you permission to practice. Its simply a milestone on your journey and should get you exemptions from the exams of some other bodies if you decide that the final five are too difficult. I don't imagine that someone with an MBA is going to be detered by them so that bit of paper is just something to file away that you will never use.

Hope that helps clarify some matters for you and welcome to the forum,

kindest regards,

Shaun.

p.s. amended to remove spelling and gramatical errors (and still don't think that I got all of them!)

-- Edited by Shamus on Tuesday 9th of February 2016 12:15:02 PM

mash · Newbie

So nice of you Shaun for detail explanation.
Few things that i want to understand you mentioned:
1. "All in all, yes you could do ACCA and it is one of the top qualifications that you can get up there on the top shelf with the likes of ACA and CTA.... But the question to ask is whether it is right for you."?
2. AAT and Att i think both qualifications takes atleast 3 years so what is the point of wasting time on them!! and you mentioned about CIMA which almost equal to ACCA and takes same time that also needs signed off contract.

I am really worried what can be an alternative of ACCA? I also think signed off contact will be problem becz chartered accountant will never want an old man!! By the way do you know the procedure of requesting them to get contract? Have i to clear all 9 papers first (skill level) or i can do any time even after completion of professional level?

I m really bit in trouble to choose second career !! Accounting is my passion but when i see these type of problems then i step back!!!

-- Edited by mash on Tuesday 9th of February 2016 11:05:55 PM

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

You can chase employment at any time but it is a very competitive market with a lot of unemployed accontants out there going for every position so as a student you are going to be going up against experienced fully qualified people for positions.

That was why I mentioned AAT and ATT as an alternative for you to go self employed as an accountant to SME businesses to gain experience rather than seeking employment with an ACCA qualification.

Experience is how you open the doors to employment and once in employment you can get the signed off experience that you need for the ACCA qualification.

As you say, going that route will add extra time. The other alternative that I stated was going ACCA and then transferring to another qualification so you get the top training but then abandon it to gain experience under somone elses flag as ACCA will only allow you to work up to trial balance until you have an ACCA practice certificate (you can get someone elses but you would be breaking ACCA's rules if you practiced under it).

As you are no doubt begining to realise its a complete minefield where it is so easy to make a costly mistake.

I also mentioned CIMA as an alternative to ACCA as CIMA has less stringent rules about what you are allowed to do as a trainee.

mash · Newbie

Hi Shaun thanks for quick reply.

To be honest i cant decide yet!
I went through somewhere google search that CIMA is more harder to pass out because of its rules. CIMA is made up of 15 exams and is more expensive. You will also have to pass one set of exams before you will be allowed to take the next. Because of this, CIMA is considered the harder qualification to obtain. In fact, many students end up giving up on the course altogether because of this.

Now i dont know either its really harder to pass out as compared to ACCA!! Because of busy at work i dont have enough time to study but if CIMA papers are easy to study then it'll be excellent.. I am average man , not so competent..

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Don't believe everything that you read on the internet, I think that you will find CIMA the easier of the two... But not by much!

Both are well thought of qualifications. Make no mistake though, there is also a high drop out rate on ACCA (of the 13 (myself included) who joined at the same time I was the only one to pass. All f the others dropped out at the skills level).

Do a search on ACCA "the beast". Its paper P2 and it was deemed the most difficult of any paper of any professional body. That said, it has surprisingly good pass rates (around 48% of those sitting it will genertally pass) compared to the likes of P5 and P7 where the number of people passing at a sitting has been as low as 29% and 30% respectively... And thats not because the people don't know what they are doing. The exams really are that hard and that time pressured.

Anyone on the internet saying that ACCA is the easier option probably hasn't done the ACCA qualification.

The passing one set before being allowed to progress is quite standard. With ACCA you need to pass Fundamentals (F1 through F3 in any order) then Skills (F4 through F9 in any order) then Core (P1 through P3 in any order) then Options (any two from P4 through P7). 14 papers in total. You will not pass them all first time.

Now, I don't want this to come across at all as an insult in any way but I'm guessing from your posts that English isn't your first language. Before either ACCA or CIMA will allow you to sign up as a student you need to have GCSE's in English and Maths to at least grade C. When answering questions in the exam they take the form of long essay style answers where you need to argue points and draw conclusions in a manner that will win over the marker who only has a very limited time to mark each script.

I cannot comment about the cost as there are so many different ways of studying and I doubt if any two people pay exactly the same throughout their journey.