Scope of a Chartered Accountant career

I want to write CA CPT in 2016, can you please guide me for the preparation of CPT, the subjects particularly and also details regarding the CA course? How to choose Articleship firm? -Sujatha, Dharam Karam Road

Chartered Accountancy has always been popular for the reason that the Indian Companies Act 1956 has authorised chartered accountants (CAs) in professional practice, to be auditors in India. The course is completed through the ICAI (Institute for Chartered Accountants of India), which is both an examining as well a licensing body. It offers a unique academic program which is integrated with practical training and this is what the business world needs today.

Cost wise this course is affordable and there is a lot of scope of work in this career which includes accounts, corporate finance, auditing, company law, business law and you can also serve as a management and corporate caretaker. You can also start your own practice of offering tax and accounts consultancy services.

However, before you opt for this course you should mentally be prepared to invest your time as it takes around four years plus to complete and that is if you qualify in the first attempt. You will moreover have to keep a positive attitude all throughout the course as the CA course is very challenging (not tough).

The course has been revised in June 2015 and several changes have been planned or rather proposed subject to change again. This move by ICAI is primarily to move with time and the global advancements in academics, technology and economy. The course now has two entry levels:

Foundation Course Route: Under this route a Class X student is eligible to register with the Board of Studies (BoS) of the Institute for the Foundation Course. The student has to qualify three levels:

• Foundation (the previous CPT)
• Intermediate
• Final

You are eligible to directly register and appear for the CA Intermediate Course if you have passed Intermediate level examination of Institute of Company Secretaries of India or Institute of Cost Accountants of India

Direct entry route

This route entitles the Commerce graduates/Post graduates (with minimum 55% marks) or other graduates/Post graduates (with minimum 60% marks) to enter directly to the intermediate course. Therefore this route has two levels:

Intermediate and Final

ICAI has said that the current CPT, IPCC and final students will continue in the current scheme and will be given ample opportunities to complete the CA exams in the current scheme.

What is CPT? It is now changed to CA foundation and it is an entry level course and mainly contains four subjects:

Fundamentals of Accountancy

Business Mathematics and Logical Reasoning and Statistics

Mercantile Law and General English

Business Economics and Business and Commercial Knowledge

The second and fourth are objectives and each paper carries 100 marks. The qualifying marks are 50 per cent of the total and subject wise 40 per cent at one sitting. The exam is conducted twice in a year in November and May. The duration for CA foundation is 8 hours (in the previous draft it was 9 hours)

You need to work hard with all subjects so that you qualify for basics for all subjects. Practice Accounts thoroughly as this is the key subject and getting the basics of accounts right helps in clearing the examination. Learn the theory in detail and then solve at least 1-2 questions daily.

The next scoring subject is Mercantile Law, in which you should not miss to refer and learn all the acts applicability date and definition. Try to grab the concepts; this would help you deal with questions in a better way as most of the questions in the exams are not directly from the book. Macro-economics is more scoring therefore learn that first and then micro-economics. Again, let it be conceptual learning, keep the concept of graphs in mind, and create your own answers.

Practice under the Quantitative Aptitude (mathematics and statistics), be thorough with mathematics concepts of Class VIII, IX, and X and in statistics the major chapters would be differentiation and integration, correlation and regression and theoretical distribution.

Attempt questions you are sure of and only later if time permits try your hands on those you are not sure about. Lastly scan through all subjects (Suchitra Prakashan is the best) which give a fair idea of the importance of each chapter in the exams.

After clearing this join the Intermediate course the duration for which is 12 months as compared to IPCC which was 9 months. The total number of papers here are 8, four in group one and four in group two:

Group I

Accounting

Corporate Law and Other Law

Cost Accounting Direct Tax and Indirect Tax Laws (previous draft these two subjects were proposed to be two different subjects)

Group II

Advanced Accounting

Auditing and Assurance

Financial Management and Business Economics Environment

IT and Strategic Management

The CA Final has now included Capital Markets and Financial Services. Only after you complete the full period of Articleship you are eligible to write this. This again has 8 papers divided into two groups:

Group I

Financial Reporting

Strategic Financial Management

Advanced Auditing and Professional Ethics

Corporate Laws and Other Economic Laws

Group II

Advanced Management Accounting

Financial Services and Capital Markets and IT

Advanced Direct Laws and

International Taxation

Advanced Indirect Tax Laws

For your Articleship, enroll with a CA, under a Deed of Articles, for Articleship, the duration being three years. During the training period, candidates would be required to work in different areas of learning, the basics of auditing and taxation. This training enables them to learn the technical details of the job as well as helps them get an idea of the working environment of the profession. You will be paid a stipend which can range from 5000 to 15000.

Regarding difficulty of finding Articleships, one should remember to start searching for the firm in right earnest after one has appeared for the CA Foundation. Referrals also work best in finding the Articleship and you should try getting information from your contacts.

Often accountants working in private companies would be able to tell about few CAs who had done audits in their company. Even MNCs, hotels, branded stores, various organisations, etc can provide details about CAs who do their audit work or tax work. Your local bank manager or stock broker can suggest a few CAs whom they know. You can also search for CA firms in the local directory.

The ICAI has now started the Articleship placement portal at http://bosapp.icai.org and also vacancies are often advertised on the notice board of ICAI regional offices, and branch offices. Also, CA firms advertise for vacancies in their offices through news papers. You can find firms from Published Accounts and also from the eligible lists of Bank Auditors, which the ICAI puts every year, the list of firms who are empanelled for that year of bank branch audit. You will also find vacancies for trainees on job portals too.

After clearing CA final, you have to go for a 15 days training in General Management and Communication Skills (GMCS) conducted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and is compulsory for every student to get a degree of CA. One can do the GMCS course in the third year of Articleship.

After the completion of all the above mentioned steps, the student would be called Associate Chartered Accountant [ACA] because he/she is in the starting stage and after professional experience he/she would become Fellows Chartered Accountant [FCA] after which he/she is eligible to hold a certificate for public practice.

By: Shehre Banu Kagalwala Bsc, MA, PGDPC, psychologist and career counselling for ADHD and learning disabilities; e-mail queries to [email protected]