ACCA or ACAEW ?

Not sure about the types of roles AFAIK pretty much the same depending on whether you take the advanced modules in tax and auditing, they both pretty much cover the work that a practice would do.

ACA seems to be a lot more welcoming to AATs - there appears to be a collaboration between the two over the past few years, whereas ACCA seems to have fallen out with them some time ago, introducing its CAT qualification, similar to AAT I believe, and with fewer exemptions.

Unless things have changed recently, ACCA does not allow you to practice unless the work is just bookkeeping and payroll, without having worked for a practice for 2 years - MAAT or no MAAT. I spoke with a MIP last month who completed his ACCA only to resign it because he couldn't open his own practice without working for someone else for 2 years...this isn't the case with ACA.

Should you fail any of the exams, you have to wait 6 months with ACCA to resit them, whereas for ACA it's only 3 - so I've been told.

Of course, you'll be confirming with the respective organisations before making your choice.

mac1 wrote: »

Unless things have changed recently, ACCA does not allow you to practice unless the work is just bookkeeping and payroll, without having worked for a practice for 2 years - MAAT or no MAAT. I spoke with a MIP last month who completed his ACCA only to resign it because he couldn't open his own practice without working for someone else for 2 years...this isn't the case with ACA.

Well to be fair to ACCA, you can't qualifiy as an ACA without working in practice whereas you can qualify as an ACCA working either in practice or industry. So you have to have worked in practice either as an ACA or ACCA before you can set up on your own.

Another point to bear in mind is that AFAIK you have to have a training contract with a firm before you can start ACA, you can't just sit the exams under your own steam like you can AAT and ACCA

I've started ACCA and found it to be total purgatory.

Ridiculous time pressure on exams, rubbish tutorial texts and rip off prices for exam exemptions.

If I'd known what is would be like i'd have never started it.

Well I'll come in with a different point of view, I qualified ACCA 2 years ago, the exams are hard but it is a respected qualification - I suspect that ACA is exactly the same difficulty.

I have never regretted it but then I have no interest in working for myself so do not need a practicing certificate.

May I just correct your idea of opening your own practice with ACCA, you do indeed need 3 years experience to be a member, however if you want a practicing certificate you need 3 years with an approved ACCA employer, 1 of which has to be post qualification - so not that different to ICAEW.

I have to say I can't agree with mark057 regarding the tutorial texts, but I didn't self study, I found that the BPP texts were brilliant and I still use some of them as reference now. The exemption costs, time pressure and exam fees are similar to the other accountancy body - they sting nonetheless but are comparable.

Just wanted to bring another side to the discussion. I think it's one of the best things I ever did.

NeilH wrote: »

Hi
The exams on any of the chartered qualifications are hard, but they aren't made to be easy - if they were the standard/recognition of the qualification would fall. If you complete the qualification it will be worth the effort in the end.

Neil

+1 - saying that as someone who's failed some of them several times. I might moan about ACCA on occasion, but I wouldn't have the exams any easier.

mmro wrote: »

I will find out more about it, but it seems now that I don't really have much of a choice and will probably have to go for ACCA.

Did you check out the AAT ACA fast track programme? Potential to qualify ACA in 2 years. It's in CPD zone - get chartered. Looks like AAT can offer lots of advice on qualifying ACA - worth a try.

mmro, I managed my exams by getting the tuition courses and then doing my own revision. I found I needed help getting everything in my head to start with and then managed revision by using the practice and revision kits. However having said that I did do the revision course as well for P2 and P6 as I needed the extra for those!!!

I think you will find that with the work experience you are getting you will get membership but not a practicing certificate. I would also recommend that you get some work experience in practice (and then if you can get into an ACCA approved practice you'll kill 2 birds with 1 stone) if you want to open your own practice.

As an ACA studier I can't really comment on ACCA in detail but from the research I did before embarking on the ACA I found that content wise they are very similar and only chose the ACA as I work in practice. The ACCA tends to be geared towards industry where as the ACA more towards practice. You are more likely to get an ACA contract in practice although there are industry positions out there that are authorised to provide training for the ACA. If you are unable to find an ACA training contract you can still sit all the exams, except the case study, as an independent student (although it can be very expensive!) You could also get exemptions for the initial knowledge exams due to your AAT qualification. However you have to have completed the required number of technical work experience days in order to actually qualify (I think it's 450 days), without this you won't qualify. If you do decide to do the ACA as an independent student then the cheapest way (but also possibly a more difficult route) would be to sign up for BPP Online Learning which is cheaper than the classroom course and provides all tuition material, revision material, open book texts, tutor support, online lectures etc. I'm currently studying this way having transferred from classroom based as it just didn't fit around work and haven't had any major disasters yet (I've probably just jinxed it!) You should definitely speak to the advisers for both qualifications as it can be difficult to decide. Good Luck