ACCA vs CPA

Riddler87

Hi all,

Apologies in advance (this thread has presumably been threaded before) but whats everyones opinion on ACCA vs CPA?

I have recently gained employment whereby I have to pursue accountancy exams and I'd really appreciate peoples opinions on the above. CPA have given me 4 exemptions and I am still awaiting to hear back from ACCA.

Thanks in advance :-)

barneystinson

JeffKenna wrote: »

Mod Snip

There are incompetent people registered and qualified in all of the professional bodies, indeed some of the most unprofessional accountants I've encountered were ACCA members, and I say that as an ACCA member.

OP, unless you have particular career aspirations that you want to share, if you just want to qualify and work as a PAYE employee in a small/medium firm or SME in Ireland, then there's not really much difference.

JeffKenna

I suppose a more detailed response is in order.

Realistically the ACCA qualifaction is regarded higher in the pecking order so i'd be looking to do this first. Realistically though for future emoloyment a lot depends on how long you take to complete them and the number of first time passes. Aka if i were employing someone, all being equal i would take an ACCA accountant over a CPA but if the CPA passed everything first time but the ACCA took 5 years i would hire the CPA first.

Riddler87

I'm currently working as an trainee auditor. The office is a mix of ACCA and CPA

ZeroThreat

JeffKenna wrote: »

I suppose a more detailed response is in order.

Realistically the ACCA qualifaction is regarded higher in the pecking order so i'd be looking to do this first. Realistically though for future emoloyment a lot depends on how long you take to complete them and the number of first time passes. Aka if i were employing someone, all being equal i would take an ACCA accountant over a CPA but if the CPA passed everything first time but the ACCA took 5 years i would hire the CPA first.

Well that's me screwed then

Done the first 5 acca papers back under the old syllabus.(1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2) At the time, I wasn't even in an 'accounting' job as such and didn't have any real direction.

Then quite a few years later (start of 2015), I resumed studies under the new syllabus, completed the remaining 4 papers in the now 'F' level part of the course and 2 of the 'P' papers. I currently have 3 professional papers left to pass (including the 2 options).

From what you say above, it's highly doubtful I'll be able to compete with someone 10 years younger than me who basically had their long term career path mapped out since they were still in school, got a 1.1 finance degree from UCD or Trinity and completed their non-exempted professional papers in a year or so.

From what I've been reading time to time on these forums, I've started to question why I resumed ACCA at this stage. Maybe when I'm finished, I could use the ACCA qualification to gain exemptions from all the earlier papers and qualify with another body, so my history looks somewhat less chequered?

JeffKenna

ZeroThreat wrote: »

Well that's me screwed then

Done the first 5 acca papers back under the old syllabus.(1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1) At the time, I wasn't even in an 'accounting' job as such and didn't have any real direction.

Then quite a few years later (start of 2015), I resumed studies under the new syllabus, completed the remaining 4 papers in the now 'F' level part of the course and 2 of the 'P' papers. I currently have 3 professional papers left to pass (including the 2 options).

From what you say above, it's highly doubtful I'll be able to compete with someone 10 years younger than me who basically had their long term career path mapped out since they were still in school, got a 1.1 finance degree from UCD or Trinity and completed their non-exempted professional papers in a year or so.

From what I've been reading time to time on these formums, I've started to question why I resumed ACCA at this stage. Maybe when I'm finished, I could use the ACCA qualification to gain exemptions from all the earlier papers and qualify with another body, so my history looks somewhat less chequered?

In fairness if you read back through my post I was more talking about first time passes as opposed anything else.

CiarraiAbu2

Riddler87 wrote: »

Hi all,

Apologies in advance (this thread has presumably been threaded before) but whats everyones opinion on ACCA vs CPA?

I have recently gained employment whereby I have to pursue accountancy exams and I'd really appreciate peoples opinions on the above. CPA have given me 4 exemptions and I am still awaiting to hear back from ACCA.

Thanks in advance :-)

There is no difference between the lot of them , fair enough chartered think their Gods Gift yet were nearly auditing everyone that went bust during the crash including the banks, everyone else is seen as the same. Just get your qualification, that's the main thing.