I have done my MBA finance from IBA and wanted to acquire a further certification. I don’t want to pursue a career in some financial institution and therefore CFA doesnt seem to be a viable option. After some research , I have found that CIMA seems to best complement an MBA Finance. However, I am still confused and seek guidance as to if CIMA is the way to go or not.

The question you need to ask yourself is, if you don’t want to be an auditor, whether you want to pursue Financial Accounting or Management Accounting.

The difference is quite simple: Financial Accountants report on activity in a business that has already taken place. The work has more to do with financial reporting according to IAS, FASB, SEC, etc. laws, standards and regulations, and the primary function is preparing and managing the preparation of books, internal controls, etc. in a business with a view to be compliant with the requisite standards.

A Management Accountant, on the other hand, typically is the one who gets to plan for the future, and prepares numbers, books, statements etc. baed on judgment, prediction and the understanding of business. These accountants are typically more engaged in the business, need a better understanding of how businesses work and business management, and typically require much more thinking than the role of a Financial Accountant, which in my opinion, can be a brain dead job at times.

Ultimately, though, a mix of the two makes for a good accounting position.

The Chartered Accountant or Certified Public Accountant (CA, ACA, CPA in the US) certifications are aimed at those who want to become auditors. The ACCA, you could say, is aimed at Industry Financial Accountants. The CIMA is aimed at Management Accountants. To make it to the top, you’d better have an understanding of and be damned good at both. The reason? Because for a business, the truth in numbers lies somewhere between the numbers required for compliance and the numbers required to please the management.

An Accounting Degree should always be your preference. What you’ll gain from a degree you will never learn from the ACCA, CPA, CMA or CIMA. Plus, University life brings memories that always stay with you.

However, after a degree, it’s good to get a certification, and given the fact that you’re in the Far East, CIMA or ACCA are your best bet. the CPA is the US equivalent of a Chartered Accountant. ACCA is also a form of financial accountants, and the CIMA Certification is guaged toward management accounting.

Now, Financial Accounting requires less imagination and is more about compliance; so if you can read and understand english and can be careful, you can well in this field. Management accounting, on the other hand, requires lots of imagination and business acumen, and can be very difficult for some.

Finance Directors are made up of a mixture of both materials. Ultimately, you must decide. I wouldn’t mind giving you more advice, but you’ve got be specific on what you want to do as an accountant.

I’m currently in my last year of A levels. I intending to go to university next year where i will be taking an undergraduate degree in Accounting and finance. I was never quite sure on what the difference is between a certified accountant and a chartered accountant. From reading you other artical on this i have learnt the difference. I am confused about what qualification i would need to do after uni. To be honest i knew nothing about these qualification frm CIMA to ACCA, it was only a month ago when i was attending a uni open day that i learnt of the different qualifications.
I am thinking of a CIMA qualification but im not sure. I am actually not evn quite sure what type of accountant i want to be a chartered or a certified accountant. What area of accounting do you think is the most interesting and not borin? I was thinking of chartered accountancy but i am not sure.
I am very confused!
All i know is i want to become a successful accountant minus the long long amounts of paperwork and auditing. Really i would want a role of an accountant where the job is interesting and lively everyday!

Your help help on this matter would be very very much appreciated,
Thank you

i’m going to finish my high school this year. Now i’m wondering if i should go for ACCA or taking an accounting degree. Is ACCA very hard to pass? Should i take a degree first then only take ACCA while i’m working?

What is CPA? And what’s the difference between ACCA and CIMA? Which qualification is more demanded in the accounting field now? Is CIMA more to finance? I knew finance jobs are not that boring, but i’m not a smart person, so i scared i can’t make an important decision rightfully and can’t manage my job well.

Which route should i take to have a better achievement in my future career?

Thanks.

Yes, bridging will definitely be required to bridge the gap between your CA and the CPA. You will have to sit for a couple of exams depending on the US state that will issue your CPA license, and that really is totally upto you.

Assuming that you are currently a Deloitte & Touch employee, yes, auditing firms on train their employees to become accountants.

You are right in saying that the experience required to make it as a successful finance executive in industry is very different from the experience required to make it as an auditor. That said, audit experience is useful experience. Make no mistake, a finance executive is a challening job; it can be very lucrative at times, but can be followed by extremely boring periods of time, and like all well paying jobs, it requires a lot of political evils, ones that many good people are not capable of.

I’m qaulifying to become a CA in South Africa at the end of the year. I feel the CA qaulification is over rated here. I want to come to the US and hopefully make a life for myself. Will my CA certification hold up in the US? Is there some sort of bridging necessary to CPA? Will I one day end up in an executive position only having the CA certification? To be honest I feel auditing firms only train accountants to be auditors - and in the end that is the only thing you are good at. Am I wrong in saying that you need something else (different work experience) to make it in the business world?

Thanks

You’re stuck upon a question that many people in the business world who deal with finance are.

I don’t have any certifications. I’ve been practicing corporate accounting for over 7 years (seeing as how I’m 25, that’s just about a third of my life), and I can tell you something that not many others can: the certifications, for the most part, are superficial qualifications. I own the books for the CIMA and CMA both. I have decided that I’m going to do them both, because in the world east of the United States, it is not what you know, it is who you know and what you can flash, i.e., it is not a matter of how good you are, it is a matter of showing professional qualifications.

That said, you have been working in controlling and finance, and you want to work toward moving up as a Finance Director, and for that, you need to have some sort of an accounting background, which means you would possibly need CIMA, given the fact that you’re chosen location is Asia or the Middle East.

You see, no matter what, every accountant needs to understand the concept of bookkeeping. Ultimately, in many ways, double entry bookkeeping exists to provide accountants job security, to cloud and confuse the books so much that it takes an accountant to decode them and “present” them to the rest of the business management team. Therefore, you don’t have to be a bookkeeper to do something like this, but you need to know how to do it.

The thing is, the typical finance director does not do bookkeeping for a living, but it is his job to make sure that the right bill goes under the right classification, because if it doesn’t it could throw off your entire basis of discussion with a Managing Director or Executive Director. So, you’ll need to make sure that as a Finance Director, your underlings are doing the right kind of work.

Now, what is it that Finance Directors see on the job, and how key is CIMA or IMA to it? Well, not much, but these courses are so wide in the ground that they cover, and they are capable of giving you some of the tools that you may need on the job. But nothing prepares you for it.

I’ve worked for about 20 different companies, and I’ve typically worked with upper management or MDs who had a difficult time dealing with accountants or bookkeepers. CIMA will not prepare you to deal with the job practically, neither will CMA. I now have a client who has a problem that neither of the certifications resolve. Party X did a management buyout of Company Y two years ago. Company Y owned Party Z 80,000 pounds sterling at the time of the buyout, but no payments were being made. The loan had been on the books for a couple of years. After Party X completed the buyout and the Company was renamed Company O, the loan was moved onto the books of Company O. After three years, Party Z decides that they never wanted the money back. Now, Company O is expanding, but the loan of 80,000, which has gone on all the tax returns, and has been on the books for years, is hampering Company Os plans for growth, because when investors and lenders look at that loan, it’s a big flag of the company’s existing liability, which really doesn’t exist. You are the Finance Director, and the MD tells you to get rid of this problem.

Now, how do you do it? This is not a simple matter of making a journal entry and writing it off. The government will be involved (come tax time), as are financial institutions (come loan time). How do you deal with it?

This is part of the slightly dirty work senior accountants / FDs have to do. If you read the latest version of Financial Management & other such magazines, the dirty work for FDs has gone up; it has become a diverse field.

One thing is for sure, and you’re right, the CFA is not for where you are headed. If I were you, I would stick to CIMA for Asia or the UAE. But looking at the mentality in that market, you could get a CMA and CFM with 6 exams from the US based IMA, and the CIMA with 15 exams from the UK. Two look more flashy than one; that’s why I am now seriously looking into do doing all of them. But, start with CIMA. East of the US, go for CIMA; it is considered the Financial/Accounting Executive’s qualification.

And as an FD, I have to say, that you cannot escape accounting or bookkeeping. There may be less of it at the FD level, but it will come to you in spurts.

Perhaps you can turm my head in the right direction. I would like to make a certificate but I am by far no accountant. I have a finance degree and worked in controlling and in finance, and I like to keep it that way. But, my intention is some sice Finance Director in Asia or UAE. I like to read the accountants work, I like to discuss with them on a professional level, but I don’t want to be the bookkeeper who is discussing whether one bill goes down this account or the other. I already got sweet with the CFA, but its said that there is not much financial planning in there. It would be more for analysts in the outside world who consider a buyout…

So what certificate you would suggest?

Thanks, Tobi

I think the CMA from the IMA may actually be a more mature certification. When appearing for CMA exams, you are expected to know basic accounting, you are basically being prepped for professional, practical, on the job kind of work, more, so to say, professiona/executive management/financial accounting type work. In essence, I think CMA or CFM from the IMA is what is guaged for accounting majors in university, and having seen through and read almost all of these books, I think the CMA makes for a mature accounting certification.

CIMA sponsored Certifications, however, cover both accounting and non accounting majors. They start with the basic, with the idea of converting all the jobless into some kind of accountants, and are much more commercial, which means they market at a much larger level, and are, therefore, better in the international recoginition department. I haven’t invested in upper level CIMA books yet, so I’m not sure how challenging they really are. With their syllabus, however, it seems like the last 5 CIMA papers are pretty much an IFRS version of the CMA/CFM exams, which would make it relatively similar.

However, if you ask me, I think the CMA is more respectable, because the IMA is more of an accounting club; CIMA markets to invite everyone. But then, marketing is king.

Ultimately, it depends on WHERE you are looking to work. Inside the US, definitely IMA based certifications. Outside the US, preferably CIMA. In neutral ground like Dubai, where the public arena sees both CPAs ad CAs, it’s a hit or miss, because as the economy develops, the success of the IMA or CIMA path will depend on the route the government takes towards formulating laws pertaining to businesses and financial reporting. But given the global switch to IFRS, even in the US, CIMA may make for a much safter bet. But you can’t rule IMA out, because since the US is trying to bridge the gap between US GAAP and IFRS, IMA will also offer continuing education to make you IFRS compatible as a CMA or CFM.

The choice, my friend, is a personal one.