ACCA vs CA

muqtader · 12-28-2003, 01:04 AM

It has been a long debate whether what is better? ACCA or CA? CA of pakistan has definately been the dominating part in pakistan but what are the reasons???
ACCA on the other hand is a world recognised qualification.. but why isnt it recognised in Pakistan?

ACCA courses are updated to the international standards as well... but our market demands CA more???
Would like to know your suggestions as well )
Muqtader Abbas Shah

Muqtader Abbas Shah

zaidi_ali_hasan · 12-29-2003, 10:11 PM

hi muqtader

yar acually,ca is much much more tough then acca... and ofcourse a man doing CA would be much more intellegent and hard working than a man doin acca.. and i think this is the main reason

waisay bhi in aur country hard working is given more preference then knowledge.

aliz

khuldun · 12-30-2003, 03:00 AM

ACCA is basically a shortcut
you start looking for a job much ealeir than a CA
CAs on the other hand learn them selves to death.......they r like hafiz of accountancy when they leave study thus they are given more pref
But in fact even internationall the more competent job openings are for CAs

sumaaan · 12-30-2003, 05:14 AM

ACCA itself is not easy... CA is basically referred to as the tougher one because it is difficult to clear its examinations as compared to ACCA...

Secondly, another factor which plays an important role is that majority students who do CA, start articleships after two years and go through an extremely painful time studying and working late hours at the same time... Whereas, ACCA students can postpone the obligation of articleship for a later period.

And its true that CA reigns supreme in Pakistan.

radil · 12-30-2003, 02:59 PM

Hi Muqtader, Zaidi & Sumaan,

Well, its always funny to find my fellow Pakistanis trying to judge how good a CA is than ACCA &/or vice versa. You guys dont seem to possess much knowledge about either of the qualifications and their international recognition.

Zaidi, we dont have any YARDSTICK to evaluate how CA is tougher than ACCA, rest apart to even consider CA more intelligent & hard working than ACCA or CMA or whatever. And, as for "HARDWORKERS GIVEN PREFERENCE IN OUR COUNTRY", ) dont you know the GROUND REALITIES in our society? An extremely hardworking labourer gets peanuts in return, whereas a consultant earns some good Rs. 10,000 for an hour only!

Khuldun, always remember that in life THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS & the same applies to educational goals. As for international weightage of both the accounting bodies.CA is certainly a well reputed one, BUT, dont forget the whole chartered accountancy thing started from the UK itself!(which kind of give them an edge globaly & offcourse,you can observe the difference between their syllabus content & CA's!! ACCA is constantly updating their syllabus.)

Finally, the reason CA's get the jobs & ACCA's dont, there are two things; (1) The basic reason for this is lack of knowledge of Pakistani Law & taxation by ACCA's. (2) CA's, without a doubt have created a VERY well-established monopoly & they dont seem much eager to let anyone break it!

zaidi_ali_hasan · 12-30-2003, 10:14 PM

dear radil..

u migth be doing acca.... but there isnt any comparision amoung CAs and ACCAs... because CAs are hard working and intelligent like me....

other thing is that,,, there isnt any monoply,,,,,other then hardworking and intelligence...... ;-)

aliz

radil · 12-31-2003, 01:37 AM

Dear Zaidi,

You sure have proven your intelligence & hardwork via your reply)

Wish you all the best with you studies!

Regards.

zaidi_ali_hasan · 12-31-2003, 05:42 PM

hey radil;

arey yar tumto naraz ho gaey........

bhai mien to khud acca ker raha houn......
likin thats a fact that doin CA is far more dificult then doin ACCa...
isnt it?

aliz

khuldun · 12-31-2003, 08:46 PM

Well thats wat i thought at first.....that ACCAs dont know Pakistani laws and taxation etc.....but a friend of mine who recently did his CA from London told me that he was told each and every loop hole in the world laws....and they took quite a few countries as a case study.....

smraza · 12-31-2003, 09:19 PM

If the knowledge of Law and Taxation is the main factor, then tell me one thing why CA from ICEAW is given preference in Pakistan over ACCA ???
not only in Pakistan, even in UK, CA from ICEAW is carries more worth than ACCA do.

SMR

sumaaan · 01-01-2004, 01:06 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
If the knowledge of Law and Taxation is the main factor, then tell me one thing why CA from ICEAW is given preference in Pakistan over ACCA ???
not only in Pakistan, even in UK, CA from ICEAW is carries more worth than ACCA do.

SMR
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

There you go Mr.Radil... ICAP's monoply had been discussed long before and your statement about 'lack of knowledge about tax and law' of ACCA's is certainly not a valid point to make...

Secondly, when you talk about whats 'comparatively tougher', you tend to compare the entities highlighted and discuss issues in accordance to it rather than totally and completely criticizing the question itself...

ACCA has yet to establish itself in the 'market of Pakistan'... One of the reasons of the popularity lately of ACCA in Pakistan is because there are no admission tests for it, so students getting admission no where else go for ACCA... That might be a harsh statement, but its true.

Salman_Z · 01-01-2004, 01:35 AM

I am failed to understand why this discussion is necessary, is it a competition going on between CA and ACCA????. Every qualification demands hardworking and dedication, if you study hard and work hard, it is a cake walk for you, otherwise its a tough world for you. One person was saying that its a shortcut, I was really surprised to see that comment, its childish and the person must be unaware and must be living in a fools paradise to say any qualification, a shortcut. Let me tell you the difference, its all the matter of rules, ICAP has a rule of passing all the attempted papers in one go to become successful in one group (Pakistan is the only country whith this rule) whereas, ACCA rule is if you pass any paper, its yours, you dont have to sit for the whole stage, if you are unsuccessful in one of your papers. As for the Pakistani tax law, is not an issue if you know that basics of taxation (even taxation of UK) you can get hold of our taxation principals also, it is all derived from dedication, no qualification is inferior or superior, its a mind set of the public which is "CA" not "ACCA", otherwise both are equivalent. CA students has to to an 4 years article ship, and they cannot have enough time to study as they are spending most of the time doing audits, whereas, ACCA students are full timers and there are proper coaching centers available to guide them. I have done my MBA and CA as well and I have many friends who have doing ACCA, believe me, my friend who has done ACCA paid better them me, its a matter of luck and oppotunity. So my friends concentrate on you studies no matter if you are studying for CA or ACCA, Stop comparing both, because every qualification demands hardworking, dedication and committment for success.

Allah Hafiz

Salman Zafar

sumaaan · 01-01-2004, 04:30 AM

The person who referred to ACCA as a shortcut probably meant that after ACCA one has to complete only three years of articles to become a CA rather than four.

jbladeus · 01-01-2004, 06:07 AM

Salman

As u yourself are a CA, then u surely must know that how valuable a commodity practical experience is in comparison to learning things from the books. Btw, i might add that books never teach you real-life situations.

CAs are preferred over ACCAs not because of their knowledge of the local laws, but because they have experience of working in different kinds of environments and are better able to to handle pressure jobs than ACCAs due to working in pressure cooker-like conditions of an audit firm.

In my line of work, i prefer to take articleship completed(partly qualified) ppl against fully qualified ACCAs (who havent got any work experience) because i know that they will get the job done no matter what and i also wont have to teach them actual work from scratch. Fully qualified ACCAs who havent ever seen a voucher, a tax return or have performed inventory count in their lives are as useless to me as a fresh day-one internee.

My advice is to all u ACCA kids out there is to get as much practical experience alongwith your studies, because that is what is going to be counted when applying for a job. Everybody has read their books, but its the practical experience which separates wheat from the chaff.

________________________
Arrrgh... it sure's gonna be mighty rough sailin' today ... mates!

Omar Salah Ahmed · 01-01-2004, 07:38 AM

Hello Everyone
Once again the comparasion b/w CA & ACCA brings about an interesting debate on this forum!
Well I would like to say a couple of things here ... CA's certainly have had a monopoly in Pakistan. There is no denying that. But the very basis of it has been 2 factors.
1) ICAP has been a established institute in Pakistan for Accountants in 1956, when it was founded with the help of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and ACCA has only been "Popularized" in Pakistan for approx. 7 years now. So most of the upper hierarchy working in good firms and companies are qualified CA's and are aware of all the "Ragra" and hardwork that goes into CA, with time ACCA qualification is also picking up market. I mean if we look back to 5 years back only a handfull of people were aware of any such body as the ACCA! and obviously noone was really aware of the standard of accountants that the "New Body" was producing. So hopefully say, in another 5 years time ACCA's would also be in demand.
2) ACCA students dont have ANY exposure to the Pakistan Tax laws or the Corporate Law. Hence isnt it obvious who an employer would prefer to work in an environment like this, which is obviously more suited to CA's coz accountants are no longer just bookkeepers. They have to be more dynamic and look at several other aspects of the business as well and Taxation and compliance with law of the land are very very important aspects when considering a practical environment. I heard that from December 2004 ACCA is also introducing the Pakistani Tax and Law variants, so inshALLAH the major hurdle to Pakistani ACCA's would be solved.

SMR, Sumaan and others I think we are all professionals here and do know that no qualification is easy to attain. A certain amount of hardwork is necassary even if someone wants to be a cook or a chowkidar and that should be respected.

As for your question SMR, I think you would also be aware that no ICAEW qualified CA can become a partner in Pakistani firm unless he clears ICAPS Pakistani LAw and Tax papers. If you dont see the point of that or realise the fact that compliance to laws as well as taxation of the environment you are working in, as an important aspect of an accountants work then I guess people are right in judging that ACCA's are indeed inferior to CA's but honestly speaking I think that both are equally well equipt to deal with matters pertaining accounting or audit, so the only place ACCA's lack is the knowledge of local Tax and Corporate laws.

Some one mentioned here that CA's are more preffered then ACCA's due to their article training. No doubt that Articles prepare a person very well for dealing with intricate matters relating to a business but what that person has discounted (or doesnt know) is that ACCA also is not offering its "Full membership" without a 3 years logged work experience. Hence I would say that if one wants to concentrate on a particular sector or company then they are better off working in that sector and gaining practical knowledge of the systems and requirements of the particular industry. Over here I totally agree with Guybrush that a fully qualified ACCA(Affiliate) is nothing worth nothing in the job market coz he doesnt know the practical inns and outs whereas an article complete CA(Inter) is much better of coz he has come through the 4 years ragra of articles and even the dumbest of persons tends to pick up a few things in that amount of time.

I hope that my reply satisfies all. In the end I would like to wish all the best to everyone in their persuits of ACCA, CA, ICMA, MBA or CIMA qualifications . Best of Luck and keep working hard. A very HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you.

OSA