Wondering what qualifications your accountant should have? Watch our video to learn more.
Believe it or not, you can call yourself an accountant and set up an accounting practice without having any qualifications at all.
It’s not like being a doctor or a solicitor, where legally, you need to have the correct qualifications to do so. Generally, anybody can set up an accounting practice tomorrow.
That means, though, when you’re picking your accountant, you want to be confident they really know what they’re doing. There are some perfectly good accountants out there who have never actually sat the exams, but they’ve been doing it for years and years and have all the experience to actually do a good job.
But generally speaking, an accountant with the correct qualifications will give you more comfort. They’ll do a better job, and also their accounting body will give you somewhere to go to if anything goes wrong.
So, what are the main accounting qualifications? The main thing to look out for when picking an accountant, is that they’re a member of one of the following bodies.
The first would be the AAT. This stands for the Association of Accounting Technicians. It’s a UK qualification. Often, it’s done by people when they first get into the accounting profession. It’s kind of the stepping stone. It’s very much around the bookkeeping and the first steps, so a really good qualification to get as a grounding.
After that, many accountants then move onto one of the higher professional qualifications, and the three main ones would be CIMA – Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
This is a great qualification to have for actually working in business and preparing management accounts. CIMA accountants have a really good idea of how businesses work.
Then there is the ACCA, which is the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. That’s a global body, and certified accountants often start off in practise, ie working at an accounting firm. Before they go out and work within a business
Then there is the ICAEW, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, which is, I guess, the oldest, most traditional qualification. Some would say most prestigious. To be called a Chartered Accountant, you must be a member of this Institute.
However, these days, to be perfectly honest, there isn’t a huge difference between the different qualifications. And I say that as a Chartered Accountant myself!
They all have a different slant. They do things slightly differently, but at its core, if your accountant’s a member of any of those bodies, it can give you comfort they’ll do a good job.
If you would like any more information, please get in touch.