What is the scope of ACCA In India

This questions arises every now and then from students as to "what is the scope of ACCA in India" and "how much salary a person gets after completion of ACCA?" Of course, this is a relevant question for anyone and should be responded with complete responsibility and accountability to those who are thinking of building their career with ACCA qualification.

First and foremost thing is that ACCA, the largest accounting body in the world is working very closely with BIG 4s and large MNCs to absorb ACCA members and students through training or full time jobs. This is an important step for ACCA also to ensure that its acceptability is widely recognized by companies in the fields of accounting, auditing or taxation. Of course, these types of organizations offer good packages to the people who are taken on-board. Hence, as far as answering the first question is concerned, this is the right way it may be explained to someone.

For the second question, it is difficult to measure since many students pursuing ACCA in India may already be qualified or working with an organization and plan to ACCA qualification to either add to their existing qualification, or seek a qualification which is similar to Indian CA. Such people may already be sitting at a good package and thus will not give a comparable figure. For freshers, the starting salary varies and a mean salary may not be rightly available for publication.

Likewise, it may be a tricky question to answer if someone asks this differently - "Will I get placed with such organizations at a particular package?" It is prudent to suggest that no qualification ever guarantees a job in hand, although the probability of landing up with a job can be significantly high in case of few qualifications (for example, pursuing MBA from a premier B School). This is also applicable for ACCA the same way, although may not sound very convincing to a person.

However, for all those who are asking similar questions like above, it is rather recommended to do an intensive research on the qualification before getting into the qualification simply because some friend or relative recommended it to them. It is important to understand that ACCA, like any other qualification, gives a person insight on how to deal with accounting, taxation, auditing, business and financial matters. Should it attempt to sell itself as a job-guarantee qualification, it would fail miserably, and therefore keeping such expectations from ACCA is not the right approach.

ACCA, is a global accounting program that expects its students to know and apply global accounting, understand the auditing curriculum, carry a business acumen and be able to offer quality solutions to the clients in the fields of accounting, auditing or taxation. Therefore, the qualification, even though, may not guarantee an immediate payback, but is certain to have a significantly higher NPV as understood under the concept of Investment Appraisals.

ACCA - An accountant in business

I have been into teaching of ACCA in India for some time now (Since 2010), and have had the privilege of training students from American Express, KPMG, EY, Deloitte, Mazars, and many other large corporate. The one comfort I talk of ACCA is that it is a Chartered qualification that permits its members to join industry or take up practice in many countries - subject to MoUs and other formalities.

I see ACCA in India picking up well, considering that many students who are working in large organisations know ACCA and the word of mouth publicity works for ACCA locally. Whether or not one is sure of building a career in the job markets, what I sincerely appreciate about the qualification is its testing methodology. ACCA makes sure that you understand and apply the concepts in a near real-life case studies provided in the examination.

Each ACCA examination seeks to help you gain an insight of the concepts, and the reasons why such concepts exist. Also, the ACCA qualification provides you a guided path on how to deal with practical business situations, and expect you to be more than an accountant responsible to prepare financial statements. It may be said about the ACCA qualification as a Business Accounting qualification, which not only expects its students to know a concept, but also that the students are able to put forth a logical argument in a given business scenario and offer a viable solution to the problem, keeping in view the facts of the case.

Although, when I speak with students, I often quote that IFRS are covered in depth in the ACCA qualification, but I know by experience that IFRS are just one important part of the qualification, rather than the only thing.

Just in case you aim to take up a qualification in the fields of accounting, taxation, auditing or business that is more satisfying, ACCA is the right answer for you.

Happy learning!!

CIMA Strategic Level Case Study - Role of Dividend Policy

A typical Report for CIMA Strategic Case Study on Dividend Policy or Dividend payment decision!

I would not presume a tech company or a social networking business (if the strategic case study discusses such a business) to be ever paying dividends to its shareholders. At the same time, I do not expect a FMCG company not afford to not pay dividends on the shares it has sold. The idea of a dividend payout is linked with shareholders' expectations of returns from the company in which they have made their investment. While an IT company needs to invest into riskier investments, or that they would be keen to acquire other businesses for which they need cash, the expectations of shareholders fall in the same line of higher returns with higher risks.

An FMCG core business, on the other hand, is a slow growth business with a considerable market share, from which it would expect to generate huge cash, without taking considerable risk. Therefore, to satisfy the shareholder's requirements, such businesses would prefer to share a proportion of their profits in form of cash dividends. The idea of a dividend policy is carried on the basis of the shareholder's expectations, and the CIMA examination also requires us to consider the same while working on a specific case.

This is one relevant strategic decision where the management needs to decide if there is a requirement to change its dividend policy, especially, when the company has been paying dividends in the past, and might not wish to continue or probably reduce the dividend payment in future or temporarily.

This is a catchy situation since the Board or the top management may discontinue paying dividends if it is certain that it requires cash for some strategic acquisition or requires cash for investing into a big project. The communication from the Board must flow rightly so that the shareholders accept the decision happily and that the management is able to bring its visibility on the table to the shareholders confirming the non-payment of dividend also as at attempt to maximize shareholder's wealth.