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For anyone wanting to pursue a professional accountancy qualification, there is often the dilemma of which qualification to take. And often the most popular question is, ACCA or CIMA?
ACCA is the acronym for Association of Certified Chartered Accountants. CIMA is Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. So what the heck is the difference then, they sound the same?
Job function
Well guess what. They are pretty much the same. I have known people who are ACCA qualified and teach CIMA or vice versa. Same goes with working. An ACCA can pretty much do what a CIMA can and vice versa. There is just a slight difference in what they do in a company.
ACCA deals with external parties while CIMA works with the company's management. ACCA prepares financial statements (FS) that are presented to shareholders and anyone else outside the company. The FS must meet the international accounting standards. ACCA deals alot with historical data. For instance presenting the figures of the year that has just gone.
CIMA on ther other hand, prepares data that is used to assist management with decision-making. So the statements prepared by CIMA are for internal use and currently there are no standards that govern how they should be prepared. CIMA is concerned with future events. Alot of what CIMA does invloves trying to predict what is going to happen in the future with relevant calculations.
The qualifications
Both are internationally recognised and require you to have a certain number of years of work experience before you are fully qualified.
Entry requirements
The good thing about taking ACCA and CIMA is that the entry requirements are pretty easy to meet. All you need is an A level certificate and you are through. You do not need any work experience either. However, I think this dilutes the vaue of the qualifications over time because this would mean there could potentially be alot of ACCA and CIMA students who complete their exams but have no practical experience whatsoever.
Exams
ACCA has 14 papers to clear while CIMA has 15 so CIMA is slightly more expensive. The difference with CIMA is that the stages are harder to clear so the number of students get lesser and lesser as you get higher. The rule that CIMA has is that you cannot take the exams for the next stage until you have cleared the present stage. No such rules for ACCA so you can get plenty of students in a single class. It can get really stuffy with no air-conditioning. I suppose this makes CIMA more valuable because you get lesser people completing the exams.
But then again, you could look at this from another angle. It can get really frustrating because it could take you forever to complete the CIMA exams.
The organisations
ACCA and CIMA are very aggressive with their marketing. They seem to be focussed alot on simply enrolling as many students as possible without actually thinking about what the students would do after completing the exams. Their customer service is also very messed up. It is often difficult to reach them by phone and email replies take ages. This often creates alot of stress and confusion among students.
Big tip
So if you are seriously deciding on pursuing an accountancy qualification, you should be focussed more on securing a training contract first and then study part time rather than taking up a full time course. This way, a job is guaranteed and you can focus on building yourself professionally rather than worrying about whether you will get a job later while you study. This can cause a major distraction and a kick to your morale.
Conclusion
I have listed the facts but which one is right for you is ultimately up to you to decide so good luck!
Check out more information on the ACCA and CIMA websites.
