Chartered accountancy has been one of the most popular career choices in India. This profession is not easy to get into but if you manage to do so, it offers a great career path, salary, and respect among people. One of the reasons why people respect chartered accountants is not because of the designation or pay, it is mainly because it is not easy to become one.
What is chartered accountancy?
Chartered accountancy or accountancy essentially means the same. The profession involves management of finances for an entity. This includes managing financial accounts, budgeting, auditing, business strategy and taxation.
The difference between an accountant and a chartered accountant is that the latter has taken an in-depth training of years and has passed multiple exams in various aspects of accounting to earn the title of a chartered accountant.
The benefits of using a regulated Chartered Accountant:
Leading by example:
Reputation matters. ICAEW has played a leading role in the accountancy profession for more than a century. All of our chartered accountants are qualified and regulated. They provide their specialist advice and services to the highest professional levels and comply with our principles-based guidance and standards on matters including ethics and quality assurance.
Monitoring conduct and performance:
If you select an unqualified or unregulated accountant to handle your finances or tax work, you may have nowhere to turn if there are problems with the quality of their advice, their conduct or their standards of service. In contrast, you can rely on comprehensive, proactive and cyclical monitoring of the conduct and performance of ICAEW Chartered Accountants and firms.
Providing reassurance:
The reassurance offered by these high professional standards and protections is invaluable, but it is not the only reason you should choose an ICAEW Chartered Accountant. ICAEW has taken a pioneering role in the development of the accountancy profession for more than 130 years and it remains at the leading edge – as a professional body and a regulator.
Professional services:
ICAEW Chartered Accountants and firms can offer a broad range of professional advice and services related to accountancy, audit, insolvency, investment business, probate, tax and various other legal and technical areas for individuals, businesses and other organisations.
Responsible and accountable:
As a professional membership body and regulator, ICAEW, sets and enforces standards of conduct and performance for our members, students, firms and non-member affiliates. We support them by focussing on education, encouraging continuous improvement and providing specialist technical and practical resources; but we also monitor the services they provide and the quality management systems and procedures they employ.
3 Advantages of Hiring a Chartered Accountant:
A standardized Approach:
If you're hiring an accountant from one of the Big Four accounting firms, then you know that they’ll have a close and intimate understanding of standard methodologies and approaches for managing specific accounting tasks. And you know they’ll have received the training and experience that is universal among the major firms.
Challenging Assumptions:
Chartered accountants are required to put in considerable hours of auditing in order to earn their CA designation. That's a lot – and we mean a lot – of time spent honing their craft. Among other things, auditors are taught to evaluate and assess internal financial controls.
Formulating a Plan:
Chartered accountants don't need a lot of handholding; they thrive on ambiguity, building detail on the basis of even the most limited information. As part of their jobs, they’re often dropped onto client sites with limited briefings, on the basis of which they are required to design a plan or strategy to help their clients move through the auditing process as smoothly as possible. And having worked with clients from variously sized companies, chartered accountants are highly adaptable; they know how to deliver a quality audit that’s appropriate for the organization.
