What is the qualified accountant?

[atta]

Hi all

What does exactly mean qualified accountant? 3years experience and qualified education (or) qualified education with no experience. Please clarify this. I am confused.

Thnak in advance.

Atta

[elainec100@cheapaccounting]

that is a good question and one for which there is no precise answer! Everyone has different views.

[atta]

Yes ! I know. I am confused with terminalogy. Thanks anyway Elainec.

Atta

[Philip Hoyle]

For "chartered" accountants to be allowed their own practising certificate, it's both - passing the exams AND having a specified period of approved training/supervision actually doing the work.

I'd say it's having the practising certificate that makes someone "qualified" to act as an accountant in practice. Qualification without the experience and experience without the qualification just doesn't do it.

[PaulCCS]

It depends as there are various qualifications:

ACA - Chartered Accountants
ACCA - Certified Accountants
CIMA - Management Accountants
even AAT - Accounting Technicians (allowed to practice subject to certain turnover limits)

In my view, ACA is the best qualification and the hardest one to obtain. Please don't shoot me! By the way I am AAT and ACCA qualified.

That said, I think experience is much more important than qualifications!!

[atta]

Thanks Paul! Experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I am hoping to meet all criteria in near future. For the time being qualification and experience.
What is wrong with ACCA? We all know anyway.

[AccountancyStudent]

I think pretty much all of the institutes say that to be a 'qualified' accountant you need to have passed all the exams and satisfied any minimum work experience requirements

For people who just have exams and no experience - ACCA call them 'affiliates' - in the old CIMA syllabus they used to be 'Passed Finalists' but this doesn't exist in the new syllabus

For people with exams and working towards approved training experience - Part-qualified but this doesn't have a strict definition - having done just 1 exam out of 15 you can say you are part-qualified!

edit: In the US 'certified' is the equivalent term for 'qualified'

[atta]

That is quite precise explanation. Thanks a lot.

[E Storey]

Thanks Paul! Experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I am hoping to meet all criteria in near future. For the time being qualification and experience.
What is wrong with ACCA? We all know anyway.

Given that you just made a query asking how to reclaim misposted VAT I'd say it's likely to take you a number of years until you could meet the criteria. Were you asking for yourself or are you working as an "accountant" for other businesses?

I have 10 years experience and an AAT qualification yet would still not market myself as anything more than a bookkeeper.