CPA versus ACCA

Pat Bateman said:
I heard an old saying in UCD once..."ACA" stands for "A Chartered Accountant", "ACCA" stands for "A Crap Chartered Accountant" and "CPA" stands for "Car Park Attendant".

The above isn't a comment on the relative merits of the three qualifications!
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What ACA, Anyone Can Add!
 
ACCAisFRAUD said:
I'm sorry to burst all your bubbles but ACCA CANNOT be compared to CPA.

Indeed, ACCA is not a "British Chartered Accountancy body". This is a common misconception. People with ACCA qualifications are NOT considered Chartered Accountants anywhere and are referred to as Certified Accountants in the UK. The qualification is massively inferior to the ACA qualifications offered by the ICAEW and ICAS.

Those saying otherwise are thinking wishfully and kidding themselves. Absolute self-denial.
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Did you have a bad experience with ACCA i.e. fail your exams over and over again?

Reason I ask is that you created a username ACCAisFRAUD and dug out a very old thread about CPA and slammed the ACCA for being inferior to ACA, which is nothing to do with the original thread question - holy god man!
 
The ACA qualification has been pretty humbled in recent times.

Were some former leading bankers not some of their prominant members?

At the end of the day there is precious little difficence between ACA,ACCA or CPA.

Thar said that public sector accountancy body is not as recognised.
 
What puzzled and astound millions of people worldwide is :"On what criteria do the ACCA pass the candidates whose mother tongue is not English"? What do they write in their answer scripts? Imagine a student from CHINA who can hardly write a correct sentence in English and can do basic calculation only! How does the ACCA decide whether to fail or pass that candidate.

I know people from overseas who cannot tackle an advanced level question but they have passed the ACCA and is by now FCCA. That same ACCA gives exemptions to CPA Ireland in four papers only. At least all the candidates of the CPA have good secondary education. Nobody has ever made an investigation.!
 
ACCA gives exemption to ABE diploma( which is less rigorous than Advanced level) in four papers but no exemptions are given to the AIA( Association of International Accountants- a level 7 QCF qualification recognised by the Companies Act in the UK). How can the ACCA be better than CPA Ireland?
 
If CPA Ireland were a sub-standard qualification why did the ICAIreland wanted a merger?
 
caroline said:
What puzzled and astound millions of people worldwide is :"On what criteria do the ACCA pass the candidates whose mother tongue is not English"? What do they write in their answer scripts? Imagine a student from CHINA who can hardly write a correct sentence in English and can do basic calculation only! How does the ACCA decide whether to fail or pass that candidate.

I know people from overseas who cannot tackle an advanced level question but they have passed the ACCA and is by now FCCA. That same ACCA gives exemptions to CPA Ireland in four papers only. At least all the candidates of the CPA have good secondary education. Nobody has ever made an investigation.!
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I would have thought exams are conducted in local langauges depending on where the canditate is sitting, so Ireland, France, Italy etc etc

In the same way someone in Ireland sitting the tax paper doesnt sit it under UK tax law, they sit it under Irish tax law
 
"On what criteria do the ACCA pass the candidates whose mother tongue is not English"?
Little racist there, aren't we?
I'll tell you more Caroline, my mother tongue is not English and yet I managed to graduate with GPA well above average while working full-time, and I received multiple job offers while some of my fellow native English speakers did not.
Life is unfair
 
As a member of the one of the main three (ACCA, ACA, CPA) and a CTA;

- the CPA is recognised worldwide on the basis that the CPA qualification is the main accountancy qualification in the States. However it is in no way related to the Irish CPA. I think, but stand to be corrected, that there is an agreement between US CPA and the Irish ACA.

- Irish ACA is more recognised in Big-4 Ireland but this is changing. More and more non-ACA partners are being admitted; note however that there are rules concerning %partners versus salaried partners in each firm. The %parters still tend to be ACA.

- Irish ACA is recognised in UK etc as they have roughly the same bodies set up at the same time. ACCA is a UK operation operating globally but set up more recently.

- CPA. Hmmm ...there are few others like this. And yes, while it is recognised across Europe (in theory), you will also find that the 6/7 accountancy bodies in Ireland (yes there are that many) also theoretically are meant to get recognition. In practice, in day-to-day reality, only the ACA/ACCA/CIMA do.
 
Accountancy Body Full Name Designatory Letters

ACCA

Association of Chartered Certified Accountants ACCA or FCCA

AIA

Association of International Accountants AAIA or FAIA

CIMA

Chartered Institute of Management Accountants ACMA or FCMA

CIPFA

Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy CPFA

ICAEW

Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales ACA or FCA

ICAI

Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland ACA or FCA

ICAS

Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland CA

ICPAI

Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland CPA or FCPA

IIPA

Institute of Incorporated Public Accountants AIPA or FIPA
 
I may have been unkind to CPA, a previous poster is correct when he stated that the ACA wanted to merge - this didn't happen. When the ACA wanted to merge with CIMA - this didn't happen either.

I'm sure all sorts of reasons have been put forward. But some organisations are better run (financially) than others, even if the individual reputation of members is deemed better than members of other organisations.


IMHO; ACA = ACCA. CIMA is factory-accounting (as I explain it to me da). Every sizable business needs a CIMA more than a ACA/ACCA but to produce statutory accounts, you need a ACA/ACCA more than a CIMA.
 
hi everyone, looks like this thread is a bit old now but I am quite new here and don't really wanna start a new thread which will ask the same question ;) So which one is actually better? ACCA or CPA?? I am currently in a process of signing up with CPA. Done a lot of research and all but to be honest these two seem very much the same to me.
 
olab said:
hi everyone, looks like this thread is a bit old now but I am quite new here and don't really wanna start a new thread which will ask the same question ;) So which one is actually better? ACCA or CPA?? I am currently in a process of signing up with CPA. Done a lot of research and all but to be honest these two seem very much the same to me.
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You are going to put a significant effort into getting qualified regardless of which association you go with, so why would opt for the qualification that hardly anyone has heard about???

Every time you go for a job, the first think you will have to do convince the prospective employer that CPA is as good as/equal to/better than ACA, ACCA, CIMA... Why make life more difficult???

Brand recognition and being main stream is a good idea.
 
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