ACCOUNTANCY SPECIALISMS Tax Reviewing a companys internal risk

ACCOUNTANCY

SPECIALISMS Tax Reviewing a company’s internal risk, governance and control procedures Producing financial statements, balances, debits/credits (internal or outsourced) Internal Audit Advising businesses or private clients on tax processes; completing tax compliance for clients External Audit Chartered Accountancy Financial Accounting Management Accounting Advisory Reviewing a company’s financial statements to ensure they are true and fair Strategic planning, management information, driving business decisions Advising a company on restructuring, insolvency, M&A, forensic accounting, financial planning or consultancy

QUALIFICATIONS CTA or any Chartered Accountancy PQ + 3 years of relevant work experience! Tax IIA or any Chartered Accountancy PQ Internal Audit External Audit ACA / ACCA or any Chartered Accountancy PQ Chartered Accountancy ACA / ACCA or any Chartered Accountancy PQ Financial Accounting Management Accounting CIMA or any Chartered Management Accountancy PQ Advisory ACA / ACCA or any Chartered Accountancy / Financial Planning PQ

TRAINING CONTRACTS – A REALITY CHECK • Most ‘Trainee Accountant’ graduates work in in-house finance functions within industry. A smaller percentage obtain training contracts with the top accountancy / professional services firms. • Application-to-hire rate is extremely low e. g. Big 4 firms like Pw. C receive around 60, 000 applications each year for 2, 000 roles – mid-tier firms like Mazars receive around 20, 000 applications per year for 300 roles. • All of the top 10 (and many smaller firms) have cutthroat training contract clauses; usually, 1 -2 fails on any exam or level, and the contract is terminated. It can then be difficult for students to find another firm to sponsor them to complete the qualification. • Once you’ve achieved chartered status (wherever you have trained), obtaining a role at a top firm or a senior role in industry is much easier. • You can self-fund accountancy qualifications through a training provider like BPP or Kaplan. This can cost upwards of £ 10 -15 k, and you still need an employer to sign off on 3 years of work experience to qualify. • LMI – Check out the Accountancy Age website for news and the up-to-date listing of top firms. • CIMA Grad Club – sign up for insights, LMI & jobs