ACCA or CIMA, which suits me best?

ACCA or CIMA, which suits me best?

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Hi

I've got a degree in accounting and 2 years experience in a computing firm employing ~40 people where I am the only person working on the finance aspects of the company. They have offered to put me through the final 5/6 exams I need to do for ACCA/CIMA. The problem is I'm not sure which is best for me long term.

I would prefer:

  1. Working with the same core group of people each day & not having to travel much
  2. Spending the majority of my time 'crunching numbers' - going into work on a Monday knowing I had a busy week of calculations would appeal to me
  3. To be able to work from home out of office hours (I only need 4 hours sleep so I could do quite a lot of overtime from home)
  4. Dealing with rules/calculations/formulas

I would prefer to avoid:

  1. Meeting new people all the time (I prefer meeting fewer people and getting to know them better)
  2. Constantly battling with the HMRC (had 3 investigations already so I possibly have an irrational fear due to the stress)

If anybody could advise whether ACCA or CIMA would be more suited to my preferences it would be very helpful. A year ago I would have said ACCA so I could specialise in tax but the last HMRC investigation really put me off having to argue with them for the rest of my working life.

Thanks for reading,

Chloe.

Replies (2)

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By User deleted
22nd Aug 2012 07:33

As you will probably know CIMA tends to be limited to to people working within an industry/commerce environment.  That's not to say people who are CIMA qualified can not make the transition to professional practice, they can its just more unusual to do so.

ACCA in my opinion is somewhat of of a hybrid qualification which suits both industry and professional practice.  Also ACCA is regarded as an international qualification, I am not sure how well known CIMA is outside of the UK. 

Both are excellent qualifications (I only have a couple of ACCA papers remaining myself).  In my opinion I hold anyone with the CIMA qualification in very high regard.   

So the real question here is do you ever see yourself working in professional practice.  Given your preferences then I would say not and therefore I would be tempted to go for CIMA.

What ever you decide good luck with your studies.

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By tom123
22nd Aug 2012 09:23

Your point 2

Hi Chloe

(I speak as a CIMA member) You may be interested to know that an industrial or commercial accountant's role can be considerably broader than 'crucnching numbers', and also that you will get considerable exposure to external parties (suppliers, customers, banks etc).

The role you describe in point two is more of a Financial Planning and Analysis one, which you tend to find in the very large companies.

Remember, variety is the spice of life.

I love working in commerce, but sometimes wonder what pratice would have been like. In industry, finance is never the 'core' activity of the company, so a certain amount of pragmatism is needed.

Good luck with your choice

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