Added responsibility
Usha Albuquerque

As the financial year draws to a close, the busiest people have been the chartered accountants, performing audits, filing income tax returns, and providing tax consultancy and other financial services. But it is not only at this time of the year that chartered accountants are busy, with the financial sector boom, and the growing importance of financial parameters in all aspects of business, chartered accountancy is a much sought-after career.

A chartered accountant is responsible for the financial health of the company, and performs a variety of roles from that of the auditor of accounts to a tax consultant. Often this includes that of a lawyer, solicitor and even a financial investigator.

Calculated chance

The CAs may keep themselves involved in intricate accounting procedures, apply technological innovations to accounting practices, work in financial management, as well as in general management of financial and other organisations, or as entrepreneurs.

A chartered accountant therefore has a multifaceted role to play. This involves:

Accountancy: This includes maintaining financial records and compiling daily, monthly and yearly accounts, the preparation of financial statements from the simplest receipts and payments to complex and detailed accounts, and the maintenance of books of accounts as required by the Companies Act.

Auditing: CAs perform financial, cost and tax audits, and some aspects of secretarial audits too.

Cost accountancy: The CAs are trained at maintaining cost auditing records, compiling cost information, installing cost controls, monitoring expenditure and forecasting further needs.

Taxation: A chartered accountant, with experience in accounts has an advantage when it comes to preparing returns for tax purposes, representing assessees before the income tax authorities and rendering general advice on taxes to clients. This incorporates tax-planning strategies for the client, its compliance and procedural work including submission of all documents and payments.

Investigation: CAs are experts at examining specific aspects of businesses in order to ascertain the financial position of the business for the information of interested parties on new issues of share capital, the purchase, sale or financing of a business and for reconstruction and amalgamation. Their services are also sought for undertaking investigation.

Financial consulting: The various areas of consulting include providing financial services and advice to businesses to help them improve their efficiency and profitability, prepare project reports on new businesses and offer advice on business strategy, and provide services to individuals in taxation matters and in managing their money more effectively.

Systems Design and Information Consultancy: CAs with computer skills are in great demand not only with information technology firms, but to handle accounting procedures which are now mostly undertaken on the computer. They can also work with computer engineers and systems analysts to set up specific programmes for their needs.

Other functions: A CA is often appointed executor under a will or trust in order to carry out the administration of the estate or settlements. Appointments of this nature require the CA to work in co-operation with solicitors and lawyers.

The CAs can also perform functions under special positions, directorships of companies, arbitrators for settling of disputes, handling work related to insolvency and bankruptcy, to name a few.

Eligibility

To become a CA, you need to pass the final exam of chartered accountancy and be registered as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

The professional course of a chartered accountant is of 3 years’ duration and is a blend of theoretical education and practical training so that students acquire knowledge as well as professional skills. The CA course is conducted by the ICAI, which has its headquarters at New Delhi. It has five regional offices at Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Kanpur and New Delhi with 81 branch offices across the country.

The CA programme has three sections, Professional Education (course-I), Professional Education (course-II) and Final examination. A student who has passed the Senior Secondary Examination (plus two) can register for the CA programme, and start the study while pursuing graduation. While Economics and Commerce graduates are particularly suited in terms of background knowledge and skills, students of any discipline can take up the CA programme. Commerce graduates with 50 per cent marks, non-commerce graduates with subjects other than mathematics with an aggregate of 55 per cent marks and non-commerce graduates studying maths with an aggregate of 60 per cent marks are exempt from doing the Professional Course I and are permitted to register for Professional Education Course II.

Skill set

You can register for Professional Education Course-I and Course II any time during the year. However, as the examination is held twice a year in May and November, it is necessary that a student must register at least ten months before the examinations.

Academic ability, analytical ability and numerical aptitude are some of the personal attributes a CA requires. In addition, those with business acumen, information management skills and a methodical approach to work can go far. The extremely rigorous and prolonged training period also demands a lot of hard work, motivation and endurance.

The training programme is conducted through postal tuitions. Answering test papers forms an integral part of the postal tuition scheme. These tests have to be cleared before each exam can be taken.

After passing the Professional Education Exam II, you are eligible for registration as articled clerks/audit clerks for practical training. The Computer Training Programme is compulsory for the candidates who wish to register themselves as auditor clerk. Students can undergo this programme while pursuing Professional course I or course II. On completion of articles and industrial training, an articled clerk can join a CA in the profession and work until the final exam is completed. This means a job and a salary while training, which is not the case in most other professions.

During the training period, you are required to work in different areas learning the basics of auditing and taxation. This training enables you to learn the technical details of the job as well as to develop professional competence and related skills and acquire certain ethical values and norms expected of professional accountants.

Two to five years after qualifying in the final exams, depending upon an individual's abilities, the CA can become a partner. Most professional firms make an experienced CA a partner in due course. But since this may take several years, a qualified CA can also open a firm, or form partnerships with other CAs.

Job prospects

To enter professional practice, a CA would need to obtain a certificate of practice from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. This is valid for one year, and has to be renewed every year.

A qualified CA can take up a job as a trainee in industry, in commercial organisations, banks, insurance companies, and in private and government offices. Some organisations induct trainees on probation for six months to two years and train them directly on-the-job in departments and offices.

CAs can also set up their own industrial/ business ventures. They can provide consultancy in the preparation of project reports, corporate financial planning, feasibility studies, energy or environmental audit etc.

CAs who combine their training with an MBA in finance management can also look for career enhanced job options in areas like merchant banking, equity finance, portfolio management, treasury management, project finance and so on.

So, if you enjoy solving maths problems and find yourself reading the business pages of the newspaper when your friends go straight for the sports news, then chartered accountancy is possibly your best career option.