Requirements for an accountant

[Vietgirl]

Hi, I am an accountant and I plan to move to Canada. I wonder if there's any requirement for me to work in Canada (A licence or some kind of certificate) or it doesnt matter as long as I find an accounting job.

At the moment, I am on the way to get my ACCA certificate (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants). I know it's accepted in many countries in the world, especially the EU's) Any body know if it's accepted in Canada?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[schmeichel]

Hi Vietgirl, there are actually three accountancy designations in Canada, which are as follows:

1) Chartered Accountancy
http://www.icao.on.ca

2) Certified Management Accountants
http://www.cma-ontario.org/

3) Certified General Accountant
www.cga-canada.org/

I did my undergraduate studies in Ontario so the links above are for the province. I'm pretty sure that to qualify for the CA you need to pursue a Canadian degree, but go ahead and investigate all the links above. Unfortunately ACCA does not give you many exemptions, if any, not for the CA anyway. It might help for the CGA which is the equivalent to the ACCA, so you can think of the CA as the UKs version of the ACA.

Hope this helps abit!

 

[Vietgirl]

Hi Schmeichel,

Thank you for your advice. A bit confused, did you mean that CA is like a Canadian version of ACCA?

Are you an accountant too? Right now what I am concern is if I need one of those certificates (CA/CMA/CGA) to be able to get an accounting job in Canada? I have a bachelor degree from Vietnam and I have few years of experience. In Vietnam, you don't need to have any degree or certificate to get a job as an accountant except for a position of chief accountant, as long as your employer is convinced that you will be able to do the job.

 

[schmeichel]

Hey Vietgirl,

I guess the CGA is more akin to the ACCA, I'm sure you would be able to get an accounting job but for long term career progression you would have to do one of the designations to get ahead. The funny thing with me is that I did my undergrad in Canada and I chose to specialize in accounting but I had to come back home to Kenya where ACCA or the local accounting designation is the standard. I contacted ACCA and I got very few exemptions, just for Level 1 and I decided not to pursue it as I plan on going back to Canada sometime soon, depending on how fast the new processing system is of course!
I would suggest you contact the CGA and find out how many exemptions you would get from your ACCA. You should be able to get an accounting job but as I said you would most probably be expected to pursue one of the designations in the long term. Of course other forum members who have the experience and knowledge in the Canadian accounting field can add to the discussion!

 

[Vietgirl]

Hi Schemeichel,

I found this on CGA's website:

"A global mutual recognition agreement signed by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada (CGA-Canada) and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), allows Certified General Accountants to become members of ACCA, the largest and fastest growing international accounting body in the world. With 296,000 students and 115,000 practicing members in 170 countries, an ACCA member may practice anywhere in the world and in any industry. With such a powerful platform for international success, CGA students can look forward to a challenging and rewarding professional career - anywhere in the world."

So I think if you are a member of ACCA, it's also fine because of the mutual agreement that they signed. ACCA is quite popular and I am sure it is recognized in Canada. Now I am just comparing if it is more convenient to do ACCA or CGA because I am just starting with ACCA so I still have time to change. Anyway, ACCA looks quite interesting to me.

What's your oppinion?

For me, when I registed for ACCA, I was told that I am exempted F1 to F3 since my major was Corporate Finance. If my major was Accounting, I would get F1 to F4.

Hey, do you think if I am a CGA student, it would help me with my PR application?

 

[schmeichel]

Hey thats great, I guess I havent been keeping up to date with the accountancy news much! I was actually going to sign up for ACCA but then they went and reformed the syllabus, I was familiar with it when it was Levels 1 - 3, so I have to do some research! Without a doubt the ACCA is a fantastic designation so you should definitely persevere and get through it. I am not sure if having the CGA would help your application, to be honest I dont know how they would count it under the education points you get. But I would assume its safe to say that if you have a degree and more than 2 years of work experience in the appropriate NOC field then you should surpass the 67 point mark. Go ahead and assess yourself on the CIC web site just to be sure. If so then I guess all we can do is sit and wait and see how these new rules pan out!

 

[Vietgirl]

Actually I just started ACCA now. I registed for ACCA just now and if I want, I still can change my mind. But I think it is interesting and I think I will go with ACCA instead of CGA. I think with ACCA, later I can become CGA or CA... without taking a long time, of course if it is necessary.

So, what are you doing now? And what is your plan for coming back to Canada?

What I meant when I said CGA could help my application is it might show the Visa Officers that I am preparing for settle down in Canada. I dont think it will give me any point at all. But ACCA could do the same on term of that.

 

[schmeichel]

Hey Vietgirl, you will only get the points for your degree, so just go ahead with your ACCA as pursuing the CGA is more of a personal thing and wouldnt count when they calculate your points! I am working at a bank right here, as I said I did my undergrad in Toronto and I ended up settling well there apart from the awful weather. I see my career prospects as being much better in Canada than in Kenya and especially things like health care, social services and security make a huge difference in my decision to go back.

 

[Rose_marie22]

Hi, I'm a Nigerian who is also an accountant and I'm currently pursuing a certificate called ICAN and I plan on moving to Canada
.what are the requirement to work as an accountant please and ican certificate recognised over there and a bachelor degree of accounting in Nigeria ?
Thanks in advance for any reply