Becoming a Chartered Accountant in Australia

Moving to Australia was not as easy as I thought. Don’t get me wrong it is a nice place but in the corporate world, especially in the Accountancy realm, firms and companies could be obsessed with “local experience” and “Australian qualification”.

When I moved to Guernsey (Channel Islands) more than 6 years ago as an external auditor, not having local experience and their recognised qualification was not an issue at all. The important thing was that you have relevant accounting or auditing experience and was qualified back home.

You can still get an accounting or auditing job in Australia without those two but I guess there are more challenges and disappointments, so just be ready. The best way to get through them is to stay in a job to get that experience and study.

CA or CPA?

Based on my observations, accounting/auditing firms tend to favour CA (Chartered Accountants Program of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia [ICAA]) for graduates starting an accounting qualification, although they don’t really mind if you join them already with a CPA qualification (Certified Practising Accountants qualification of the CPAA).

With other entities or companies, it doesn’t really matter which one you take or have already taken.

The CPA Program is cheaper and apparently less stressful. The only advantage that I see on the CA Program, and the reason that I chose it, is that it is recognised more internationally.

Steps for enrolling in the CA Program

The procedures I’m going to share with you is based on my experience, having finished my Bachelors Degree in Accounting and obtained my accounting qualification from my home country, the Philippines.

The Assessment

Before you can even think of enrolling in a module (there are 5 modules in total for the whole program) you have to get assessed first. The assessment is to determine if your accounting degree is equivalent to an Australian degree.

If you have applied for a permanent resident visa in Australia previously and have used ICAA for you accounting assessment for migration purposes, you cannot use the migration assessment for entry into the Chartered Accountants Program as separate criteria apply.

Download the Standard Assessment Form from the ICAA website (www.charteredaccountants.com.au) and fill it out. These are the documents I submitted together with the accomplished assessment form:

• Original certified copy of the diploma and certificate of graduation from my university;
• Original certified copy of the academic transcript of records;
• Original certified copy of the course description with an explanation of what each subject is all about;
• Original letter of good standing (dated 3 month from application received date) from local accounting body;
• Original certified copy of my accounting (CPA) certificate; 
• Original certified copy of my exam results;
• CV or resume; and
• Certified copy of work reference or letter from employer.

They got back to me after almost 4 weeks and told me that I need to take the following subjects from an approved Australian tertiary institution:

• Australian Corporation Law
• Australian Taxation Law
• Finance

The Registration

It took me a year to finish the 3 subjects. At the end of the day all I needed is the official transcript of records from the university.

Go to the ICAA website and download the Employment Details Form. Ask one of your supervisors (that is already a Chartered Accountant) to be your mentor. Fill out Sections 1 and 2 of the form and ask your mentor to sign in Section 2.

Registration is done online in the ICAA website. You would need to upload the accomplished Employment Details Form, a copy of the assessment letter they sent you (this letter lists the subjects that they want you to take) and a certified true copy of the official transcript of records.

Enrolment

You will receive an email from ICAA after a few weeks that you have been registered. Obtain their timetable and schedules from their website, if you haven’t already, and look up the dates of enrolment for the subject that you want to take. You can now enrol on that subject starting on the date of enrolment specified.

The Journey Ahead

We’re back to being students again, which is not altogether a bad thing.

I’m still in the process of enrolment and will be taking up Audit & Assurance as my first module. I will be sharing some of my notes here so watch out for them if you are in the same journey. Enter you email address in the upper right side of this page, if you want to get the notes emailed to you as they come.

Classes start really soon so good luck to us!

Now be the best that you can be,

Xiela Marie Dacyon