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Archive for the ‘Career’ Category

Immigration Updates 10-Oct-08

Posted in Career on October 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »

This is for the Accountants on the move. Recent updates in work permits or immigration procedures in different countries:

United Kingdom

01-Oct-08: Points-based system – apply for your sponsor licence as soon as possible

Under the points-based system, employers will need a sponsor licence to bring in skilled or temporary workers from outside the European Economic Area or Switzerland. You should make your application for a sponsor licence as soon as possible so we can make sure you get the earliest possible decision and minimise any delays to your recruitment process. Read More

11-Sep-08: Changes to Tier 1 guidance notes

On 11 September 2008 new versions of the guidance notes for Tier 1 (General), Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) and Tier 1 (Post-study Work) applications were released. Read More

08-Sep-08: Strict new jobs list for migrant workers

A strict new list of shortage jobs which targets migration better at the needs of British businesses, while reinforcing the selective approach of the new Australian-style points based system, was presented to the Home Office today by independent advisors. Read More

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Canada

05-Sep-08 Canadian Experience Class now open for business

The Canadian Experience Class is a new avenue of immigration for certain temporary foreign workers and foreign student graduates with professional, managerial and skilled work experience. Unlike other programs, the Canadian Experience Class allows an applicant’s experience in Canada to be considered a key selection factor when immigrating to Canada. Read More

05-Sep-08 Government of Canada announces pilot project to help speed the processing of new applications

With funding provided in the 2008 budget, which set aside $109 million to help meet the growing demand for permanent and temporary immigration, a centralized intake office will be established at CIC’s Case Processing Centre in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Over 30 additional staff will eventually be hired and trained. The centre will begin reviewing applications in October. Read More

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ICAEW UK launches new qualification

Posted in Career, ICAEW, Management Accountant on October 5, 2008| Leave a Comment »

ICAEW launches Certificate in Finance Accounting and Business Qualification

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) today launched a new stand alone business qualification, the Certificate in Finance Accounting and Business, intended to widen access to the profession both in the UK and internationally.

The Certificate in Finance Accounting and Business (CFAB) is aimed at aspiring finance professionals looking to undertake a rigorous, industry benchmarked qualification, as well as providing a staging post for those considering the full ACA.

Market research undertaken by the Institute identified that many already in business want to increase their career prospects with a grounding in finance and accounting.

CFAB is also aimed at those with the potential but not necessarily the academic or vocational experience to take ACA in its own right.

The qualification comprises six modules from the ACA professional stage – business and finance, management information, law, assurance and tax – with accounting at the core of the syllabus.

Click here to read more

ICAEW launches F-TEN

Are your future business leaders ready for the boardroom challenge? Will they take on that challenge within your organisation?

The ICAEW is launching its first peer to peer leadership network, the Financial Talent Executive Network (F-TEN). F-TEN is aimed at the next generation of finance leaders in business and practice helping employers to retain its best talent and to prepare them for the challenges faced at board-level.

Research carried out by McKinsey called “Starting up as CFO” in March 2008, shows a significant gap in expectation between the chief executive and a new arrival on the board. F-TEN aims to close this gap by exposing the future c-suite talent to board-room issues and encourage them to explore these challenges in a peer environment outside their immediate organisation.

F-TEN which is part of the new ICAEW Leadership Zone, will help potential future leaders transition from finance specialists to business leaders by bringing together high calibre professionals from across the FTSE 250, unlisted equivalent companies and top10 practices. They will participate in a programme based on a series of linked round-tables, workshops, peer learning groups and mentoring with senior non-executive directors from a FTSE company.

The 2008 ICAEW career benchmarking survey with Robert Half International shows that 30% of employers are not meeting the expectation of their employees. Over half surveyed do not have clear career objectives and professional development plans and 33% plan to move within the next 12-24 months. Destabilising facts for employers.

Click here to read more

Regards,

Santosh Puthran

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ICAEW, UK launches new qualification

Posted in Career, ICAEW, Management Accountant on October 5, 2008| Leave a Comment »

ICAEW launches Certificate in Finance Accounting and Business Qualification

Market research undertaken by the Institute identified that many already in business want to increase their career prospects with a grounding in finance and accounting.

CFAB is also aimed at those with the potential but not necessarily the academic or vocational experience to take ACA in its own right.

The qualification comprises six modules from the ACA professional stage – business and finance, management information, law, assurance and tax – with accounting at the core of the syllabus.

Click here to read more

ICAEW launches F-TEN

Are your future business leaders ready for the boardroom challenge? Will they take on that challenge within your organisation?

Click here to read more

Regards,

Santosh Puthran

Try Lovefilm for 2 weeks of FREE DVD rentals!

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Does IT strategy of your company influence your career ?

Posted in Career, Management Accountant, Management Accounting on October 4, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Management Accountants are known for strategic accounting rather than doing mundane things. The Canadian Management Accountants recognise themselves as “Creative Accountants”. Yes, internal accounting is like that. A product may show profit by applying overheads in the traditional way but may go into loss when applied the concepts of ABC.

Do you feel advances in Information Technology has direct influence on Management Accounting ?

I have posted the point on http://cmaindia.informe.com forum and views of members are as follows:

Rajendra Patil of Appsconsulting

My primary answer would be ‘YES”.

In various areas of management accounting, it is ‘essential’ to collect, calculate and present the data to the users. The advancement in the field of harware and software solutions has helped management accountant in a great way.

First example would be the ERPs. The regular job of the management accountants in manufacturing industries is to calculate the cost of the inventories. This has become very simple (or fully automated). So the professional can look into the other areas.

With the development of various tools to generate cubes, we can now ‘slice and dice’ the data very easily and can use the tool to generate views to find the possible reasons for the business pains. Using the Business Intelligence (BI) solutions we can now use the information of profitability in other areas of Customer Intelligence solutions like Customer Segmentation, Cross Sell-Up Sell, Campaign management, Customer Life cycle costs etc.

B V Prabhakar also shared the same view

IT , has no doubt, revolutionised the Management Accounting.

ERP , such as SAP helps Management Accountant to prepare separate Financial Statements for Tax laws under Local GAAP and also under International Standards such as IAS/IFRS/US GAAP. The time taken by Accounting Groups for Monthly Closing Process such as Bank reconciliation, Inter-company reconciliation, FOREX Payables/Receivables reinstatements and Consolidation, is considerably reduced.

Ashutosh Gupta had concerns

With the advancements of IT in day to day life of management accountants whether the role of Accountant has been secondary to IT professionals ?

Management Accountants roles has gone a drastic change over the years. The role of accountants has enhanced with these IT tools where we have to work with operations and business. Our role is understanding the requirements of the business and designing the solutions that would help them in decision making. ABM, EVA is a good examples.where you require details for analysis.

This leads to another question:

As Management Accounting is directly influenced by technology, does IT strategy of the company influence your career ?

I feel it does. Just like how a company scans you by looking at your CV of your achievements in past, you should review the history of the company on how it has progressed till now. A general drive in improvement of the system indicates that you will be able to demonstrate your role as a Management Accountant.

E.g. long time back, I had a interview call from a large MNC in Hyderabad where they needed Business Analyst. I went through the interview process where they told me they were using SAP 3.1h when the world had moved to 4.6C. On enquiry about the upgrade, they said, it was not on their agenda in the near future. I had terminate the interview process since I did not feel that I would be able to progress over there with the ancient technology.

Exchange your thoughts and share your experiences on

Whether IT strategy of the company influence you as a Management Accountant? Should you continue with a company or look for another opportunity ?

Regards,

Santosh Puthran

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Management Accountant moves to www.managementaccountant.in

Posted in Blogging, Career, Management Accountant on September 30, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Management Accountant which was earlier has moved to its own domain http://www.managementaccountant.in .You will be able to access the blog same as before.

The technical changeover is seamless since Management Accountant blogs on the blogger. I had moments of challenge when I had changed the setting in the domain name control panel. Now I am delighted with the new home www.managementaccountant.in.

The first post was published in Management Accountant on 25th Nov 2006 “Best Practice Managerial Accounting with MySAP ERP Financials“. Then there has been series of articles published that would help the Management Accountants and the aspiring ones.

Few statistics I would like to share with you (readers) about the Management Accountant Blog.

Top 10: Most Read pages on The Management Accountant Blog

Top 10 key words search that leads to The Management Accountant Blog

Top 5 countries where readers of the Management Accountant reside

United States
India
United Kingdom
Australia
Canada

Top 10 My Favourites

Quite often I have received emails from the readers of the Management Accountant blog, about what accounting qualification they should pursue, where to do SAP training and certification and how to set up a website or a blog. Some of the topics are based on the questions posed to me by the readers. Keep writing to me so that I can help you.

The more you participate in various forums, the more you know about the needs and requirements of the professionals. CMA India Portal is one of the outcome of such endeavour where the ideas were discussed with management accountants and portal has been designed to fulfill the networking needs. This portal helps in sharing experiences and exchanging ideas.

Management Accountant Blog has achieved a google page rank of 4/10. All the credit goes to the readers of the Management Accountant blog. On my New Year Resolution, there is a quote

Life is like having a cup of tea.
You sit by the side of the window, lift the cup and take a careless sip,
Only to realize, somebody forgot to put the sugar.
Too lazy to go for it you somehow struggle through the sugarless cup.
Until you discover un-dissolved sugar crystals sitting at the bottom…

With Regards,

Santosh Puthran

Read Full Post »

Management Accountant moves to www.managementaccountant.in

Posted in Blogging, Career, Management Accountant on September 30, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Management Accountant which was earlier http://managementaccountant.blogspot.com has moved to its own domain www.managementaccountant.in . You will be able to access the blog same as before.

Few statistics I would like to share with you (readers) about the Management Accountant Blog.

Top 10: Most Read pages on The Management Accountant Blog

Top 10 key words search that leads to The Management Accountant Blog

Top 5 countries where readers of the Management Accountant reside

United States
India
United Kingdom
Australia
Canada

Top 10 My Favourites

Management Accountant Blog has achieved a google page rank of 4/10. All the credit goes to the readers of the Management Accountant blog. On my New Year Resolution, there is a quote

Life is like having a cup of tea.
You sit by the side of the window, lift the cup and take a careless sip,
Only to realize, somebody forgot to put the sugar.
Too lazy to go for it you somehow struggle through the sugarless cup.
Until you discover un-dissolved sugar crystals sitting at the bottom…

With Regards,

Santosh Puthran

Read Full Post »

How to identify Blind Spot in your career

Posted in Career on August 2, 2008| Leave a Comment »

According to Oxford Dictionary

Blind Spot is : 1. The point of entry of the optic nerve on the retina, insensitive to light. 2 an area where a person’s view is obstructed.

I was reading an article on Road Safety – “Always Check your Blind Spot” on Ministry of Transport of Ontario Website and wondered whether we can apply the same principles to our career.

Principle 1: When driving, keep your eyes constantly moving, scanning the road ahead and to the side. Check your mirrors every five seconds or so. When using mirrors there is an area on each side of your vehicle where you cannot see. You may not see people or vehicles when they are in these spots.

You are doing the right things every day. You reach your workplace on time, work with your co-workers to get the things done and get good appraisals every year. You review the last year to plan for the new year and make improvements for the future. One day you get the news that one of your friends who was with you in your university days has got a promotion, then you start to wonder whether you are making the right moves in your career ?

You question

Are you moving in the right direction?
Did you check the blind spots which could have accelerated your career growth ?!!

Principle 2: Make sure you see other drivers and they can see you by doing the following:

You should know what you are doing and make sure others know that you are contributing to the growth of the company you are working for.

Principle 3: -> keep a clear view when driving. Do not put anything in your windows that will block your view.

Plan your career and outline the objectives you want to achieve in the next three years. Would you like to grow in your career vertically or get new industry experience ? Or are you looking for cross-functional experience or get better financially ? A clear view of your future will enable you to decide the next course of action.

Principle 4: -> the windows should not be coated with any material that keeps you from seeing out in any direction. Neither should the windshield or front door windows be coated to keep someone from seeing inside the vehicle.

Maintain a positive attitude and be proactive in your approach. Volunteer for activities even if it is a community activity in your organization. This approach is infectious. You will easily be recognized in a crowd and be perceived as an all rounder for a job. You will attract the right people who will help you propel your career.

Principle 5: -> check and adjust your mirrors and find your blind spots. Check your blind spots by turning your head to look over your shoulder before changing lanes, passing, turning or before opening your door when parked next to traffic.

You should always

seek opportunities to fine tune your oral, written and analytical skills
look at the senior people in your organization, how do they address complex issues? Learn from them.
develop inter-personal skills
be curious about technology that is relevant to your work
be professionally up-to-date

The above attributes will make you a sort-after commodity in the career market place, both internally in your organization and externally in the job market.

Principle 6: -> when making a lane change, check your mirrors for a space in traffic where you can enter safely. Check your blind spot by looking over your shoulder in the direction of the lane change. Signal when you want to move left or right. Check again to make sure the way is clear and steer gradually into the new lane, maintaining the same speed or gently increase it.

You should check the skills required for the job role that you are aspiring for in the next level. You should have demonstrated these skills in the day to day work and made a contribution to your organization. Every year you should get a feedback from your co-workers and manager to assess yourself. If you are dealing with customers, then a feedback from them would be vital since it would be impartial. Positive feedback will help steer you to the next level.

As you are moving up in your career, you have to be a mentor and provide a clear direction to people who work with you.

Promotion is not about pulling you up the ladder but pushing you up. It is all about people recognizing for what you are doing and what you truly deserve.

Regards,

Santosh Puthran

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Emerging role of Management Accountants in the New Economy

Posted in ACCA, Career, CIMA, ICWAI, Management Accounting on July 24, 2008| Leave a Comment »

This is a guest post by Mr. V R Kedia B.com FICWA. He is a practising Cost & Management Accountant from Mumbai

Shape of the things to come

Effect of LPG – Liberalisation, Privatisation, and Globalisation – Global competition, Fittest will survive, sub – optimal units have to die.
Size, strong balance sheets and a history of achievements are no longer guarantees of continued success.
Global competition – strategic alliance networks and massive engineering efforts place new demand on all professionals.
Many of old hierarchies will be replaced by flat structures.
Every organisation is undergoing a process of internal churning.
Employees will be judged by their delivery of agreed output and level of services, not on spending 8 hours a day attending their place of work.
Financial information will be considered as only one portion of the balanced scorecard of measures used in organisational decision making.
Knowledge will replace physical and financial capital as an organisations primary resource.
Knowledge and application of knowledge will create competitive advantage.
People will have to be accustomed to work in permanent stage of emergency.
More empowerment at the individual level.
Adoption of team based organisation.
Internet is rapidly transitioning businesses into real time.

Source: Megapixel

Present role of Management Accountants – Conceptions & Misconceptions

Cost and Management accounting system had often become of little importance to managers. Many regarded them as minor routine belonging to the accountants, used to evaluate stocks and prepare monthly results speedily.
There are all the obvious things to do: Statutory and Financial accounting, Taxation compliance, Funding, Management reporting and so on. All of this tends to be in the background; it just has to happen in any event. Management Accountants have not yet progressed more towards bridging the gap between managers and accountants and they have yet to concern more with looking towards the future – at where business is going and what is going to happen.
Very few conceptual modifications have been brought in, in the cost and management accounting in the last 40 years.
Cost is too important to be left to the cost and management accountant.

Futuristic role of Management Accountants

Most of us will be doing the job, which we have never learnt and quite different from what we have been doing so far
The illiterate of the 21^st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.
We have to undergo the process of “Learning, Un-learning and re-learning” more frequently.
Industry will be requiring “learning” professional rather than “learned” professional.
Future will be “knowledge era”. So obsolesce of knowledge will be very fast and more visible among accounting professionals.
Management Accountant must re-orient its capabilities, otherwise he will be overtaken by other professionals.
Management Accountant has to be futuristic instead of provider of historic or current information. He should ask “how better” and help management in decision-making level and for performance improvement.
‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’. – Albert Einstein.
The responsibility of the management accountant is less on forecasting the future and more on contributing to its creation.
Management Accountant will more often play the role of a catalyst / changing agent rather than an accountant.
Management accountant will have to be more adaptable to be a versatile professional rather than an accounting specialist.
Quality of “leadership” will be more in demand than that of a “manager” or an accountant.
Out –cost ascertainment, product costing and cost control. In –cost management, activity-costing etc.
Re-positioning of the management accountant – make it more relevant and useful to the organisation.
Management accountant to change the “Accountant” from their name to information manager/Cost manager.
Shift from “informational” role to an “influential” role.
To develop alliance with- finance, MIS/IT, industrial engineering, corporate planning.
To actively participate along with managers in decision making and strategy implementation.
Change in mind-set from product profitability to customer profitability analysis.
No more a scorer of the cricket match – but to be manager advisor to develop appropriate strategy to win the match.
Management accountant needs to lead the effort in training managers to use accounting information along with balancing it with other key data sources.
FOREX and Treasury function will be important profit centres.

Training needs

“If you want to remain employed, you have to remain employable” – Jack Welch, CEO-GE.
Dilemma for the management accountant will be to either change or cease to exist.
Management accountant must learn fast, forget even faster and focus on winning.
Management accountant requires very different skills from those that accountants needed to fill the narrow role that has been adopted by many finance professionals over the last three decades.
Continuing Professional Education (CPE) programme be made compulsory by the institute for skill upgradation and aquiring the latest technology.
Able to work well under pressure.
Development of multi-disciplinary skill.
Good communication skill – oral, written and presentation and a team player.
Ability and drive to work against strict deadlines and targets.
Ability to work with minimum supervision and a busy and dynamic work environment.
Ability to prioritise multiple urgent tasks.
Possessing good public relations skill.
Adding a new skill to executive skill-set, every few years.
To develop expertise in new ‘Green Field’ projects like-

Infrastructure sector (Energy, Transport etc.)
Information and Communication sector
Service sector
Agro based industries

Source: National Geographic

Changes in tools and techniques

Target costing v/s. Historical costing.
Life cycle costing.
Activity Based Costing (ABC) – ABM.
Total Cost Management (TCM)
Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)
Benchmarking.
Kaizen costing.
EVA / CVA
Total Quality Management / ISO.
Cycle time reduction (time compression).
Supply chain management (SCM).
Just in time (JIT).
Elimination of dysfunctional activities.
Out sourcing and co-sourcing activities.
Defect prevention v/s. fault rectification.
Zero Based budgeting.
Traditional budgeting v/s. New budgeting (comparative Table enclosed).
Full year budget exercise v/s reactive rolling forecast (computer generated budgets are obsolete the minute they are printed).
Dis-continuity of time cycle – month end and year end- and to invent information system to handle multiple time horizons simultaneously.
Radical change in IT/MIS e.g.

Integrated database that meet the total business requirements (like ERP Software).
MIS that is accessible and easy to use by all staff.
Rich supply of information in the form of a variety of report.
MIS for decision-making.

‘It is never safe to look into the future with eyes of fear’. – E. H. Harriman.

‘My interest is in the future, because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.’ –

C. F. Kettering.

You can contact Mr V R Kedia on +9193241 80717 or email vrkedia@vsnl.com

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Emerging role of Management Accountants in the New Economy

Posted in ACCA, Career, CIMA, ICWAI, Management Accountant, Management Accounting on July 24, 2008| Leave a Comment »

This is a guest post by Mr. V R Kedia B.com FICWA. He is a practising Cost & Management Accountant from Mumbai

Shape of the things to come

Effect of LPG – Liberalisation, Privatisation, and Globalisation – Global competition, Fittest will survive, sub – optimal units have to die.
Size, strong balance sheets and a history of achievements are no longer guarantees of continued success.
Global competition – strategic alliance networks and massive engineering efforts place new demand on all professionals.
Many of old hierarchies will be replaced by flat structures.
Every organisation is undergoing a process of internal churning.
Employees will be judged by their delivery of agreed output and level of services, not on spending 8 hours a day attending their place of work.
Financial information will be considered as only one portion of the balanced scorecard of measures used in organisational decision making.
Knowledge will replace physical and financial capital as an organisations primary resource.
Knowledge and application of knowledge will create competitive advantage.
People will have to be accustomed to work in permanent stage of emergency.
More empowerment at the individual level.
Adoption of team based organisation.
Internet is rapidly transitioning businesses into real time.

Present role of Management Accountants – Conceptions & Misconceptions

Cost and Management accounting system had often become of little importance to managers. Many regarded them as minor routine belonging to the accountants, used to evaluate stocks and prepare monthly results speedily.
There are all the obvious things to do: Statutory and Financial accounting, Taxation compliance, Funding, Management reporting and so on. All of this tends to be in the background; it just has to happen in any event. Management Accountants have not yet progressed more towards bridging the gap between managers and accountants and they have yet to concern more with looking towards the future – at where business is going and what is going to happen.
Very few conceptual modifications have been brought in, in the cost and management accounting in the last 40 years.
Cost is too important to be left to the cost and management accountant.

Futuristic role of Management Accountants

Most of us will be doing the job, which we have never learnt and quite different from what we have been doing so far
The illiterate of the 21^st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.
We have to undergo the process of “Learning, Un-learning and re-learning” more frequently.
Industry will be requiring “learning” professional rather than “learned” professional.
Future will be “knowledge era”. So obsolesce of knowledge will be very fast and more visible among accounting professionals.
Management Accountant must re-orient its capabilities, otherwise he will be overtaken by other professionals.
Management Accountant has to be futuristic instead of provider of historic or current information. He should ask “how better” and help management in decision-making level and for performance improvement.
‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’. – Albert Einstein.
The responsibility of the management accountant is less on forecasting the future and more on contributing to its creation.
Management Accountant will more often play the role of a catalyst / changing agent rather than an accountant.
Management accountant will have to be more adaptable to be a versatile professional rather than an accounting specialist.
Quality of “leadership” will be more in demand than that of a “manager” or an accountant.
Out –cost ascertainment, product costing and cost control. In –cost management, activity-costing etc.
Re-positioning of the management accountant – make it more relevant and useful to the organisation.
Management accountant to change the “Accountant” from their name to information manager/Cost manager.
Shift from “informational” role to an “influential” role.
To develop alliance with- finance, MIS/IT, industrial engineering, corporate planning.
To actively participate along with managers in decision making and strategy implementation.
Change in mind-set from product profitability to customer profitability analysis.
No more a scorer of the cricket match – but to be manager advisor to develop appropriate strategy to win the match.
Management accountant needs to lead the effort in training managers to use accounting information along with balancing it with other key data sources.
FOREX and Treasury function will be important profit centres.

Training needs

“If you want to remain employed, you have to remain employable” – Jack Welch, CEO-GE.
Dilemma for the management accountant will be to either change or cease to exist.
Management accountant must learn fast, forget even faster and focus on winning.
Management accountant requires very different skills from those that accountants needed to fill the narrow role that has been adopted by many finance professionals over the last three decades.
Continuing Professional Education (CPE) programme be made compulsory by the institute for skill upgradation and aquiring the latest technology.
Able to work well under pressure.
Development of multi-disciplinary skill.
Good communication skill – oral, written and presentation and a team player.
Ability and drive to work against strict deadlines and targets.
Ability to work with minimum supervision and a busy and dynamic work environment.
Ability to prioritise multiple urgent tasks.
Possessing good public relations skill.
Adding a new skill to executive skill-set, every few years.
To develop expertise in new ‘Green Field’ projects like-

Infrastructure sector (Energy, Transport etc.)
Information and Communication sector
Service sector
Agro based industries

Changes in tools and techniques

Target costing v/s. Historical costing.
Life cycle costing.
Activity Based Costing (ABC) – ABM.
Total Cost Management (TCM)
Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)
Benchmarking.
Kaizen costing.
EVA / CVA
Total Quality Management / ISO.
Cycle time reduction (time compression).
Supply chain management (SCM).
Just in time (JIT).
Elimination of dysfunctional activities.
Out sourcing and co-sourcing activities.
Defect prevention v/s. fault rectification.
Zero Based budgeting.
Traditional budgeting v/s. New budgeting (comparative Table enclosed).
Full year budget exercise v/s reactive rolling forecast (computer generated budgets are obsolete the minute they are printed).
Dis-continuity of time cycle – month end and year end- and to invent information system to handle multiple time horizons simultaneously.
Radical change in IT/MIS e.g.

Integrated database that meet the total business requirements (like ERP Software).
MIS that is accessible and easy to use by all staff.
Rich supply of information in the form of a variety of report.
MIS for decision-making.

‘It is never safe to look into the future with eyes of fear’. – E. H. Harriman.

‘My interest is in the future, because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.’ –

C. F. Kettering.

You can contact Mr V R Kedia on +9193241 80717 or email vrkedia@vsnl.com

Do you like to be updated in Accountancy ?

Subscribe to Management Accountant by Email

Subscribe in a reader

Visit MA Stores ? You will find something you are looking for ….

Management Accountant Store, US – Powered by Amazon
Management Accountant Store, UK Stores – Powered by Amazon, UK

You may also like to read

Read Full Post »

Do you want to be an Internal Auditor ?

Posted in Auditing, Career on July 18, 2008| Leave a Comment »

There has been a discussion in the cma_india yahoogroups the role of internal audit function in a company. One view was that the role of Internal Audit department has been reduced to vouching and checking the records and other view is that Internal function is Management Assurance Group.

According to Wikipedia

Internal auditing activity is primarily directed at improving internal control. Under the COSO Framework, internal control is broadly defined as a process, effected by an entity’s board of directors, management, and other personnel, designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives in the following internal control categories:

Effectiveness and efficiency of operations.

Reliability of financial reporting.

Compliance with laws and regulations.

Management is responsible for internal control. Managers establish policies and processes to help the organization achieve specific objectives in each of these categories. Internal auditors perform audits to evaluate whether the policies and processes are designed and operating effectively and provide recommendations for improvement.

Internal auditing professional standards require the function to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the organization’s Risk management processes. Risk management relates to how an organization sets objectives, then identifies, analyzes, and responds to those risks that could potentially impact its ability to realize its objectives.

Source: Submit Archieve

I started my career in Internal Audit Department 15 years ago and was in the department for 5 years. We generated lot of internal audit report highlighting the areas of non-compliance or breach of internal control, revenue leakages, improvement areas and so on and so forth. The internal audit report were repetitive in the contents and management did not take the reports seriously.

The statutory auditors reported their reservations in the annual audit report that Internal Audit Department was inadequate as compared to size of the company.

Now I realize that the solution was not with internal audit department but with the management of the company who had to make investment in a good IT strategy. And a commitment to make process improvement that would help the business to be competitive with profit maximization or wealth generation for its stake holders.

The questions is

Should I make my career in Internal Audit ?

I would consider two or three years would be a good time to work in internal audit. You should always explore opportunities to audits different business units or line of business. Volunteer yourself for new work. This should help you to gain understanding of the business. I do not feel that people who have worked for 10 years in internal audit are good decision makers as far as business is concerned …. the reason is they have never involved in decision making process.

You should plan your career to work in to span in financial accounting, management accounting and other areas of business. I have seen that the companies are more interested in Management Accounting round the year than in Financial Accounting. Be genuinely interested in the business of the company, talk with people on the front-line / shop floor and at the top. This will help you sharpen you business skills and address the accounting and business issues. Who knows you will start your own business !!!

The scope of internal audit is limited to internal controls and system set by your company. If you like challenges, get out of it. You will be able to play an active role in business and improving it.

Share your thoughts by adding comments to this, I am more than happy to read and discuss.

Regards,

Santosh Puthran

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