Glorious profession of Accountants-'Changing times'
Like all other professions with changing times the once sacrosanct profession of Accountants world over seems to be undergoing a rapid transformation and India with all the talk of phenomenal GDP growth and the multinational invasion is no exception. I still remember the olden days when passing CA was of course the ultimate litmus test of an Accounts graduate and the many legendary stories of 'Ghajni Muhammad's ' coming out after the results with the same old excuse that the exam was tough and the pass rate was just 2-3% was an oft repeated familiar story.
But with changing times many other overseas qualifications like CPA, CIMA, CFA and multiple certification bodies world over have taken the lime light and additional qualifications in software, Systems Audit Management etc have become the minimum criteria for a decent job. The profession of accountants itself has dramatically changed with emphasis more on consulting like joint venture projects, FEMA guidelines, compliance with Sarbanes Oxley, GAAP etc and the glorified BPO activities( most of it is nothing but pay roll processing, debt collection, credit card application processing etc) have become the order of the day. The olden day accountant who had the onerous responsibility of certifying whether the books of accounts represented a true and fair view of the enterprise to the stakeholders is slowly but steadily moving into the oblivion and with the advent of big '4' as they are known new phrases like regulatory compliance, ethical governance, prudent risk mangement etc are taking over and dilution of this critical responsibility has resulted in catastrophes like Enron, World Com and many more during the last 5 years.
In this context there is a good joke going around how the Big Audit firms are making simple things look complex. Read on and it's worth it though a bit longer. I am sure most of my Accounting friends would enzoy this one:
Three accountants were standing at the Toilet. The first accountant finished and walked over to the sink to wash his hands. He then proceeded to dry his hands very carefully. He used paper towel and ensured that every single spot of water on his hands was dried. Turning to the other two accountants, he said, "At Price Waterhouse coopers", we are trained to be extremely thorough.” The second accountant finished his task and he proceeded to wash his hands. He used a single paper towel and made sure that he dried his hands using every available portion of the paper towel as well as used the dryer and turned to say 'at "Ernst &Young", not only are we trained to be extremely thorough,but we are also trained to be extremely efficient.” The third accountant from one of the by lanes of Armenian Street in Chennai finished and walked straight for the door, shouting over his shoulder, "At Ramswamy and Subramaniam &Co Chartered Accountants, we don't pee on our hands!"
But with changing times many other overseas qualifications like CPA, CIMA, CFA and multiple certification bodies world over have taken the lime light and additional qualifications in software, Systems Audit Management etc have become the minimum criteria for a decent job. The profession of accountants itself has dramatically changed with emphasis more on consulting like joint venture projects, FEMA guidelines, compliance with Sarbanes Oxley, GAAP etc and the glorified BPO activities( most of it is nothing but pay roll processing, debt collection, credit card application processing etc) have become the order of the day. The olden day accountant who had the onerous responsibility of certifying whether the books of accounts represented a true and fair view of the enterprise to the stakeholders is slowly but steadily moving into the oblivion and with the advent of big '4' as they are known new phrases like regulatory compliance, ethical governance, prudent risk mangement etc are taking over and dilution of this critical responsibility has resulted in catastrophes like Enron, World Com and many more during the last 5 years.
In this context there is a good joke going around how the Big Audit firms are making simple things look complex. Read on and it's worth it though a bit longer. I am sure most of my Accounting friends would enzoy this one:
Three accountants were standing at the Toilet. The first accountant finished and walked over to the sink to wash his hands. He then proceeded to dry his hands very carefully. He used paper towel and ensured that every single spot of water on his hands was dried. Turning to the other two accountants, he said, "At Price Waterhouse coopers", we are trained to be extremely thorough.” The second accountant finished his task and he proceeded to wash his hands. He used a single paper towel and made sure that he dried his hands using every available portion of the paper towel as well as used the dryer and turned to say 'at "Ernst &Young", not only are we trained to be extremely thorough,but we are also trained to be extremely efficient.” The third accountant from one of the by lanes of Armenian Street in Chennai finished and walked straight for the door, shouting over his shoulder, "At Ramswamy and Subramaniam &Co Chartered Accountants, we don't pee on our hands!"
RK
posted by RK at 8:17 PM
3 Comments:
just to add to the ghajini mohammed the other famous joke people used to say with respect to CS exams was "JESUS NEVER FAILS" Ask him to write CA exams, also the situation of these Chartered accountants in th eGulf is a diffeent story, they don't have to follow accounting procedures or tax guidelines all they should know how to tally using Tally, these glorified "Kannakku Pullais" are leading a useless life with a great qualification whihc is a dream for millions, I am sure our chettiyar kannakku pullais were doing wonders with long Accounting books and yet were able to tally numbers for those great businessmen of yesteryears. Today the CA's in the gulf have not understood their potential as I know many CA's working as account clerks for 2000 - 3000 Dhs (which 500 - 750 USD) per month which is definetely a cause of concern for people who want to work in the gulf. another problem is that the inflow into the conulting market by thes CAs are so high that they don't have a great demand , I have many friends who have accepted book clerk jobs with so Called BIG Five's just fo rthe sake of telling people that they work for Large Consulting firms where the actual job they do can be handled by a well trained ABACUS student. I am not trying to be critical but this is the reality, I am sure many will agree
One point I would like to make however qualified you are intelligence,hard work does not go together with qualification, I know cases where Bcom's are CFOs in the world where the so called qualified CPAs CMAs CAs report to
So in conclusion CA now adays is just like an advanced degree and instead of attempting CA exams 20 to 30 times people can go for some work and gain experience parallely as it takes more to live than being a CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT by qualification
just to add to the ghajini mohammed the other famous joke people used to say with respect to CS exams was "JESUS NEVER FAILS" Ask him to write CA exams, also the situation of these Chartered accountants in th eGulf is a diffeent story, they don't have to follow accounting procedures or tax guidelines all they should know how to tally using Tally, these glorified "Kannakku Pullais" are leading a useless life with a great qualification whihc is a dream for millions, I am sure our chettiyar kannakku pullais were doing wonders with long Accounting books and yet were able to tally numbers for those great businessmen of yesteryears. Today the CA's in the gulf have not understood their potential as I know many CA's working as account clerks for 2000 - 3000 Dhs (which 500 - 750 USD) per month which is definetely a cause of concern for people who want to work in the gulf. another problem is that the inflow into the conulting market by thes CAs are so high that they don't have a great demand , I have many friends who have accepted book clerk jobs with so Called BIG Five's just fo rthe sake of telling people that they work for Large Consulting firms where the actual job they do can be handled by a well trained ABACUS student. I am not trying to be critical but this is the reality, I am sure many will agree
One point I would like to make however qualified you are intelligence,hard work does not go together with qualification, I know cases where Bcom's are CFOs in the world where the so called qualified CPAs CMAs CAs report to
So in conclusion CA now adays is just like an advanced degree and instead of attempting CA exams 20 to 30 times people can go for some work and gain experience parallely as it takes more to live than being a CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT by qualification
Two persons died onthe same day and went yamaa's place.one is a chartered and other is cost accountant.yammaa put the cost accountant into swarga among the beautifli girls.The CA was sent to a place where he will get only food and water. CA asked why this disparitythough both of them worked for the same firm.yamaa told the CA this time the punishment is for the cost accountant but for the girls.
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