KNOW WHAT IS CPA(T) AND REQUIREMENT OF BECOMING A HOLDER.

About CPA (T) | Procedures and Requirements for Becoming a CPA (T)

This post explains the procedures and requirements for becoming a CPA (T). The abbreviation CPA (T) stands for Certified Public Accountant (Tanzania) and it is an award offered by the National Board of Accontants and Auditors of the United Republic of Tanzania.

The Board also offers another certification known as Accounting Technician under the Accounting Technician Examinations Scheme. However, this post does not cover explanations related to Accounting Technician Examinations Scheme, at least for now.

Overview of NBAA : The National Board of Accountants and Auditors (NBAA) of the United Republic of Tanzania was established in 1972 by the authority of the Auditors and Accountants (Registration) Act No. 33 as amended by Act No. 2 of 1995, to among other things, promote and provide opportunities and facilities for the study of, and training in accountancy, auditing and allied subjects. In executing such responsibilities, the Board conducts accountancy examinations twice in a year May and November.

Th Professional Examination Scheme is the one that leads to Certified Public Accountant qualification. The scheme consists of three stages (Foundation Stage, Intermediate Stage, and Final Stage).

Foundation Stage

• Module A
  • P.01 : Financial Accounting
  • P.02 : Business Economics
  • P.03 : Business Law
  • P.04 : Business Mathematics and Statistics
• Module B
  • P.05 : Auditing Theory and Practice
  • P.06 : Cost Accounting
  • P.07 : Business Information Systems Management
  • P.08 : Business Ethics and Corporate Governance

Intermediate Stage

• Module A
  • P.09 : Financial Repoprting I
  • P.10 : Research, Consultancy and Reporting
  • P.11 : Quantitative Techniques for Decision Making
• Module B
  • P.12 : Management Principles and Practices
  • P.13 : Corporate Finance
  • P.14 : Entrepreneurship

Final Stage

• Module A
  • P.15 : Financial Reporting II
  • P.16 : International Finance
  • P.17 : Public Finance and Taxation
• Module B
  • P.18 : Auditing and Assurance Services
  • P.19 : Management Accounting and Control
  • P.20 : Contemporary Issues in Accounting

KNOW WHAT IS PROFESSION?

What is a Profession?

Profession

• Meaning

  1. A calling in which one professes to have acquired specialised knowledge which is used in instructing, guiding or advising others.
  2. Any occupation by which a person earns a livelihood.

• Synonyms

  1. line of work
  2. vocation
  3. occupation
  4. job
  5. career
  6. work
  7. business

• Definitions

  1. Profession is a vocation requiring some significant body of knowledge that is applied with high degree of consistency in the service of some relevant segment of society — Hodge and Johnson
  2. Occupation especially one requiring advanced education and special training — A. S. Hornby

Profession » Attributes

The attributes of a profession as laid down by Dalton E. McFarland.

1.	The existence of a body of specialised knowledge or techniques
2.	Formalized method of acquiring training and experience
3.	The establishment of representative organization with professionalism as its goal.
4.	The formation of ethical codes for the guidance of conduct.
5.	The charging of fees based on services but with due regards for the priority of service over the desire for monetary rewards.

Professional - Amateur

Professional

A professional (in an activity) is one who takes up something for the purpose of making money out of it and who has an expert knowledge in it. He is also proficient, skilled and has specialized knowledge in it. He is qualified certified or licensed for carrying on that activity by competent authority.

Amateur

An amateur is a person who engages in something for the pleasure of it rather than for money.

Profession/Professional - Names

Special names relevant to the profession are used to identify a person taking up a profession i.e. professionals of some fields are called with special names.

Profession	Professional
Medical Profession [Medicine]	Doctor
Engineering Profession	Engineer
Legal Profession	Lawyer
Teaching Profession	Teacher
Accounting Profession	Accountant/Professional Accountant
Management Profession	Manager

UNDERSTAND WHAT PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING MEAN.

What is Professional Accounting?

Professional accounting can be understood to be a field of accounting, specified by a statutory professional body of accountants, which is managed by the accounting professionals of that field. Some examples of professional accounting fields

• Chartered Accountancy
• Cost Accountancy
• Company Secretaryship
• Management Accountancy

Though, it is not a requirement that the bodies managing the profession should have a statutory recognition, we generally consider only the accounting fields pertaining to statutorily recognised bodies as professional accounting fields.One of the main objectives of the professional body, is to conduct courses and periodical examinations, so as to enable, aspirants become professionals, in the field specified by the body, by taking up the course and qualifying in the examinations. The structure of the course, the frequency of examinations, qualification norms etc., are decided by the body itself.
They may also conduct more than one course, each of which represents a different level of proficiency in that field. They may also conduct various courses representing proficiency in different branches of the same field.
The professional bodies have many other functions and objectives all of which are directed towards enhancing the interests of the profession, professionals and the professional body.

Non-Professional/Formal Accounting

Non-professional or formal accounting would mean the fields specified by universities and non-professional bodies. The courses conducted by them are indicative of the fields. Unlike the professional bodies conducting professional accounting courses, these universities have very few objectives (in relation to the field) other than conduction of the course, examinations and award of certificates.

Who is a Professional Accountant?

Professionals

A Professional accountant in a specified field is a candidate who has (or has acquired) the qualifications specified by the respective professional accounting body for being recognised as a professional in that field.

Acquiring qualifications

Acquiring the qualifications generally involves completing a course of study, getting through examinations at the end of the course, undergoing one or more kinds of practical training.To become a chartered accountant, a candidate has to take up the chartered accountancy course, appear at and get through the chartered accountancy examinations at various levels, undergo practical training, computer training and management training. Upon completing all these a candidate would be eligible to become a chartered accountant (a professional accountant in field of chartered accountancy).

Exemptions

Candidates with certain specified qualifications may be exempt from one or more such requirements.A company secretary intending to become a cost accountant would be exempt from appearing in few papers of the cost accountancy course that has to be taken up by candidates intending to become cost accountants.

Membership

Candidates with the requisite qualifications would then be eligible to become members of the respective body. All members of a professional accounting body are professional accountants in the specified field. Some bodies make it compulsory for candidates to take up membership for being recognised as a professional of the specified field. Some make it optional. Only members can play an active role in the affairs of the professional body.

Students

Candidates pursuing the courses conducted by the professional accounting bodies are the students of the related professional accounting course.

Both Professionals and Non Professionals work at various levels

Accounting is a function that is carried on in almost all the business organisations by individuals either with or without the help of machines (computers). We find personnel working at various levels of the organisational hierarchies within the accounting and other departments (sections). People who are involved in the process of recording information (daily book keeping activities) whom we call accountants or book keepers or clerks or assistants, People who carry on activities relating to processing the information collected by book keepers whom we call accountants, managers, chief accounts etc., People who carry on the analysis of the accounting information who are generally positioned towards the higher levels of the hierarchy whom we call Chief Accounts Officer, Financial Manager etc.All these need to have the knowledge of and be proficient in the area of accounting they deal with. It would be difficult to demarcate the knowledge as to non-professional level and professional level.
The level at which an accountant is working is not an appropriate guideline for deciding whether an accountant is a professional or not. We may find both professional as well as non-professional accountants at various levels of the organisation.
The depth of the knowledge required by people working in organisations at various levels depends on the level at which they are working, the accounting activity they handle as well as the informational needs of the organisation. We may find professional as well as non-professional accountants with the requisite knowledge and proficiency which may have been acquired through their academic curricula or through work experience.

ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONAL GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

What is Accounting?

Accounting

The process of identifying, measuring, and communicating economic information to permit informed judgments and decisions by users of the information - American Accounting Association.

Organisations - Information

Organisations deal with information relating to the various activities carried on (transactions that take place) as part of their operations. Some of the important reasons for which the organisations deal with information are :

Achieving Objectives

All Organisations (business as well as others) have objectives. The main objective of business organisations is making profits. Even Organisations like WHO have objectives. WHO works towards ensuring proper health care for all human beings.Organisations try to achieve their objectives in an efficient manner. Efficiency in achieiving organisational objectives implies achieving them with least possible cost/resource utilisation, which requires them to optimise their operations. The information relating to the various transactions in relation to an organisation would aid such optimisation.

Meeting Statutory Obligations

Organisations work within the purview of various statutes (laws) like company law, tax laws, mining laws etc. They, thus are under a statutory obligation to submit various kinds of information relating to their operations (incomes and expenses, financials, natural resource utilisations etc).

• To tax authorities.
• To regulatory authorities like company registrar, registrar of cooperative societies etc.
• To the ownership (share holders, partners etc.).

The information relating to various organisational activities would thus help the organisation meet its statutory obligations.

Handling Information

The information relating to the various activities that take place in an organisation has to be collected and processed for being useful for the various purposes for which it is dealt with. The tasks would be:

Collection

In the process of collecting the information relating to the various organisational activities, only that information which is made use of is collected. What information is to be collected and what is to be left out is dependent on the needs of the organisation.
Cash Receipts, Payment Vouchers, Invoices, Attendance Time Sheets, Job Cards, Goods Received Notes, Delivery Challans, Stores Issue Slips, Point of Sale Terminals are some of the tools used for collecting information.

Derivation/Extraction/Segregation

All the information collected, may not be required by all. Information that is needed may have to extracted/segregated from the collected information. Moreover, the information collected, in the format in which it is collected, may not be sufficient to meet all the needs. Additional information required may have to be derived from the collected information.
Say the tax authorities do not need the information relating to each transaction of expense and income. They only need to know the total figures relating to the various expenses and incomes (except when they have a doubt and would like to check). For this purpose, the totals of expenses and incomes should be derived.
The information collected should be processed so as to derive the information that is needed for being presented in discharge of the statutory obligations as well as for achieving the organisational objectives.

Presentation

Making the best use of the information (collected as well as derived) requires presenting it in a format that is capable of being understood by the users of the information. It would be of little or no use unless its presentation aids understanding.
This is true both in case of submission of information in discharge of statutory obligations as well as in case of making use of the information for efficient achievement the organisational objectives.
Journal, Ledger, Trial Balance, Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Flow Statement, Funds Flow Statement, Cost Sheet, Flexible Budgets etc are some of the statements that are used in processing and presenting information.

Accounting - Collecting, Deriving, Analysing, Presenting information

Accounting is an activity that involves the acts of collecting information, processing the collected information to derive various other kinds of information, analysing the collected as well as derived information and presenting the same to the users of that information.

The terms accounting and accountancy are synonymously used.

Flavours/Flavors/Fields of Accounting

Financial Accounting, Cost Accounting, Managerial Accounting etc are all different flavours/flavors of accounting. They differ from one another in the kind of information collected and processed. All these use the information relating to the operations and finances of the organisation.The method and system for collecting information, the information derived and the way it is presented, varies, depending on the flavour/flavor of accounting and the purpose for which accounting is done.