Anyone in CPA/CMA/CGA program here?

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zxfmontreal

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I think a lot of ppl in finance industry already have CFA designation or enrolled in the program. It might not be enough to only be a cfa to get a good job…I am wondering if it is possible to get a CMA or CGA in addition to CFA..
I graduated with a B.Comm degree and majored in Finance…only took 2 accounting courses, not quite like them I much prefer Finance haha. I have been working 1.5 years now…as accounting/admin. assistant. (in charge of invoicing, help controller in supervising A/P, A/R, and some small projects)..
So here is my question, which accounting designation(CPA/CMA/CGA) is the most achievable for me (with background in finance and currently enrolled in CFA program). CA is too difficult and time-consuming so forget about it. And in Quebec, CPA and CA are mering into CPA, so CPA shouldn’t be an option for me either…From what i read online, CGA seems easier to get than CMA…
I just wanna have a clear plan in mind…it might be too hard to pursue two designations at the same time…so I might do one after the other…but I wanna get them done as fast as I can…I am 24, so wanna get all the studies done before 30 while working full-time…and also wanna enjoy life (go travel once in a year…) meanwhile…
 
You should first find out if you’re qualified to take any of those exams with only two accounting courses.
 
Hi ZFXMontreal,
You’re a quite off with your thinking, which is good because you might have more options than you think.
First of all, CPA will have the equivalent of both CGA,CMA,CA and people will choose which they want to focus on. There will be the Public accounting road(equivalent of CPA,CA) and the management road (CMA,CGA)by that I mean that within the CPA there will be modules and so even though CPA merge, if you don’t want to become the equivalent of CA you’d choose modules that don’t relate to public accounting(managerial acco etc). So the “difficulty” of the CPA because of CA is not necessarily true depending of which road/modules you choose. I’d check with the CPA order.
Second of all, its too late for you to choose CMA, CGA as its going to be CPA starting next semester… except for CGA if you do the following:
1) If you speak french, you can do an Msc,Finance with CGA integration at Sherbrooke University, it takes about a year and you’ll have an Msc + the CGA….not bad! (its the last semester to register) after that they’ll do Msc,CPA they don’t know how they’ll do it since the last time I called(about 1 month).
2) Register directly to enroll in the more or less 6 classes to get the designation directly from the Order of the CGA. I would assume its also the last semester, if not over.
Otherwise, you have this option:
3) The only way to get CMA or CGA that I know is through the CPA program. Register for a acco certificate(part-time) in order to meet the requirement for the CPA, then do CPA (2 years part time combined with internship) and choose the modules that look like CGA/CMA within the program. It takes a lot of time because its part time and many courses are pre-requisit. I don’t think you’ll have time to do the CFA.
The order of CPA will soon, or even might have revealed a clearer structure for the program since the last time I called so I would call them and ask, have them confirm what I said and see for yourself…
Lastly, if you want finance you’re probably better of with CGA or its CPA equivalent.
Hope it helps
If you have any questions, PM.
 
I don’t know much about the CGA or CA. But I am a CPA.
For my opinion on CMA, see my posts in “Accounting or Finance” and “Alphabet Soup”. In short, the CMA is “Robin”, and the CPA is “Batman”. CPA’s tend to think poorly of CMA’s.
Also, the hardest part of the CPA exam is being eligible for it. Each state has its own requirements, but for my state, you have to have 150 hours of college. 30 of the hours have to be in upper-level accounting, and another 24 have to be upper-level business (finance, managment, economics, etc.)
Once you’re eligible to take the CPA exam, the actual exam is more of a review–you’ve already learned everything you need to know in your 30 hours of accounting.
However, in my experience, CPA will open more doors than CFA will. And I bet that CPA/CFA is a very powerful combo if you want to to valuation/financial advisory/transaction advisory.
 
One of the best ways for accounting and finance professionals to boost their knowledge and get an increase in pay is to complete a certification. There are many out there, depending on the area of accounting or finance that you specialize in. In my opinion, there are three that stand out as both broadly recognized and highly relevant to a variety of industries and job functions, the CPA, CMA, and CFA.The CPA is by far the most broadly recognized both inside and outside the accounting and finance world. A Certified Public Accounting (CPA) firm in new york Offers all CPA services to Individuals and Small Businesses. For more information you can visit this site www.meicpa.com
 
What do you want to do with your career? Canadian workplaces tend to put an abnormally high value on professional designations, but it depends on what kind of work you want to get into. Honestly if you’re going to continue down your accounting path, then perhaps CPA will be more important to you than CFA.
All of Canada’s accounting bodies will eventually be merged once individual groups stop whining and get with the program. CPA is really the only option you should consider going forward. Then you don’t have to worry about equivalencies/transfers/whatever.
 
Again, I can only speak for the US. But in the US, there are only two types of accounting designations. There’s the CPA, and then there’s a bunch of relatively meaningless crap. They might be useful if you’re already a CPA and want a “niche” (EG - Certified Internal Auditor). But if you’re not a CPA, you’re nothing.
 
Greenman72 wrote:But if you’re not a CPA, you’re nothing.
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With the merger in Canada of the mainstream designations, this will be the case here as well.
 
Greenman72 wrote:
Also, the hardest part of the CPA exam is being eligible for it. Each state has its own requirements, but for my state, you have to have 150 hours of college. 30 of the hours have to be in upper-level accounting, and another 24 have to be upper-level business (finance, managment, economics, etc.)
Once you’re eligible to take the CPA exam, the actual exam is more of a review–you’ve already learned everything you need to know in your 30 hours of accounting.
However, in my experience, CPA will open more doors than CFA will. And I bet that CPA/CFA is a very powerful combo if you want to to valuation/financial advisory/transaction advisory.
Click to expand...
How hard would you say the 30 hours of upper level accounting are relative to the CFA? Is it a lot of memorization?
I’m in valuation (a year now) and have been thinking of adding something else to my skill set…
 
^Difficult to say. I don’t think it would be difficult, but it will be annoying and time consuming. If you work in valuation and have passed Level 3, I don’t think it would be worth your time. Unless you want to change careers.
Accounting and finance are extremely different. Finance is “understand and apply the concepts to a big picture that makes economical sense”. Accounting is “know all the minutae details and apply them to a pre-existing framework that oftentimes makes very little sense”. So your greatest asset in finance might be your greatest liability in accounting (and vice versa).
EG - To comply with accounting rules, savings accounts and money market funds are considered cash. CD’s are not. They are “investments”. A finance person would not know or care about the difference, but according to GAAP, they must be classified accordingly.
The classes themself aren’t incredibly complicated. But you’d have to enroll in school, pay the tuition and fees, attend class (through whatever medium provided), take the tests (on somebody else’s schedule), do the homework (on somebody else’s schedule), etc. etc.
You’d have to take auditing (which is on the CPA exam), but a lot of auditing is not intuitive, so you’d have to study pretty hard. There’s also a ton of tax on the CPA exam, which makes almost no economical sense. That’s a lot of rote memorization. You’d have to take Cost accounting and Information systems, which will be a lot of stupid memorization that will in no way tie in to your job. And governmental accounting is one of the stupidest subjects I ever studied. Unless you work in governmental accounting, that will be a total waste of time. (And yes–you WILL be tested on it in the CPA exam.)
 
Thank you for the informative post Greenman72. If I went that route, I thought about doing it at night, online but have been looking at other options as well.
 
I have been reading several posts from zxfmontreal for some time, and i have a few general suggestions for you:
1) Do not shy away from an opportunity because it’s “too difficult” - if you think you can advance in accounting or finance with an attitude that you can just choose the easiest paths along the way, i don’t think you will go far.
2) Study what really interests you OR study what your career takes you - as simple as that, do not study something you don’t like or believe in and think something will happen magically when you are done x years later.
3) Do not set yourself mental walls - so what if you are studying at 32 or 35? the world is not going to end and there are plenty of people in professional programs and business schools who are highly experienced and mature, they probably have a better chance of benefiting from what they study.
4) Know your strengths and weaknesses - if you don’t know what you want to do in life, really focus on what you are good at and develop a skill for it. If accounting is not something that is intuitive for you after a few courses, you may not want to pursue it? there is a world out there beyond accounting and finance, you are still very young at 24! do not let these sunk costs blind you, there are other careers in the world that may suit you better!
Best of luck,
NANA
 
I am also a CPA. Here in the US the CPA license has a solid reputation. I have never heard of the CMA or CGA, so I know these are not on par with the CPA in the US at a minimum, and more likely are not even close in terms of prestige. Getting a CPA license can be pretty difficult as it has a very precise university requirement and you will need to pass the exams. The work experience requirement has gotten much easier compared to when I got licensed (it is one year in GA and is probably similar in other states, but I have not had a reason to check.)
 
giuls21 wrote:
I am also a CPA. Here in the US the CPA license has a solid reputation. I have never heard of the CMA or CGA, so I know these are not on par with the CPA in the US at a minimum, and more likely are not even close in terms of prestige. Getting a CPA license can be pretty difficult as it has a very precise university requirement and you will need to pass the exams. The work experience requirement has gotten much easier compared to when I got licensed (it is one year in GA and is probably similar in other states, but I have not had a reason to check.)
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US CPA and Canadian CPA are completely different. As far as i know, CPA is new in Canada for consolidating the accounting bodies.
In any case, isn’t Canada IFRS based and US is still US GAAP?
I don’t think one is more prestige than other, accounting is accounting, it really depends on what you do and experience.
 
NANA Hachiko wrote:
I don’t think one is more prestige than other, accounting is accounting, it really depends on what you do and experience.
Click to expand...
That’s like saying “investing is investing. CFA = CFP = AAMS = CIMA. One is not more prestigious than the other.” You couldn’t be more wrong.
 
Greenman72 wrote:
NANA Hachiko wrote:
I don’t think one is more prestige than other, accounting is accounting, it really depends on what you do and experience.
Click to expand...
That’s like saying “investing is investing. CFA = CFP = AAMS = CIMA. One is not more prestigious than the other.” You couldn’t be more wrong.
Click to expand...
That’s not really what i am comparing to, because you are talking about two accounting bodies in two different countries, it’s like apples and oranges, you can’t compare them directly.
In US, i believe CPA stands for “Certified Public Accountant”, and in Canada, the new CPA stands for “Chartered Professional Accountant”, in other countries, they are called “Certified Practising Accountant”, etc…
My point is, just because it’s called CPA, they are not exactly equivilent, so they may as well be different names, like CMA or CGA or whatever other ones in Canada.
So, i am purely saying, just because CPA is used in the US, it is not necessarily more prestige in Canada or other places because the CPA in the US is very different from the rest of the world.
At the end of the day, it depends on the work history you have as an accountant. If you land a job in a big 4 firm, it doesn’t matter what letters you have, CXA for that matter, and you will probably still have more transferable skills working oversea than a CPA (Utah) working at a local personal tax practice is what i mean.
 
TO OP
Although we are miles away right now and perhaps we may never meet in our mysterious lives,i can see a bit of me in you.Just like you i am 23 enrolled in CFA programme.I have cleared 2 levels of FRM and i am currently in final year of my MBA,two years ago i even cleared 4 papers of ACCA (CPA equivalent in Europe).
We as young guns are quite insecure about our future !!!Let us accept this fact 1st of all!!!That is why we want to have every thing (designations/degrees/diploma’s)etc ..etc…uselessly.
Few weeks ago i sat down and started a conversation with my self.I was constantly asking my self as to WHAT THE HELL I WANT TO DO IN LIFE???WHY AM I RUNNING AFTER ALL CREDENTIALS ALL AT THE SAME TIME..???
Thank fully i got the answer after some soul search:
1)I accepted the fact that work experience is >>>>>>>>>>degree/diploma
2)One respected credential CFA (for example) is enough to make a career if i develop some soft skills and try to earn a good “internship”after or during my post graduation.
3)I accepted the fact that there will always be people more qualified than me(read better than me)and there will also be people less qualified than me in practical world.
4)So i decided to focus only on CFA for the time being and get job next year as quickly as i can after my postgraduation.
5)For FRM i still need 2 yr of qualified work experience.
6)ACCA i may not pursue in future if i am too busy with my job.(as i donot like accounts and audiit)
So my freind “Focus”on “CFA” or any 1 well known credential and you will achieve what you want provided you work hard in your job!!!!
 
NANA Hachiko wrote:
Greenman72 wrote:
NANA Hachiko wrote:
I don’t think one is more prestige than other, accounting is accounting, it really depends on what you do and experience.
Click to expand...
That’s like saying “investing is investing. CFA = CFP = AAMS = CIMA. One is not more prestigious than the other.” You couldn’t be more wrong.
Click to expand...
That’s not really what i am comparing to, because you are talking about two accounting bodies in two different countries, it’s like apples and oranges, you can’t compare them directly.
In US, i believe CPA stands for “Certified Public Accountant”, and in Canada, the new CPA stands for “Chartered Professional Accountant”, in other countries, they are called “Certified Practising Accountant”, etc…
My point is, just because it’s called CPA, they are not exactly equivilent, so they may as well be different names, like CMA or CGA or whatever other ones in Canada.
So, i am purely saying, just because CPA is used in the US, it is not necessarily more prestige in Canada or other places because the CPA in the US is very different from the rest of the world.
At the end of the day, it depends on the work history you have as an accountant. If you land a job in a big 4 firm, it doesn’t matter what letters you have, CXA for that matter, and you will probably still have more transferable skills working oversea than a CPA (Utah) working at a local personal tax practice is what i mean.
Click to expand...
I brought up prestige to make the point that in the US, the CPA is generally viewed as the gold standard for accountants (excludes the Phd pop). In other countries, the CPA may not be viewed in the same light compared to the US. In fact the CPA could be the easiest accounting license to obtain in the entire world for all I know (though I doubt it.)
If I am a US recruiter (I have regular conversations with the recruiters at my firm, so I have insights into how they view hiring), I would rather screen for CPAs only as opposed to taking the chance on some other acronym that I don’t understand and am too lazy to research.
 
^wow, that’s a real designation!
From their website:
“Certification Exam
The Certification exam is a 100 question, multiple choice exam. The exam is open book and open note and you are given three (3) hours to complete the exam. The exam is held on the Friday afternoon of Certification week.”
 
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