While much of what Chartered Accountants Ireland do is aimed at supporting your career, we also provides a range of services directly to members and member firms. Our Practice Consulting Team is dedicated to developing products and services to support you in your practising environment. Our expertise as a training provider goes beyond our programmes for CAs, we also provide tailored training on request to firms and practices alike.
Practice Consulting Service
The Practice Consulting Service provides confidential assistance to those of you employed in practice. It has supported the establishment and profitable development of practices across Ireland for many years. Hundreds of practices benefit from its advice and guidance in a whole range of practice and practitioner development areas.
There are a number of services which are currently provided for members in practice:
- Clarification of regulatory requirements and post-compliance review support.
- Day-to-day advice on a range of practice management issues such as 'going into practice', audit and IB file reviews, buying/ selling/merging a firm.
- Support for the development up to 40 practice networks currently in existence across the country.
We will continue to provide these fundamental services, most of which are free of additional charge to members. Recently launched services for practitioners include:
- 'Practice Compliance Healthcheck' - a service designed to flag potential compliance issues before they arise, rather than a post-review process.
- 'Practice Development Service' - provides a structured assessment of every aspect of practice operation, and identifies areas for improvement, increasing practice profitability and focusing on best practice.
- 'Practice Mediation Service' - designed to provide an independent and objective source of mediation on disputes within your practice or between practice and client.
The Practice Consulting Service portfolio also includes:
- Increased resources for training and practitioner skills development in-practice and in-network
- A revamped practice benchmarking service, with increased depth of analysis on key practice parameters, including income levels, salary levels, overheads and profit margins.
- Assisting practitioners to plan for succession, including potential transfer of the business
- Practice support tools on-line or in CD Rom format, including 'Procedures for Quality Audit' (which replaced SCAPs)
Training Chartered Accountants in Your Practice or Business Our education programme attracts the highest calibre of graduates in the country, with 94.5% of our graduates holding a 2.ii honours degree or higher. A quarter of our new intake will have completed a post-graduate programme. The Chartered Accountant programme has been accredited at Level 9 (post-graduate/Masters) level in the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland Framework.
There are many benefits to firms in training Chartered Accountants, through either the practice or business route. Your firm will benefit from the highest calibre of graduates for a fixed period of time. Recognised training organisations can enjoy recognition as an employer of choice for future members, as well as the loyalty of existing staff who aim to become Chartered Accountants.
We give students extensive support, in terms of on-line facilities with personalised web pages containing lecture notes, assignment results, past exam papers and solutions. An exciting new initiative for students sees a move away from a time-based record of experience to a competency-led process. Trainees now record their acquisition of competency in the CA Diary of Professional Development which gives training firms, trainees and the Institute a unique understanding of each trainee¹s learning. As a result, students are proven to advance more quickly as Chartered Accountants with an 80% first attempt pass rate, much higher than that of other accountancy bodies. The Institute has over 5,800 students and has experienced record-breaking trainee recruitment in the last two years.
Employer Partnership Scheme
This accreditation scheme for members¹ employers is designed to build stronger relationships in order to meet member development needs. If you think that your employer has good learning and development policies, procedures and practices, then why not encourage participation in our scheme? That way, Chartered Accountants Ireland can support your development even further.
Chartered Training
We can uniquely design, deliver and evaluate a broad range of 'bespoke' training interventions for members and their employers. The Chartered Training resource ultimately provides better value for money for employers with a group of professionals who share the same development needs.