If you're thinking about study leave or your next steps in becoming a member – hold on! Hugh Carroll, Manager of the Training Support Unit at Chartered Accountants Ireland, wants to put you on the right path
As we move into the second quarter of 2023, the Training Support Unit are conscious that you are likely to be:
- getting yourself organised for the forthcoming exam season or;
- approaching the end of your training contract/period.
In both scenarios, it is important to be aware of some important information about your CA Diary.
Get the CA Diary on your pre-study leave to-do list
For those of you who will be taking Institute exams this year, it is important that you put time in your personal diary to bring your CA Diary up-to-date and submit the experience for approval.
By updating your diary now, you can focus completely on your studies without interruption over the coming weeks.
While it is good practice to keep an offline record, you do need to upload and submit entries to the online system.
Springing into membership?
For those who are approaching the end of the training period, there really is no better time than now to check your diary status, bring it up-to-date and put your mentor on notice that your remaining experience will be forwarded soon for approval.
You should note that you won’t be able to get access to a final mentor review until you have reached the end date of your training contract (even if you have all experience days and competencies).
If you have reached or are soon to approach the end of your training contract, but still have elements of your exams outstanding, you can still complete your CA Diary up to and including the final mentor review.
The requirements for the final mentor review are noted under section 1.7 of the CA Diary Guide - Trainees, along with the process for applying for membership.
Common mistakes to avoid
Please bear in mind that the Training Support Unit will conduct a quality review of your CA Diary record at the point of admission to membership (and possibly beforehand as part of our monitoring review procedures), so it’s best to check that your record is accurate now.
The team is often impressed by the standard and quality of CA Diary records, however, some of the errors we see mean delays for trainees who wish to get their ACA membership.
Of the errors, the most common are:
- First entry predates contract start date;
- Last entry extends beyond the contract end date;
- Zero-day entries or entries solely for periods of leave;
- Understating competencies (technical and non-technical);
- Overstating competency elements (e.g. did you really conduct an IT audit?);
- Entries which contain limited information in competency descriptors;
- Overlapping entries. Entries need to be consecutive, not concurrent; and
- Duplication. Don’t copy and paste your competency descriptors across multiple elements or across groups.
To ensure that you avoid the common pitfalls, review the
Sample CA Diary Entries for Trainees (check out the Do’s and Don’ts section, in particular). We also introduced a
Trainee Checklist, which should help you when creating/submitting entries.
These, and all of the other resources, are available on the
CA Diary Resources webpage.
If you find you are struggling with any aspects of your Diary, or are seeking some reassurance, contact the team at Trainingsupport@charteredaccountants.ie or call 01 637 7202.
Lastly, keep an eye on your inbox for notification of any of our forthcoming CA Diary online webinars.
Important e-assessment news: new browser download required
All students should note an important change in the technology supporting Chartered Accountants Ireland exams, starting with CAP1 exams in May 2023.
Our online invigilation partner, ProctorU, relies on a browser extension to monitor students, and that extension has to be manually applied to students’ laptops.
As a result of significant recent updates to other browser extension frameworks, ProctorU has launched its own secure browser, Guardian, which provides an enhanced service.
Guardian is now ready and a link to download has been sent to students by email.
For CAP1 exam candidates, your final download deadline is 15 April 2023. By this date, all CAP1 students should have completed the Guardian browser installation on the laptop they plan to use in the main exams. CAP1 ‘practice onboarding’ session is scheduled for 03 May 2023.
The requirement to download the new Guardian browser will also apply to CAP2 and FAE students.
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