Chartered Accountant Course Details – eligibility, fees, syllabus, duration

What is a Chartered Accountant

CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT (CA)is an influential person who is the breath of every company. In addition to its tax compliance responsibility, it has many other crucial tasks. In fact, a CA is a technically competent as well as a competitive professional with great knowledge and practise.CA enjoys a formidable position in every company. The profession is highly respected as a CA has good practical knowledge to serve dynamic solutions to the company. The professionals generated by CA course are dynamic professionals with good practical tactics and skills. This article will discuss in-depth the Chartered Accountant Course Details. For CS(Company Secretary checkout article ->Company Secretary.

Do read about the CA Course journey of Dhruv and Shruti in the last section of this article –> Real Talk

For a Career in Commerce read: Career in Commerce Stream

ICAI – Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

The Institute Of Chartered Accountants Of India (ICAI) is a national professional body set up on 1st July 1949 under Chartered Accountants Act, 1949. institute of chartered accountants of India(ICAI) regulates and administers the chartered accountancy course.ICAI issues Standards of auditing and Other technical standards to be observed by all CAs. The official website of ICAI is www.icai.org. ICAI is addressed as ‘Partner In Nation Building’. It helps in the formulation of economic legislation.
ICAI conducts and monitors examinations in the course. Study materials and online registration facilities are provided by ICAI. In addition, ICAI conducts induction programmes as well to give soft skills and personality development classes. It is also responsible for issuing circulars and notifications timely. That is why the Institute Of Chartered Accountants Of India is the first thing we discussed as a part of Chartered Accountant Course Details.

Role Of A CA

A CA enjoys a monopoly in the audit of financial statements. He is responsible for financial reporting, auditing, taxation, business recovery, and insolvency. The areas of expertise and professional practice include Investment Banking, Direct Tax, Indirect Tax, Fund management, Risk Management, Credit analysis, etc. Apart from this, CAs can work in management positions such as CEO, CFO, etc.

Chartered Accountant Course Details

Below are the details of Chartered Accountant Course Details.
Every student has to pass through the three stages of CA course.

Foundation Stage:

This is the first stage of the CA course. On clearing 10th grade in commerce or any other recognized degree student can apply for Common Proficiency Course (CPC). After 10+2 students can appear for Common Proficiency Test (CPT). The CPT exam is conducted twice in one year in months of May and November. Students who want to appear for May should register before 31st December and those who want to appear for November should register before 30th June.

Intermediate stage:

This is the second stage. A student who has qualified in CPT can register for the second level which is the Integrated Professional Competence Course (IPCC). Also, one can directly register for IPCC after graduation/post graduation in commerce with 55% and graduation/ post graduation in other fields with 60%. Exams are held in the months of May and November.

Final Stage:

The final stage comes when the student has completed all previous exams and required training. After passing the final stage student has to apply for membership. In May and November exams are conducted.

Course Duration

Let us discuss the course duration as a part of the Chartered Accountant Course Details.
The course duration for the three stages is as follows:
1. Foundation: The course duration is four months. Furthermore, it depends upon the caliber of the student. The four-month duration is calculated from the date of registration into the foundation stage to date of exam.
2. Intermediate: The course duration is 8 months. The duration is calculated from the day of registration till the exam date.
3. Final: The final course duration is minimum of 3 years. The calculation is done from the day of registration in the final stage to appearing in the exam after completion of 3-year training.

Foundation Syllabus

In CA foundation programme there are total of four subjects. Each paper is of 100 marks. A student has to secure minimum 40% in each paper and overall 50% aggregate of all. There are total of four subjects. Paper 1&2 are subjective ones and paper 3&4 are objective ones with negative marking.
1. Principles And Practice Of Accounting
2. Business Laws And Business Correspondence and Recording
3. Business Mathematics, Logical Reasoning, and Statistics
4. Business Economics And Business And Commercial Knowledge

Intermediate Syllabus

There are two groups in the IPCC syllabus. Each exam is of 100 marks. Students have to secure 40% in each subject. The aggregate of 50%is required.

Group1:
1. Accounting
2. Corporate Laws and Other Laws
3. Cost and Management Accounting
4. Taxation

Group2 :
1. Advanced accounting
2. Auditing and Assurance
3. Enterprise Information Systems and Strategic Management
4. Financial Management and Economics for Finance

A student can appear for any one group also. In this case, students should score an aggregate of 50% in that group. Moreover, a student is considered to have qualified if it appears in both groups and the aggregate of both is 50%.

Final Syllabus

The final syllabus consists of two groups. Each paper is of 100marks. A student should secure minimum 40% in each subject. A student should secure 50% in all groups taken together.
Group 1:
1. Financial Reporting
2. Strategic Financial Management
3. Advanced Auditing And Professional Ethics
4. Company Law (Part A)
Other Economic Laws (Part B)

Group 2:
1. Advanced Management Accounting (Part A)
BPR (Part B)
2. Financial Services And Capital Markets
3. Advanced Direct Tax Laws And International Taxation
4. Advanced Indirect Tax Laws

Course Fees

• •Foundation: Rs 9200
• •Intermediate: Rs 18000
• •Final: Rs 22000

Training Required

For a CA student, practical knowledge is as important as is theoretical knowledge. The complete CA curriculum includes a set of training programs. Institute Of Chartered Accountants Of India has specially designed the course to make competent professionals and develop soft skills in students. Institute Of Chartered Accountants Of India has designed the training program in a way which is to be completed at different stages:

ITT And Orientation

The student should do ITT or Information Technology Training of 100 hours. The student should complete training before taking up articleship training. Orientation includes in its ambit General Management and Communications Skill course. It’s 35 hours of training.

Articleship

A student should do Articleship training either after clearing both groups or after clearing any one group of IPCC. It’s a three-year training program specially designed to make students grasp complete work experience. A student can do training under a practicing CA or audit department of any recognized organization.

Enroll As A Member

Finally, after qualifying final examinations and completing articles hip training, Student has to register as a member. The application form is available on its official website.

Study Hours

First and foremost thing required for students aspiring to become a CA is a dedication and adequate sitting regularly for studies. A minimum two-hour study along with articleship is necessary for preparing the final course. Also, one needs to do articleship training with great attention and dedication as it is the learning stage. This is because In this stage one can gain the maximum advantage of practical knowledge.

Professional Competence

A CA is a tax specialist. CA course creates Such professionals who can practice with tax departments, audit firms, law firms, etc. They are competent professionals with great talents to put their knowledge in a dynamic business environment.
CA is a good career option and gives good earning as well as position. A fresher CA in India on an average earns 7 lakhs to 8 lakhs per year which is a good amount. The institute conducts campus placements as well which helps students land up with good and promising opportunities.

Real Talk

Details such as duration, syllabus, fees, eligibility are important information. And students must always try to gather this information before they jump into the preparations.

But there is more information which is very important. You must be thinking about what could be those. So let us enlist them without wasting any time.

• Source of Inspiration
• Previous Experiences
• Difficulty Level of the exam
• Is it worth
• How is life after passing CA

There can be many such questions but let us try to figure out the answers of these first.

Source of Inspiration

We always look up to others who have already achieved, success, name, fame, and money. Like the cricketers of the day look up to cricketers like Sachin, Virat and draw inspiration from there journey. Similarly, there are many stalwarts in the field of Chartered Accountancy. To name some:-

Piyush Goyal, current Railway Minister
Suresh Prabhu, the cabinet minister in the present dispensation
Naina Lal Kidwai, country head HSBC
Rakesh Jhunjunwala, our own Warren Buffet
etc..

Students can go through the journey of these stalwarts and learn how they faced the challenges and succeeded.
Definitely, one would get to learn a lot from their mistakes and would get a lot of inspiration from their success as well.

Previous Experiences

Obviously, if you are appearing for the first time you would not have any prior experience of the exam or the journey as a whole. But this does not stop you from understanding and exploring the journey of those who have already passed the exam. Hence we must always try to speak to our seniors, elders and the professionals of the field.

There are many people who have explained their journey in the simplest and the best way possible.

Neha Tambe interviewed Shruti Chiplunkar in her blog.

Shruti completed her CA course in 2016. The best part of the interview is that she has very clearly mentioned the timeline of the events. She completed her 12th in March 2011. Cleared her CPT in June 2011. Then almost after a year in May 2012, she cleared IPCE. Completed her articleship from Aug 2012 to 2015. Then she cleared her CA Final Group 2 in Nov 2015 and CA Final Group 1 in May 2016.
She also talks about her inspiration in the interview which is none other than Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam. You can read the interview here.

Similarly, Dhruv Nandani talks about his journey and experience here

Difficulty Level of the exam

This question is tough, isn’t it?

There can be multiple ways to look at it.

One can be looking at the passing rate. Apparently, the passing rate of the CA course is one of the least when compared to other exams in India. Recently it was around 9%.

But I feel looking at this figure without understanding it does not give a fair idea.

The Hindu published an interesting article on why the passing percent is less and what can be done to improve it. Read the article here

Is it worth? And how is life after passing CA

Another interesting question.
Swimming is worthy for a fish while climbing for a monkey.

Vice versa might not be true. Similarly, if you are a CA at heart and you love doing this job day in and day out then

Bang on!

It is completely worthy.

Boman Irani said – I love my job because it is my hobby.

Hence if your interest becomes your job what better you can ask for. But if you are not a CA at heart and became one because someone else wanted you to be then it might get a little tough. Because the job is exhaustive, tiring. Needs a lot of commitment along with hard work but is rewarding in terms of pay and perks.

So take a decision wisely.