What Is a Chartered Account?
Some accountancy firms such as DWA Accountants Bridgend use a qualified staff of Chartered Accountants to handle your financial needs, and yet others will use accountancy technicians or other individuals who may have no professional qualifications at all-only having the work reviewed by an accountant before filing, or maybe not even having the benefit of a review by a qualified person at all.
What’s more, the UK has no laws or requirements that a person describing themselves as an accountant actually be qualified, meaning that unfortunately you may end up employing an unqualified individual for this most important of work. Yet the use of the title Chartered Account is strictly regulated. So what is a Chartered Accountant and what makes them special?
Chartered Accounts are people who belong to one of the Chartered Accountancy Institutes. These institutes require a level of ongoing education that is relevant to the field, on top of the original qualifications-these requirements can be large, and take a great deal of time to complete.
As an example of the level of experience of the people that you may hire at DWA, Bridgend’s small business accountants, entry to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales requires first that prospective members pass fifteen exams and complete 3240 hours of work experience in the field. (This is based on a forty hour working week, eighty one weeks of work experience before they may apply for membership.)
Once admitted they continue to be monitored, and are required to follow the ethical guidelines that the institute sets out. The continuing education helps the Chartered Accounts to stay current with practise, and with laws that may be constantly changing.
There is further work that may be done by members of these institutes, such as participating in groups that aim to further the practise of accountancy. Other rules and regulations apply to the more specialist areas of the business, all designed to protect the public and the clients that they may represent.
In short, a Chartered Account is someone that you know that you can trust with your particular personal or business financial needs. They are guaranteed to be well qualified for the task for which they advertise themselves and are bound by standards and guidelines that are there to protect you.
Not all small business accountants in Bridgend or elsewhere may be qualified in this way-some may be students, still fulfilling their work experience requirements and others may have no qualifications. They may be well skilled at their work, but only when dealing with a Chartered Accountant do you have the confidence of knowing that they have extensive experience as well as academic qualifications that meet the exactly standards of the institutes.
Being a member of the institute does not prevent these highly qualified individuals from having other skills. For instance they may specialise in new and small business practise, as well as helping in developing business plans and the overall running of small businesses.
With not one but three Chartered Accounts, you can be sure that you can trust Bridgend accounts, DWA.
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