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There's a small decrease in the professional fees you or your firm is paying for the privilege of calling yourself a Chartered Accountant: the full member fee for 2013-2014 came out to be $22.60 lower than the $1107.40 that was charged last year. Savings of 2%. The total fee is still a hefty $1084.80 including taxes, and breaks down to $520 paid to Ontario's ICAO, $440 paid to the overall Canadian CICA, and $124.80 in HST, and it represents the "on time" payment amount - late fees of $100 extra are charged if you pay after June 1, 2013. The ICAO kindly explained that the savings are courtesy of a $20 decrease in the CICA portion of the fee. At least CAs can't complain about rising fees this year. Curmudgeons are welcome, however, to scoff at the following warning message that is plastered on the bottom of the ICAO's website. " The ICAO website is optimized using Microsoft's Internet Explorer and it's use is strongly recommended to ensure that all...
Yesterday I noted that the nomination period for the next ICAO council election is now open. One of my friends noticed that the original invitation to vote was signed by "Michael K. Banks, CA, Secretary". Today, a curious second e-mail came out with the subject line "Legal Notice - Official Call for ICAO Council Election Nominations". I didn't pay close attention to it, with a busy day not giving me a lot of time to look careful - but it really seemed odd they repeated the notice a second time. That same friend, being a good auditor, took a good look at the second e-mail and noted the enhancement: the second invite is signed by "Michael K. Banks, CPA, CA, Secretary". I wonder whether someone within the ICAO quickly noticed the missing "new" CPA designation, or whether this was in response to someone outside the Institute calling them out on the oversight? I'm guessing an insider called them out on the mistake - a silly little oversight, though...
Chartered Accountants of Ontario interested in serving as members of the Council that oversees the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario have another chance to influence the direction the ICAO is taking: the next vote for positions is coming up soon, with 8 spots open, each for a two year term. The deadline to apply to run in the election is Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. The application must be accompanied by candidate statements that'll be due on May 31, 2013. You need two get at least two CAs in Ontario to sign your nomination papers, and submit the other needed documentation explaining who you are and what you've been up to. Given the entire Canadian "CPA, CA" issue that's been front and centre throughout the year, I'm sure this election will continue to generate a fair deal of attention. In last year's election, for the first time I'm aware of, there were roughly twice as many candidates as their were openings on the Council, with opposing...
In the "olden days," the only way to become earn your Chartered Accountant designation was by 'paying your dues' and working through your 'slave years' at a CA firm. Didn't matter if it was a small shop or one of the Big 4 (or 5 or 6, or 8, depending on when you started), they got a solid lock on you for the first two or three years of your fledgling career, until you had "put in your hours" at your "CA Training Office" before you were free to fly off. Well, the market demand for qualified young blood to deliver all that advisory and analytical goodness continued to push for more people, and the accounting and auditing shops could only accomodate so many newbies. The ICAO decided it'd make sense to open the field to other companies willing to subject train new grads to the UFE process. Hence came "CATOs" outside of the core accounting profession. New places are announced with regularity - the latest list includes the lovely...
The results came in wicked-fast: earlier this afternoon the viral video-supported campaign by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario bore fruit. They scored the highest ever turnout, a record of 27.6% of the membership, with 85.4% voting in favour. Here's the press release explaining what the ICAO intends to do with its win. I won't bore you with the details, there's more than enough bureacratic bylaw details and associated nerd rage to go around if you're into that sort of thing, especially the counter-argument. The video itself was a pretty good summary of the proposal, though. The ICAO tried a few things to deliver its message. Aside from a series of webcasts and free breakfasts and lunches, the video was no doubt the biggest hit - there's now been over 11,000 views, up from 3496 when I started tracking its virality. Despite it making ICAO Chair Rod Barr feel deservedly silly - he chose not to play it at the breakfast I attended, despite it being in his...
Deloitte may want to add " secure the twitter accounts " to their handbook of "things to do when layoffs begin." HMV stores are in "administration," which is a form of bankruptcy in the UK and now the mass layoffs are underway, sadly. In business school one of my favourite professors warned us that if our solution to a problem was to just start firing people left, right, and centre, we were Doing it Wrong, and she wouldn't give us a very good mark. Every scenario is different, but I greatly respected her for pushing people away from the noxious "you're fired!" mindset and towards more creative solutions that recognize that jobs are important and the last thing you want to do is carelessly deprive someone of their livelihood. Anyway, as the news media gleefully reports , while the 190 or so people were being told it was all over, their social media planner Poppy Rose Cleere posted hits like the following: “We’re tweeting live from HR where...
Accountants have found that the internet has things like... online videos. The results are stunning. Rod Barr, the President and CEO of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario delivers a going concern level of delicious snark in the first 25 seconds of this video . He says that we are having an important vote, and "apparently our webinar series is not capturing the excitement of this complex, impending change." He continues, "accordingly, we have to try something new. How about this?" Then the "typography"-ish music video kicks into gear through the magic of a glowing yellow orb that appears in his hand. Apparently senior CAs who become FCAs have magic powers that are poorly understood. Feel free to discuss this madness on ACS' facebook page while I figure out how to upgrade the commenting system here. The video is at 3496 views as of now - curious to see how viral it gets.
The CA students who will soon be newly minted Canadian Chartered Accountants are giddy or recovering from their celebratory parties today. The UFEblog, which I have spoken of highly , has served its namesake well by offering detailed coverage. Links to all the jurisdictions' results websites are available here . There's an interesting inforgraphic here breaking down the details with respect to the winners . 3077 writers passed, compared to a high of 3127 in 2009. Congratulations to everyone who passed!
If you're a Chartered Accountant in Ontario, you're probably already receiving the "eBrief" e-mails from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario with some rather surprising news. They've noted that starting this month it's possible to say "Firstname Lastname, CA, CPA" which is a bit trippy since you get a "free" designation to pre-empt the entire talk of merging CAs with CMAs and CGAs. The certificates you can now hang on your cubicle wall with the CPA designation will be mailed out in the next week or so. If this alphabet soup hasn't thoroughly confused you, you can also sign up for a free breakfast or lunch meeting per the instructions in one of the recent eBriefs at the Hilton in downtown Toronto where the implications will be discussed. There's also an evening session with "light refreshments." I attended the April informatoin session and was blown away by the impressive show of venom from CAs opposed to the...
I'm preparing a special post at a special Time and Place (edit: it's now up ) on the Battle of the Bands. To tide you over, here's a little teaser. Every band had an intro video. Deloitte recounted its "League of Rock," and the others introduced their bands in their own particular way. Here's Ernst and Young's take on an intro video for their band, the Going Concerns. I love the tagline - Accountable to No One. More to come.
The Big 4 accounting firms often march in lockstep. If Deloitte or Ernst & Young offer more than KPMG or less than PwC, you can expect people to start jumping ship, or otherwise being grumpy. So it's quite handy that Going Concern has released the Pricewaterhousecoopers 2012 salary increases. This link will enlighten you . Obviously there'll never be a perfect 1:1 match between what you'll be earning and what the kids in the tower across the street will be awarded, but it's usually not too far off the mark. And this amusingly condescending article on expenses going up and revenue going down will prepare you for the inevitable, "this is why you did an amazing job but won't be getting a bonus" conversation that Big 4 veterans in AuditLand know and love. Good luck, your options may be limited, especially if you haven't finished getting your CA certification.
The Ontario Chartered Accountants have voted, and the results are - mixed! Here's the list of members elected to the Council: Arnie Bose, CA Marrianne Bridge, FCA Anita Ferrari, FCA Christie E. Henderson, CA Delna Madon, CA Alan T. Mak, CA Robert C. Scullion, FCA John Wright, CA You see the three people with "FCA" after their name? Those are Fellows. It's kind of a Big Deal, as they've been around a long time and are very respected in the profession. They represent the part of the old guard that made it through. In this election there were, however, 18 candidates, half of whom were on the record as against the merger. Three anti-merger candidates on the above list are Arnie Bose, Delna Madon and Alan Mak. They represent fresh blood and a clear sign that the members are getting annoyed with the direction the Institute has been moving in. Of the people who didn't win, I'd say I was most amazed to see Allan Foerster not get elected - he's a respected professor...
Canada's accounting magazine The Bottom Line had an article on the ICAO elections five years ago - with a focus on those dissatisfied with the outcomes of the process. Let's see if people have more luck playing the underdog card this time. If you miss the 5 p.m. deadline, you could go attend the Annual General Meeting on Wednesday June 20, 2012 in person . It's at 4:30 pm. I'll be busy teaching financial literacy that day so I'll go vote online now. As I mentioned previously , this election is a Big Deal, as there's an actual competition in place: 18 candidates vying for 8 positions. You can retrieve your voting number by going to the election page , in case you have your member number and password memorized. Alternatively, use the number on the 2012 Ballot and Proxy that came in the mail a month ago and type that in directly on the voting site . If you're interested in hearing from a united group of 8 candidates led by the anti-merger petition organizer Ricky...
I've recently mentioned the furor associated with the idea of unifying Chartered Accountants with CMAs and CGAs . Things are getting hotter now that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario is holding its election for the Council. Typically there's not much shock or awe associated with the election, but this time it's worth checking it out . I'll delve into the details shortly, but for now check out this PDF with candidate biographies - you'll notice that there's an amazing range of candidates for a change, including many people who are not the proverbial greybeards and Elders of the Profession that you'll typically see running again and again with little competition. I'm very curious to see how this is going to unfold. And, of course, kicking myself for not deciding to get myself nominated the join the fun - but as you can tell by my posting frequency, I've been busy enough with life as it is!
While Ontario's successful writers of the 2011 UFE prepare to party at the Westin Harbor Castle, the Globe offers its takes on the ongoing merger saga . Alberta's CAs recently decided to back out of the merger talks, while Ontario drives on towards June's non-binding vote. Much whinging has alreadyeen expressed about the pros and cons about the idea of merging Canada's three major accounting designations. Talk to people studying in the various programs and you'll get an earful about the different hoops the students have to jump through to qualify for their respective designations. The CGAs and CMAs have tough programs, but most of them will point out that the CAs set their bar even higher, particularly in terms of pre-requisties to be admitted to the program, in both marks and course requirements. The barriers to entry have shifted over time, but they're still a relevant factor to consider. Is it fair to let everyone to use the same credentials if they represent...
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