Completing Foundations in Accountancy - FIA

In order to do ALL the qualifications under Foundations in Accountancy (FIA), a new suit of qualifications being offered by ACCA, you have to sit in exams for 9 papers. So it will be taking almost the same time as CAT. To know more about FIA and qualifications under it you can read an article written by me in simple words named What is FIA?

However, if you are not doing FIA completely and doing only the selected qualifications under FIA then it depends on the student.

For example:

Introductory level certificate contains 2 papers and are CBE based so student can sit these exams in one attempt for which student might need 3 months to prepare.

Intermediate level certificate contains 2 papers and are CBE based so student can sit these exams in one attempt for which student might need 3 months to prepare.

Diploma contains 3 papers and are CBE for which students might need 4 months to prepare.

Lastly, to do the last 3 optional papers student might need 6 months to prepare.

Now you can add up the timings to see how much time it will take. Remember, the times given are only for information purposes to get an idea about it and can be different for different students.

FIA better than CAT or at least equivalent to CAT

Since ACCA has launched the new suit of qualifications, much confusions are surrounding it. I must suggest that ACCA should write a whole student accountancy issue about it. Another problem is, ACCA has already issued FIA introductory document in addition to help available on ACCA website, but as the information is scattered, students are not finding it easy to understand.
First thing that we should understand is that FIA is NOT just one qualification as opposed to old CAT qualification rather FIA is suit of qualifications i.e. FIA contains more than 1 qualification under its belt. There are 3 certificates and 1 diploma, in total, under FIA suit of qualifications.

Now if one asks whether FIA has the same value as CAT qualification then it depends on the perspective and the dimension of the question itself.

If you are asking about the knowledge value of FIA against CAT then it is the same as if you do all the papers under FIA you will get the same certification as you would have got under CAT.
If you are asking about the time value or exemption value or money value of FIA against CAT, then in my opinion FIA has more time value then CAT. As in CAT you had to do all 9 papers to claim exemptions in first 3 papers of ACCA, but now you don’t have to do all the subjects under FIA suit to claim that exemption instead, just do the diploma that contains 3 papers and you will get the exemptions of first three papers of ACCA. So, its much better than CAT as you are being rewarded on the same grounds i.e. you do THREE papers and get exemptions in THREE papers. This was not the case before under CAT where you had to do NINE papers, thus was paying for and sitting in nine papers to get exemption in just THREE papers of ACCA qualification.

Study Text Applicable for CAT and FIA Examinations in 2011 and 2012

The The examinable document cut off is 30 September for the list of examinable documents applicable for examinations within the following calendar year. December 2011 will see the first examination session for FIA papers FA1, FA2, FFA, MA1, MA2, FMA and FAB.

The last examination session of CAT papers T1 to T7 inclusive will be June 2011. ACCA has decided that due to the change over from CAT to FIA, study texts applicable to CAT papers T1 to T7 examinations in 2010 will also be applicable for the June 2011 examination. Furthermore study texts applicable to FIA examinations for FA1, FA2, FFA, MA1, MA2, FMA and FAB in December 2011 will also be applicable for these examinations in 2012.

FIA option papers FAU, FTX and FFM will be first examined in June 2012 and therefore no special arrangement of materials is required for these papers in 2011. This means the 2011 study texts for CAT papers T8 to T10 will be relevant for June and December 2011 examination sessions. A new 2012 study text will be published for the new FIA papers FAU, FTX and FFM being examined in 2012.

FIA Foundation in Accountancy TT5 TT6 and TT7 Subjects

As we all know that FIA is about to replace CAT qualification completely and the move over will complete by the end of August for existing CAT students i.e. all current CAT students will be transferred to new suit of qualifications – Foundations in Accountancy (FIA).

Since January 1, 2011 the registration under CAT qualification has been closed and now those students who do not qualify for direct ACCA entry or want to do entry level certification first will be registered under FIA instead of CAT. Therefore, if you are registered by/after January 01, 2011 then you are registered under FIA.

Now the ones who are registered under FIA in first place (the ones registered by/after January 01, 2011) will see TT5, TT6 and TT7 in their accounts.

Before we understand these subjects let’s understand the scenario itself and it will surely clear up all the doubts.

Under CAT qualification, students had the option to sit in CBE style exams only for first four papers i.e. T1 through T4. But under new scheme (FIA), students can give first 7 papers under CBE based exams.

Now the problem is FIA exams will take place in first week of December 2011 and not before. So ACCA has arranged interim arrangements and TT5 TT6 and TT7 are basically transitional subjects and are NOT the same as FIA’s FAB, FFA and FMA. These are basically current ACCA F1, F3 and F2 respectively. If this is still not clear then read on.

Now for FIA students, from February until November 2011, the syllabi of FIA subjects will be considered equivalent to the respective subjects charted as follows and also linked to the relevant syllabi:

FA1 = CAT T1 (INT)
MA1 = CAT T2
FA2 = CAT T3 (INT)
MA2 = CAT T4
TT5 = ACCA F1 current syllabus
TT6 = ACCA 3 current syllabus (INT)
TT7 = ACCA F2 current syllabus

FAU = None
FFM = None
FTX = None

The thing to understand why there is no transitional arrangement or syllabus for the last papers is that as FIA students are registered after December 2010 therefore they are not eligible to sit in paper based exams by June 2011. And as by December 2011 everything will be shifted to FIA so by that time their own syllabi will be effective thus no need to worry about interim arrangements for these subjects for June 2011 session.

Lastly, as you understood that current syllabus of CAT and ACCA is being employed for FIA subjects therefore you can use the corresponding books to prepare FIA subjects. For example for TT5 you can use the book of ACCA F1 according to current syllabus.

In other words December 2010 books of all the above mentioned subjects are good until November 2011.

ACCA F5 Performance Management 2011 Syllabus Change

ACCA F5 2011 Syllabus Change

There have been several changes to the Performance Management paper in the ACCA syllabus.

Ins:
Specialist Cost & Management Accounting Techniques–
Environmental accounting. You will need to be able to discuss the issues businesses face in the management of environmental costs and how businesses can account for environmental costs.

Decision-Making Techniques – Cost Volume Profit Analysis. Break even analysis is a tool used by management to provide information about their products. This requires you to calculate and interpret break even points for single and multi-product situations, prepare and interpret profit volume and break even charts and discuss the limitations of this technique.

Decision-Making Techniques – Pricing. You will now be required to determine prices and output levels for profit maximisation using the MC = MR based approach.

Standard Costing and Variance Analysis – Sales mix and yield variances. In addition to materials mix and yield variances you will be required to calculate and identify the cause of sales mix and yield variances.

Outs:
To make room for the additions and to remove any overlap with Performance Management (P5), the following has been removed from the syllabus:

Implications of switching costing techniques for pricing, sales strategy, performance management and decision-making.

Back-flush Accounting (old section A4)

FIA - Foundations In Accountancy Transitional Papers TT5, TT6 and TT7

In February 2011 existing students of CAT - Certified Accountant Technician qualification i.e. who are already registered under CAT will receive a notification from ACCA - Association of Chartered Certified Accountants briefing about new suit of qualifications i.e. FIA - Foundations In Accountancy.
In this notification, that will accompany the December 2010 results due to be released by the end of February 2011 month, ACCA will ask students whether they want to transfer to ACCA register on completion of T5, T6 and T7 or they want to stay in the same register and transfer to FIA where they can complete CAT certification by giving additional 2 more optional papers.

If the above description is hard to grasp then let me put it points so that you can easily understand what is going to happen when.

By last week of February the results of 2010 exams will be announced for CAT and ACCA qualifications.
With December 2010 results, existing CAT students will receive a notification about introduction of new suit of qualifications with the name FIA that is going to replace CAT qualification complete by the end of August 2011.
Remember that CAT qualification will be effective and present until June 2011 exams and conversion from CAT to FIA or from CAT to ACCA will depend on the results of students that they are going to score in June 2011 exams. I repeat your credit or exemptions in FIA or ACCA qualification will be determined according to the papers you will have passed after June 2011 exams.
In the notification, mentioned in point 2 above, students will be asked one important question i.e. whether they want to transfer to ACCA register (whether they want to transfer to ACCA qualification straight) on the completion of T5, T6 and T7 papers (or their equivalents i.e. TT5, TT6 and TT7) or they want to continue to pursue CAT certification. In case students select to transfer to ACCA register then he will resume the studies from ACCA F4 whereas if student selects to pursue CAT certification then he will give two optional papers under FIA.