Management Accountant Blog

I got a very thoughtful greeting on the New Year. I would like to share it with you: Life is like having a cup of tea. You sit by the side of the window, lift the cup and take a careless sip, Only to realize, somebody forgot to put the sugar. Too lazy to go for it you somehow struggle through the sugarless cup. Until you discover un-dissolved sugar crystals sitting at the bottom... The last line really stirred me. My new year resolutions would be to Stir Management Accountants to aspire like Dr D K Sarraf Stir Management Accountants to participate in discussions and share their knowledge on their blogs. Stir Management Accountants in practice to their own website . Stir Management Accountants to become IT savvy - organise their calendar, address book, google reader, stumbleupon and bookmarks on the internet. Stir Management Accountants to plan and travel around the globe for business and pleasure. Is there anything more? Then I would like you to stir me up! You know where t

There is a news item on Accountancy Age on 31-Dec-2007 "Tesco Ireland and Hibernian are the two latest companies to joint the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) employer partnership scheme. The employer partnership scheme’s objective is to promote best practice in learning and development by working with employers to help chartered accountants employed in their businesses fulfill their CPD requirements." Click here to read more I feel that ICWAI should have tie ups with the employers in India, so that students pursing Cost & Management Accountancy will be focussed in this direction. Similarly the profession will get a boost since there will be a partnership by ICWAI with the industry. The career path of management accountants will be guided to rise in the corporate ladder. Vote on the poll and share your thoughts Opinion Polls & Market Research Did you like the post ? Subscribe to Management Accountant by Email Regards, Santosh Pu

I have been writing on the blog for quite sometime. So I decided to attempt on first video message. The message is more relevant who wants to make his career globally. Watch me http://accountant.blip.tv . The above video link in large picture Regards, Santosh Puthran "Some people look for things that went wrong and try to fix them. I look for things that went right and try to build on them." - From the book " Re-Image - Tom Peters " Did you like the post ? Subscribe to Management Accountant by Email You may also like to read Choosing an Accounting Qualification ICWAI vs CIMA Shortage of Accountants Calculate Move - Career in Management Accountancy Goal Setting your career Company Secretary

The largest, and the most complex organisation in Canada is the Government of Canada, says Mr Richard Monk, Chairman, CMA (Certified Management Accountants) Canada. “It makes over $200 billion in expenditures annually, manages a workforce of some 4,50,000 people, and provides some 1,600 different programs and services across Canada and around the globe” Such sheer size and complexity create significant challenges to comptrollership, financial management and accountability, he adds, during the course of a recent e-mail interaction with Business Line. CMA has ‘more than 37,000 CMAs and 10,000 CMA students,’ as www.cma-canada.org informs. And as the new chief of the body, when Mr Monk spoke of his priorities in the latest issue of www.managementmag.com, first came the aligning of ‘major governance initiatives,’ and second, the continuing ‘to cultivate relationships with international associations with similar values and services to those of CMA Canada.’ Click here to read more Did

The pleasant surprises and disappointment in education India in year 2007 according to Business Standard: SC stays quota in IITs and IIMs AICTE cracks whip on defaulting B-schools IIMs make admission process more transparent IIM Shillong takes off IIM-A and IIM-B get new directors B-school grads bag Ivy League salaries Higher budget allocation for education sector Prime Minister announces 8 new IITs; 7 new IIMs University of Mumbai plans listing on bourses Delhi HC upheld AICTE’s stand in CFA issue Click here to read more Did you like the post ? Subscribe to Management Accountant by Email Regards, Santosh Puthran You may also like to read News Makers Career

Europe English - Humour on the internet The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five year phase-in plan that would be known as "Euro-English". In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of the "k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20% shorter. In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated cha

Tax Cuts - A Simple Lesson In Economics This is how the cookie crumbles. Please read it carefully. Let’s put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh $7. The eighth $12. The ninth $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20.” So, now dinner for the ten only cost $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So, the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the ot

Top priority to power External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee (right) with Pawan Kumar Ruia, chairman of the Ruia group, in Calcutta on Saturday. (PTI) A staff reporter Calcutta, Dec. 22 : Adequate power generation is key to economic growth, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said today. “We cannot have high economic growth without adequate energy generation. The country currently generates 1,28,000MW of electricity. This is inadequate as a large section of our population still does not get electricity,” Mukherjee said while addressing a seminar organised by the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI). Backing the nuclear deal with the US, Mukherjee said the agreement is crucial to meet India’s energy need. “We must look at the civil use o

IT Deals for Students from Misco.co.uk - offers from just £5! The visitors to the MA blog have search words CA vs CIMA, ICWAI vs CIMA, ACCA vs CA, CPA vs ACCA. It is just like chasing a squirrel. Image: Three quarks daily So I searched on the internet to analyse whether British Qualification is better than American counter. The idea was to analyse how much leverage an accounting qualification gives when you want to make your career globally. As per ICAA (Australian Chartered Accountants) website , Approved Overseas Accounting Bodies The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (the Institute) has reciprocity agreements with the following overseas accounting bodies: The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants A legally constituted State Authority in the United States of America (the person having CPA

The accountants are so much in demand across the world. If you are a qualified accountant then you should consider career opportunities across the globe. The critical shortages faced are in Australia and New Zealand. Check in google . You will find plenty of opportunities in Africa or far east countries like Indonesia/Vietnam which will have salaries split up in dollars and local currency. The earning potential in these countries are quite high. You have to strike a balance with money and life style. Image Source: Inkcint Developed countries offer better option to settle down. Decide wisely. Regards, Santosh Puthran Do you like to be updated in Accountancy ? Subscribe to Management Accountant by Email Or Subscribe in a reader You may like to read Emerging Role of Management Accountants How to set goals in your career Australian Immigration - official website New Zealand Immigration - Official website Expats guide - Singapore RSS Feeds to keep you alive an

MUMBAI: As a first move towards making India the first country to adopt accounting standards on carbon emissions, the board of ICAI (The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) has constituted a group which will come up with the draft guidelines before March 31, 2008. The group, set up on December 11, will be headed by ICAI accounting standards board chairman, Amarjit Chopra. When contacted, Chopra said the group will look into development of accounting and disclosure practices on emissions trading. The group will study the full scope and relevance of the carbon market from India’s point of view. ICAI president Sunil Talati said, the group will seek clarity on how corporates need to treat the income earned from carbon credits. "There is a view that carbon credits should be recognised for the purpose of accounting after they have been traded. The group is likely to seek views of corporates like SRF and Coal India." Source : The Times of India Regards, Santosh Puthr

The major accounting institutes in UK are gathering evidence from members in a bid to persuade the government to protect the title accountant. In his blog, ICAEW chief executive Michael Izza said the CCAB institutes - ICAEW, ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA, and ICAS - were asking members to help back a bid to legally define the term accountant . The CCAB bodies have long been trying to persuade the government that people without proper qualifications should not be able to call themselves accountants. The DTI had previously said that the term 'chartered accountant' was recognised in legislation. Click here to read more In my earlier post on Professional Body , I found an interesting definition to the term. "A professional body or professional organization, also known as a professional association or professional society, is an organization, usually non-profit, that exists to further a particular profession, to protect both the public interest and the interests of professionals.

I had been reviewing the visitors of MA blog and there were visitors from place called "Mahape". I was surprised to see the result since they have been a regular visitors to MA blog. I wondered where this place and on search it is in Navi Mumbai, India. On Wikipedia, " Mahape or Mohope is a suburb of Navi Mumbai, India. It is also the name of a railway station on new Panvel - Karjat section of the Mumbai Suburban Railway, between Panvel and Khopoli." As a inquisitive visitor, I searched on google and the results were very astonishing. Leading companies in India have their offices in this place. Although, Mahape is a suburb of Navi Mumbai , how did the residents of Mahape did not write anything on wikipedia. "Business without advertising is winking a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but the girl doesn't." Even though Mahape has lot of credentials but unless you go ahead and search for this place, you will never know about. It is part

The International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC) issued an Interpretation, ‘IFRIC 13 Customer Loyalty Programmes’. The IFRIC is the successor to the Standards Interpretation Committee (SIC) of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and is the Interpretative arm of the IASB functioning much in the same way as our Accounting Standards Interpretation (ASI) does. IFRIC 13 was issued on June 28, 2007, and is applicable to accounting periods commencing on or after July 1, 2008. Loyalty programmes have been developed as customer relationship management exercises and are designed to tie a customer to a particular entity. These programmes typically offer incentives in the form of ‘free’ products and services, the quantum being dependent upon the products and services a customer has bought. Every time a customer purchases a product or service, points are credited which are redeemable for either own products or services or third party products or services. T

Reading and planning time (RAPT) is an additional 15-minute time allowance given to all students taking three-hour exam papers from December 2007 onwards. It is being introduced for all CAT Advanced level papers (except Paper 5) as well as ACCA Qualification papers in the Skills module at the Fundamentals level and all Professional level exams. WHAT CAN YOU DO IN RAPT? This additional time, to be spent at the beginning of each three-hour exam allows you to familiarise yourself with, and to navigate around, the exam paper. During RAPT you can read and understand the questions on the paper and begin to plan your answers before you start writing in your answer books. You can also use calculators to make some preliminary numerical calculations. RAPT begins when instruction is received from your centre supervisor. You must not open your question paper until advised to do so, and during RAPT you may only write or make notes on your question paper. You must not write anything in your a

TORONTO, Dec. 12 /CNW/ - KPMG Enterprise(TM) today released the results of its recent survey of private business' financial reporting needs. The survey results confirm the long-standing view that private businesses in Canada need a simplified accounting model reflective of the different information needs of the limited users of their financial statements. The positive news for Canada's accounting standard setters is that private businesses value the basic concepts of Canada's existing accounting framework, including the traditional historic cost measures of assets,liabilities, revenues and expenses. The ability to compare financial performance with others in the same industry is also important. However, there is less support for a number of recent developments in Canadian accounting standards including the evolution towards fair value measurements and disclosures. Further, there is only a limited perceived need to be able to benchmark financial performance against public c

NEW DELHI: The government is set to make it mandatory for companies to get all share allotments for non-cash considerations valued by an expert registered with the government. In a bid to bring transparency in share allotments for non-cash contributions like technology, intellectual property and other assets, the new company law proposed by the government seeks to introduce a new framework for valuation of corporate assets. The updated version of the Companies Bill, which the ministry of corporate affairs intends to introduce in Parliament during the Budget session, proposes independent fair valuation for different purposes, including mergers & acquisitions and restructuring. The valuer will be appointed by the audit committee of the company concerned. Click here to read more Regards, Santosh Puthran My StumbleUpon Page Do you like to remain updated in Accountancy? Subscribe to Management Accountant by Email You may also like to read Govt. plans to certify valuati

Jeff Bezos was a gifted child; at the age of three, tired of sleeping in a crib, he found a screwdriver and took the crib apart. He subsequently tinkered with models and with a Radio Shack electronics kit. Every summer Bezos stayed at his grandfather's ranch, where he would repair windmills and the tractor and brand cattle, among other tasks. An avid young inventor, he created a solar microwave and a door buzzer that alerted him when his siblings were entering his room. When asked who his heroes were in a Time magazine interview, Bezos cited Thomas Edison and Walt Disney. He visited Disney World six times and was impressed with Disney's powerful vision: "He knew exactly what he wanted to build and teamed up with a bunch of really smart people and built it" (December 27, 2003). Bezos was a model student who was profiled (under an assumed name) in the 1977 book entitled Turning on Bright Minds: A Parent Looks at Gifted Education, by Julie Ray. Bezos was named class v

Keeping pace with international practices, AS-22 was introduced by the Indian Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI) and deferred tax accounting was made mandatory for all Indian listed companies. As per AS-22, a company is liable to provide for deferred tax liability on the first day it accounts for such income. The basic premise being that revenues and expenses of an accounting period should meet matching principle and disparity in computing income for tax and book purposes should be appropriately resolved. Differences between the two sets of computation of income can be classified into two categories; permanent and timing differences. Permanent differences arise with respect to expenditure legitimately incurred but are wholly or partially disallowed for tax purposes. Such expenses do not give rise to deferred tax provision. Temporary differences are those that arise due to timing reasons. A typical example is provision for depreciation with varying rates for book purposes

A couple of days back, one of my friends asked me whether I had SAP FICO interview questions. The book "Configuring SAP R/3 FI/CO by David Nowak, Quentin Hurst" is for release 3.1. The concepts explained in the book is relevant in the current releases. Amazon.co.uk Widgets Some competency based questions Knowledge of the Organisation and Role How would you measure your success or failure in this job? What skills and personal qualities are essential for success in this role? What would you like to know about this organisation? What do you believe you can contribute to this organisation? What do you know about our industry? What do you know about our organisation? Why are you interested in working for our organisation? Why should I hire you? You will find the answers in the job description, company's website and people who are working in the organisation. The question why should I answer you is simple to answer when you relates your experiences and qualifica

Smile :- A curve that can set a lot of things straight. Office :- A place where you can relax after your strenuous home life. Yawn :- The only time some married men ever get to open their mouth. Etc. :- A sign to make others believe that you know more than you actually do. Committee :- Individuals who can do nothing individually and sit to decide that nothing can be done together. Experience :- The name men give to their mistakes. Atom Bomb :- An invention to end all inventions. Philosopher :- A fool who torments himself during life to be spoken of when dead. Optimist :- A person who starts taking bath if he accidentally falls into a river. Pessimist :- A person who says that O is the last letter in ZERO, instead of the first letter in word OPPORTUNITY . Miser :- A person who lives poor so that he can die rich. Father :- A banker provided by nature. Criminal :- A guy no different from the rest... except that he got caught. Boss :- Someone who i

India is spearheading the process of establishing accounting standards in emission trading. Even though enough carbon credits are being generated and transacted under the Kyoto Protocol, there are currently no international accounting standards on emissions. To enable India take the lead on this front, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) - a statutory body established under an Act of Parliament - is soon going to constitute an expert group to formulate a draft to establish accounting standards on emissions. Click here to read more It is good to see the an Indian body is in forefront of setting accounting standard. I do not have a clue what it is all about. Can someone comment on it. Regards, Santosh Puthran Do you like to remain updated in Accountancy? Subscribe to Management Accountant by Email You may also like to read Articles on IFRS on MA blog

Congrat's Ramesh on your 100th blog post. I am subscriber to your blog. Quality of life issues are often in the eye of the beholder. Yet in this age of global economic integration, executives and their families do place such factors as schooling, quality housing, health care, recreational amenities, and environment at the top of their list. Mercer Human Resource Consulting, which provides advice to multinational companies on international assignments, has come up with a global ranking of the world’s most livable cities based on 39 criteria ranging from personal safety to public transportation. Switzerland’s main commercial and cultural center, Zurich topped the 215 cities considered globally, followed by Geneva, Vancouver, and Vienna, which tied for third. In the Asia-Pacific region, Auckland, New Zealand, (5) led the pack, while Sydney (9) cracked the top 10. Meanwhile, in North America, Canadian cities such as Toronto and Ottawa fared better than U.S. ones, of which Honolulu

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) has expressed a number of concerns over the complexity of financial statements. Reported in Accountancy Age, Charles Tilley, chief executive of CIMA, claims that companies are not putting 80 per cent of their assets on balance sheets and that there is not enough disclosure on cash flow. Click here to read more Regards, Santosh Puthran Do you like to remain updated in Accountancy? Subscribe to Management Accountant by Email You may also like to read Articles on IFRS on MA blog