75 Non-Conventional Areas of Practice for CA/CPA/CMA/CS

There are various CA/CPAs, CMAs, CSs, who are not inclined to practice in the conventional areas, and they keep on searching the non-conventional areas of practice. If you Google about the non-conventional practice areas, you will find hundreds of blogs and pages listing out various non-conventional services.

It is said that if you want to succeed, don’t do the different things, but do the things differently. This is very much aptly applicable to the practice areas. Basis our training, we need to be very much clear about out boundaries i.e., what we are expert in by virtue of our training and qualification as CA/CPA/CMA/CS. Our boundaries are:

• Financial Accounting & Reporting
• Auditing & Assurance
• Tax & Regulation (Corporate & Commercial)
• Finance & Financial Control & Analytics (Management Accounting)

These are the four pillars over which we professionals are standing. Apart from the above core subjects, we also get induction to the subjects like business strategy, technology, data analytics, economics, communication, business & legal drafting etc. The beauty of CA/CPA, CMA & CS is that we get a very much fine blend of knowledge and training in the above areas, which makes us competent to manage the overall business or advise or support the C-suite executives as well as business owners / industrialists in core management functions.

Although, we may not have super expertise in law like the lawyers or in corporate finance like CFAs. But we are always at the helm of the business affairs as businesses tend to go for the preventive management and growth. Lawyers are required at the stage of litigation, CFAs are required for hardcore financial analysis, Actuaries are required for designing insurance products, but we (CA/CPA/CMA/CS) advise over the business decisions considering the fine blend of legal implications, tax implications, financial implications, cost implications, management & internal controls, risk management etc. and therefore we are the most sought first line advisors to the businesses.

Now coming to the practice areas, we should always be in our boundaries and optimally use the fine blend of the knowledge and skills which we have acquired in CA/CPA, CMA and CS. If you Google about the non-conventional areas, you find hundreds of blogs listing out various services, but I felt to sensitize you that the non-conventional areas can be within our conventional practice areas only. What we need to do is to shift our focus from the commoditized practice areas such as ITR, GSTR etc., to the advisory based practice areas, so that the perceived value by the client will be high.

Within the core areas like accounting, auditing, tax, regulation, finance, management accounting, as well as non-core areas such as strategy, technology, data analytics, economics etc., we can find out various non-conventional areas where we can provide high-end advisory services.

The first step to foray into the non-conventional practices is to develop your functional niche as well as industry niche. Either is okay, but both are desirable. For an example, my niche is international taxation and international contracts structuring from tax angle for EPC projects / engineering & construction industry.

75 non-conventional practice areas within our boundaries of training, knowledge, skills, and expertise are listed in my blog, which can be considered by the professionals for developing the practice further in those areas. Since the article will become long here, it is not reproduced. Please click to read the full article on my blog