SWITCHING FROM PUBLIC ACCOUNTING TO INDUSTRY OR AUDIT ADVISORY? MAXIMIZE YOUR SUCCESS WITH DUAL CERTIFICATION

Education for chartered accountants in Europe is excellent, and many countries have specific qualifications for chartered accountants offered by local accounting bodies. If you are planning a switch to industry or advisory, however, you should avoid the myth that only your audit qualification is sufficient to maximize your career.

Although management accounting is part of most audit education curricula, it is viewed from the lens of an auditor and not so much from a management accountant's perspective.

Working as an accounting and finance professional in industry or advisory requires different skills than a chartered accountant performing company audits. Therefore, upskilling before your transition is essential to preparing yourself for a role on the other side of the table.

Switching from auditing to management accounting in industry

Public accountants work externally, performing audits. They are not involved in daily operations or decisions that support implementing a company's strategy. The focus of their job is to ensure that the organization is complying with appropriate regulations and requirements.

You can see that the roles and day-to-day job responsibilities of these two types of accountants are very different. Essentially, the management accountant helps the company make money, while the public accountant helps the company stay in compliance.

When you work for an audit firm, you are the organization's core product delivering a healthy revenue stream on an annual basis. When you work in a finance role in industry, however, you are not the product anymore. You are now working for a supporting department as overhead, and in order to deliver high value to the organization, you need a different mindset and skillset.

As an auditor, you spend a short period within an organization, and you are mainly looking backward. After that, you leave for another client, not knowing what will happen with your recommendations. As a management accountant, you look more into the future and enable the business to execute its strategy. You have more influence, and it's about adding value and delivering results. Based on data, you need to "predict" the future, which requires a holistic view and a strategic business mindset on top of technical accounting and finance skills.

Another big difference: you need to be more creative. As an accountant, you were used to following the rules strictly. As a management accountant, you must comply with the laws, but management accounting is more about being strategic and having the ability to think outside the box to find solutions.

One mistake accountants make after transitioning to a corporate role is that they step in too late in business projects. They may analyze a proposal, cut down some costs, or even reject an investment decision. To be most effective, a management accountant must work with the business, engaging in investment proposals from the beginning, and influencing and supporting the project to drive revenue. If you see challenges along the road, you start becoming creative and deliver solutions to the business that can make a positive investment decision more likely and a project more profitable. It's all about combining your excellent accounting and finance skills with a perfect understanding of the business. You need to have business acumen and a holistic view of how companies work. In this regard, IMA’s CMA? (Certified Management Accountant) certification can give you more knowledge on how businesses work than most accountants have and more about accounting than most business people have.

Switching from audit to advisory services

Many auditors are considering switching to advisory, either in their current firm or another one. The benefit of switching to another firm is you make a clean break with auditing and can have a fresh start as an advisor. As an auditor, accounting concepts, tax, etc., don't hold any secrets for you. But are you able to utilize data and tell the story behind the numbers? How good are your technology skills? Can you streamline processes and work with business teams on investment decisions from a finance, strategic, and business perspective, focusing on adding value to your client's company?

Another challenge for auditors switching to advisory, so I’ve heard, is working with members of other teams who lack the same finance skills as you have and who have a different perspective on things. You are no longer in your audit team where everyone has the same knowledge. This requires different communication skills, requiring you to tell the story behind the numbers in your advice and to translate it to their way of thinking. Your proposal can be correct, but if you cannot convince board members, marketing professionals, or sales teams about your direction, you will have difficulty influencing decisions and bringing value. It's critical, therefore, to learn practices in areas like planning and analysis, technology and analytics, and risk management from a business perspective – along with, of course, your foundational business acumen.

International recognition

Talking to CFOs here in Europe, I know many of them need finance professionals who can work in their organization's international setting and partner with colleagues from around the world, talking the same international language of business.

Credentials are necessary for finance, and when managers, clients, or colleagues are looking at your profile or email signature, the initials after your name give them an impression of your skills. In addition, in multinationals, you often work in international virtual teams located worldwide. So, you need to adapt to that situation and make sure your skills fit in and are recognized straight from the start. This situation has only accelerated due to the pandemic, resulting in companies hiring employees across borders to work in virtual teams.

In Europe, most chartered accountant certifications are only recognized in their own country, and as soon as you (virtually) cross the border, this advantage ends. This is just one reason why you need an internationally recognized certification like the CMA on top of your local one. This gives you the best of both worlds.

Dual certification

There are a number of valued and respected accounting and finance certifications for professionals, from the local chartered accounting credentials for auditors available across Europe to the more global CMA for management accountants. Holding either type of certification is proof an individual has the education, skills, and experience to handle a wide range of accounting, finance, and auditing-related matters. Combining the designations is also an excellent way to add international recognition on top of your local qualification and prepare yourself for a role as a management accountant.

After earning a local European certification, acquiring the CMA demonstrates holders have varied and essential skills and expertise. It further signifies to a prospective employer that the holder is highly ambitious, motivated, committed to lifelong continuing education, and ready to work in accounting and finance in a multinational.

Opportunities are ample when you prepare for a role on the other side of the table, from adding management accounting competencies into your skillset to adjusting yourself to delivering value to the company rather than serving as the finance gatekeeper.

So, when you decide for yourself to make the switch, start planning for it now. Stop dreaming about leaving audit and make it happen. Enroll in the CMA program and maximize your career. Become dual-certified and land that great job in industry or advisory!

Alain Mulder is Senior Director Europe Operations at IMA? (Institute of Management Accountants). He can be reached at [email protected]