Chartered Accountants must meet the highest standards of financial expertise, strategic thinking, business insight and leadership. The CA profession’s commitment to excellence and the public interest provides the crucial foundation for this trust. In fact, Canadian CAs are recognized around the world for high professional standards and expertise. Becoming a CA requires:

A university degree including 17 specified courses
30 months of practical employment experience with an Institute-approved training office
Completion of the Institute’s Professional Program
Passing the national Uniform Evaluation (UFE) – one of the most demanding professional
examinations in the world

Regulation

Throughout their professional careers, CAs are subject to ongoing regulation to safeguard the public interest. This demanding regimen includes:

Mandatory practice inspection and professional liability insurance programs for CAs in public accounting
The enforcement of exacting Rules of Professional Conduct
Continuing Professional Development requirements
Comprehensive public oversight and discipline mechanisms

The profession of Chartered Accountancy in Ontario is governed by the Chartered Accountants Act, 1956. Public accountancy (activity that lends credibility to financial statements) is governed in Ontario by the Public Accounting Act, 2004. Standards of practice are enforced by the Institute’s Rules of Professional Conduct and bylaws. Oversight is provided by the Public Accountants Council of Ontario, under which the Institute is to date the only recognized accounting body authorized to issue public accounting licences.

About Public Accounting

Public accounting is the business of expressing independent assurance on financial statements and other financial information of enterprises of every size, to ensure that the information truly reflects their financial condition. Large and small investors, financial institutions and other third parties then use that assurance to help them make informed investment and lending decisions. Many of those decisions involve investments in RSPs, mutual or pension funds – making the practise of public accounting relevant to nearly all Canadians.

Where CAs Work

Public accounting is a core CA activity and always will be. However, some two-thirds of Ontario’s 33,000 CAs now practise outside public accounting in positions in businesses of every size (CEOs, CFOs, VPs Finance, etc.), in government, academe or the not-for-profit sector. In fact, a July 2007 Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) analysis of the Report on Business Top 1,000 companies showed that more than half of those companies have a CFO who is a CA – and that seven of the top 10 companies have a CA as a CFO.

CA practitioners serve every corner of Ontario, through some 1,500 sole practitioner offices, 2,000 local partnerships and over 150 regional and 150 national firm offices. Public practice CAs are involved in a wide range of complex disciplines – from finance and taxation, to assurance, performance measurement and information technology.