This is the fourth in our series on certifications for accountants. Previously, we’ve covered the CFP, CMA, and CFE so if you’re not sure what you want to be when you grow up, be sure to check those out.
So, what’s the CIA all about?
Education Requirement
CIA candidates must hold a bachelor’s degree. Unlike the CPA exam, which often requires certain coursework or a minimum master’s level education in accounting, the CIA certification has no such requirements. The CIA exam is administered year-round by the Institute of Internal Auditors.
Professional Requirements
Those interested in pursuing a CIA designation must have at least 24 months (2 years) professional experience in internal auditing or its equivalent. Equivalent experience would be in the areas audit/assessment disciplines, including external auditing, quality assurance, compliance, and internal control. Candidates with a master’s degree can substitute their degree for one year of experience. Candidates may sit for the CIA exam before satisfying the experience requirement but will not be certified until meeting this requirement.
Career Options
Certified Internal Auditors can be in public or private industry and experience a diverse workload checking controls, planning the audit process for their company, testing, and compiling reports. Internal auditors may also give feedback on management policies and procedures based on their findings.
Compensation and Other Benefits
CIAs can expect to make a median yearly salary of $55k freshly certified and around $100k with 20 years of experience, making it a cozy career choice for auditors (Payscale). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, growth in auditing and accounting positions is expected to rise 18% between 2006 and 2016, which gives CIAs a certain level of job security not seen in other industries. Equally important, executive responsibility attached to Sarbanes-Oxley means CIAs are that much more critical to an organization by isolating incidents of fraud or waste.
Obviously, CIAs are not in it for the money but for fraud-fighters who love information systems, technology and auditing, the CIA is a safe, always-in-need designation worth looking into!
cant believe how fake is this post …..hope these people turn on their phone or computer and see what is really happenning in accounting firms. too many accountants will be the theme fof next century
fof next century? covfefe?
Ok so, what is really happening? Why don’t you share your opinion on the future of the profession.
Based on the people I know in PA, most firms are very short staffed and as a result, are unable to adequately serve clients.
Your thoughts?
I’m calling BS on this. Nobody turns away work. All the firm has to do is tell the staff to work more. They will do it and if they don’t, then the managers gets stuck doing it. Staff is on salary and bonuses are discretionary, so there is NO additional cost to the CPA firm to take on more work, even if it’s crap work. I still see big firms bidding on garbage clients and low balling the fee.
There is a point where it’s economically not cost effective
Every job has an opportunity cost, if you have garbage clients, you use up resources and time that cannot be devoted to good clients.
Lets say you have 100 staff, and 20 managers, and 10 partners, each staff can be worked 70 hours max per week, Managers say they can be worked 60 hours, and Partners willing to work 50, that means you have a max of 8,700 hours of work a week, lets assume you are 40% tax, 40% audit, and 20% consulting, that means you have a max of 3,480 hours for tax and audit each, and 1,740 for consulting in a week
You’ll want each of those hours to go to high value clients, clients that earn you the most profit
You will turn down clients who are lower value if you fill up with higher value clients
This is most of the problem for qualified professionals. Post covid, even prior, jobs requiring 37.5-40 hours a week were more available and there was no expectation of 50-70hr weeks.