To help meet the demand, the Hong Kong Institute of CPAs is planning to launch a financial controllership course in 2014 to accelerate the transition from auditor to financial controller. 

“We found that a lot of our practising members, once they qualified with a CPA firm, which is a typical route, take quite a long time to convert into a proper controller,” says Raphael Ding, chief executive and registrar of the Institute. “We want to speed up the process for the benefit of not only our members but also their employers.” 

The course will emphasize the set of skills needed by a successful financial controller. “We are not just talking about keeping the books. We are talking about things like how do you go about raising finance, which is key to all businesses; how do you manage your staff; how do you develop and make full use of databases,” Ding says. 

Treasury management will be another important subject, he adds. “Fundraising is hard, but also when you find yourself with surplus cash you need to know what banking products are available out there for you to maximize your return on working capital.” 

The Institute has spent quite some time developing this programme to ensure that it offers practical assistance. “We want to make sure that it provides hands-on and practical oriented training,” says Susanna Chiu, the Institute’s immediate past president and director of Li & Fung (China) Development. 

The workshop facilitators, she adds, will be chief financial officers and finance directors as well as members of the Institute. “We intend this to be something that can assist the transition for someone who is already a professional accountant in business but wants to advance one’s skills and career,” Chiu says. 

The course, she adds, will feature a number of modules, including mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings and cost accounting.

Source: HKICPA's APlus Magazine – October 2013