Professional accounting body

A professional accounting body is an organization or association of accountants in a particular jurisdiction. Usually a person needs to be a member of such professional body to hold out to the public of the jurisdiction as an accountant. The designations for qualified accountants vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, such as Cost and Management Accountant (CMA), Chartered Accountant (CA/ACA), Chartered Certified Accountant (CCA), Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Practising Accountant (CPA), Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA) or Chartered Public Finance Accountant (CPFA).

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Accounting
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Major types Audit Budget Cost Forensic Financial Fund Governmental Management Social Tax
Key concepts Accounting period Accrual Constant purchasing power Economic entity Fair value Going concern Historical cost Matching principle Materiality Revenue recognition Unit of account
Selected accounts Assets Cash Cost of goods sold Depreciation / Amortization (business) Equity Expenses Goodwill Liabilities Profit Revenue
Accounting standards Generally-accepted principles Generally-accepted auditing standards Convergence International Financial Reporting Standards International Standards on Auditing Management Accounting Principles
Financial statements Annual report Balance sheet Cash-flow Equity Income Management discussion Notes to the financial statements
Bookkeeping Bank reconciliation Debits and credits Double-entry system FIFO and LIFO Journal Ledger / General ledger Trial balance
Auditing Financial Internal Firms Report Sarbanes–Oxley Act
People and organizations Accountants Accounting organizations Luca Pacioli
Development History Research Positive accounting Sarbanes–Oxley Act
Misconduct Creative Earnings management Error account Hollywood Off-balance-sheet Two sets of books

Some countries have a single professional accounting body while others have several. If there is more than one body, such bodies may or may not compete with each other; in some countries, professional accounting bodies are divided according to their field of activity. For example, India has two professional accounting bodies: the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India deals with only financial accounting,while the Institute of Cost Accountants of India deals with cost accounting & management accounting.