How do your earnings stack up against other CAs? It’s worth taking a look at the headline findings of the latest CA ANZ Remuneration Survey, our cover story in the April-May 2019 issue of Acuity. 

Chartered accountants remain one of the best paid professions in the community, with an average annual income of A$175,000 in Australia and NZ$155,842 in New Zealand, about triple the average workers’ income in both nations.

One surprise from the survey is that the biggest growth in remuneration (in percentage terms) typically happens between five and 10 years after CAs complete their designation.

“Where we see really good accountants clicking through the gears and being promoted are the ones that have the business partnering skills, not just being technically good at the role,” says Craig Malcolm, associate director – accounting and finance at Hudson in New Zealand.

And with the growth of artificial intelligence (AI), those accountants who want to future-proof their careers need to have skills above and beyond the technical basics.

“If you look at who’s in demand at the moment, it’s cyber-risk specialists,” says Amanda Wilson of Zeno Consulting. “The other area that I’d look to is the broader socio-economic issues, such as the move to sustainability strategy, so developing skills in that area would be beneficial as well.”

However, there is still demand for CAs who are highly experienced in more traditional areas of risk, compliance, remediation and audit.

“Especially for those who can demonstrate strong integrity,” says Andrew Hanson, director NSW for recruitment firm Robert Walters. “Employers want chartered accountants who can demonstrate ethical integrity.”

“Employers want chartered accountants who can demonstrate ethical integrity.”

Future-proofing your skills

Accounting and finance professionals keen to future-proof their careers will benefit from the special section on education in this issue. Developing soft skills in leadership, communication, creative thinking and ethics is invaluable for career progression.

Acuity speaks to CAs who have undertaken further study about the courses they chose and how that knowledge benefits them in their day-to-day work.

There is also a list of useful short courses to consider in 2019 from Melbourne Business School, Victoria University of Wellington, INSEAD Singapore and more.

Building trust

Ethical integrity is essential for accountants to do their jobs and best serve their clients. But with the public losing faith in previously respected institutions, from parliament to banks, how can CAs successfully bridge that trust gap?

In CA ANZ’s The Future of Trust: New Technology Meets Old Values report, released in March 2019, CA ANZ President Stephen Walker FCA throws down a challenge to chartered accountants to build trust by putting ethics at the heart of all their decisions.

“The starting point for our personal, professional and organisational decision-making must be ‘let’s do the right thing’,” Walker says.

He stresses that finance professionals need to shift their mindset around the framework for business decisions from the legalistic approach of ‘can we do this?’ to the more ethical question of ‘should we do this?’

“A failure to stop and ask that basic question – ‘I may have the right to do this, but is it the right thing to do?’ – underpins many of today’s crises of trust and falling faith in authorities and institutions,” Walker says.

The need for accountants to rise to the challenge of bridging the trust gap is a global one, and you can find out more about where CAs shine, and where accountants can do better, in “Building Trust” in the April-May issue.

Read more

• Find out how your earnings stack up Go to the 2018 CA ANZ Remuneration Survey calculator.
• Read the April-May 2019 issue of Acuity here.  
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