DipIFR – Diploma in International Financial Reporting

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The DipIFR exam (Diploma in International Financial Reporting Standards) is not just an exam, passing which allows you to get a diploma and find a better paying job. This professional qualification was coined by the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) specifically to meet the demand for accountants who can keep accounts understandable not only in one particular country, but in any other country in the world.

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Thanks to the presence of a professional of this level in the organization, it will be easier for foreign investors to make decisions about investing in this enterprise. And the ability to prepare financial statements in accordance with IFRS will be something like a visiting card of an enterprise, evidence of the high level of its managers and ordinary employees.

Now this exam is taken not only in the CIS countries, but also in countries such as the USA and Great Britain, although it is there that all modern accounting standards are developed. For our accountants, passing the DipIFR exam actually means getting a professional education, because the so-called "Soviet accounting", on the principles of which the vast majority of accountants work, is an accounting department that provides information necessary for government officials, but not suitable for the management of business owners or potential investors.

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Our accountants, unfortunately, do not understand the difference between tax and financial accounting, and still think that accounting is needed only in order to have something to show to inspectors from the Ministry of Taxes, otherwise they will be fined a large amount. Managers and owners of enterprises do not consider financial statements as an important source of information about their enterprise. They prefer to keep their own, so-called "black book", which is more like a cash book than normal reporting, consisting of a balance sheet, more precisely, a Statement of Financial Position, a Profit and Loss Statement, a Statement of Cash Flows and a Statement of Changes in Capital.

Naturally, the lack of normal financial reporting within the enterprise is an additional factor that leads to losses, because there is no competent management of the enterprise.

According to the Western classification, accounting is carried out by two types of workers: bookkeepers and accountants. To be an accountant you need to get a professional qualification. However, in our country, the vast majority of accountants do not have professional qualifications, since even a diploma from the State Economic University, at best, guarantees only knowledge of the same “Soviet accounting”. So it turns out that most of our accountants according to the Western classification are simply bookkeepers. In fact, in our country there is no normal system of professional training of accountants. However, if our accountant has passed the DipIFR exam, we can confidently guarantee that he is a specialist of the same level as a Western accountant.

How is the preparation of accountants for the DipIFR exam? Most of the companies that specialize in this type of training have adopted a method that the training participants themselves call “galloping across Europe”. Trainings are held on weekends for 5-6 hours. In one day, training participants go through several accounting standards at once, although after an hour or an hour and a half, the perception of the material by the training participant is almost zero. Thus, despite the fact that a large number of training hours are declared, in fact 60-70% of the hours are thrown into the wind. Naturally, after that, the percentage of training participants who passed the exam on the first try is almost zero.

This training technique is somewhat reminiscent of fast food - fast, but useless and even harmful. After failing an exam, people have a strong belief that it is impossible to pass this exam and it is better to leave everything as it was.

In our opinion, it is better to organize the preparation for the exam according to the principle of studying at the institute or at school. That is, classes should last no more than 2 hours, and take place 2-3 times a week.

The educational process according to our methodology consists of three large parts.

During the first, introductory part, the participants of the training get acquainted with the format and methods of preparing financial statements. As a result, already after the first month of training, participants can put into practice the acquired knowledge by starting the preparation of reports at their enterprises.

During the second part, the most commonly used standards are taught and problems from various textbooks are solved.

During the third part, the final preparation for the exams is carried out, problems from previous exams are solved and 8 trial exams are held.

During the entire training, issues related to the practical application of standards are covered in parallel. So, after passing, say, standards related to financial instruments, we show transactions according to the new national chart of accounts, and also teach accountants to calculate the effective interest rate in Excel.

All this is done to ensure that accountants who have passed the exam and received a diploma avoid embarrassing situations with the practical application of the acquired knowledge.

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