Accounting
Officer Requirements
Article by:
Hugh Knight
- The
Accounting Officer
must be a paid up member of one of the following professional
institutes:
- The
Institute of Administration & Commerce of Southern Africa IAC*
- Auditors
registered under the Auditing Profession Act, 2005. CA(SA)
- The
Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. CIMA
- The
Southern African Institute of Chartered Accountants.
- The
Southern African Institute of Chartered Secretaries and
Administrators. CIS
- The
Chartered Association of Certified Accountants. ACCA
- The
Southern African Institute of Business Accountants.
- South
African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA).
- Chartered
Institute of Business Management (MCIBM only)
*IAC
– limited to holders of one of the following IAC diplomas –
Accountancy, Cost and Management Accounting, Company Secretaries.
- Valid
and up to date institute membership is the essential requirement –
having an accounting degree or diploma is not enough to comply with the
Close Corporations Act.
- When
registering a CC,
a letter of consent from the accounting officer must
be submitted. This letter must include the Institute membership or
practice number, which CIPRO will verify.
- You
should confirm the membership with the office of the particular
institute.
The
essential role of the accounting officer is to sign off the financial
statements, confirming that the statements are in conformity with the
accounting records of the CC.
There are several distinct stages in getting to the signing off:
1. Bookkeeping - compiling the
accounting records from the source documents (the “slips”)
2. Drawing up a trial balance –
a list of the final balances in each account
3. Compiling the financial
statements – the income statement and balance sheet
4. Verifying that the financial
statements conform to the accounting records. This is the point at which you
must have an accounting officer.
Items
1, 2 and 3 could be done by anyone, including the accounting officer.
Up
front, you
must agree with the accounting officer who will carry out
the respective duties. You should clarify in writing who will perform
each of the respective duties.
Expect the accounting officer to charge an annual fee between R1 000
and R2 500
The
members of the CC
have the right to appoint the accounting officer. You
do not have to accept the accounting officer appointed by the people
who registered the CC.
To change accounting officer, you need to
complete a form CK2A, which you can download from the CIPRO website, www.cipro.co.za
Ideally,
the proposed accounting officer
should be someone you know and trust,
or be recommended by someone you know.
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