My Last Edition of Accountancy - Epilogue

Re: "I wonder if I should preserve it for posterity?"

Answer: No, I have already binned it!

My Last Edition of Accountancy

My last edition of Accountancy Magazine has arrived today.

I wonder if I should preserve it for posterity?

Here Comes Economia

The ICAEW have recently announced the name of their new in house magazine that will replace "Accountancy".

It will be called Economia.

Quote:

"As you may be aware, in February 2012 we are launching a new member magazine to replace accountancy as part of the annual ICAEW membership. The new all member magazine is called economia.

Why have we chosen the name economia?

This is the name of the figure at the heart of our logo who has represented ICAEW since its inception over a hundred years ago. She embodies the values of the profession which are so important to chartered accountants today. 

economia will reflect these values, providing the latest analysis and commentary on financial and accountancy news, essential technical updates and the most up-to-date business, management and economic trends. Plus, a whole lot more."

It is interesting to see that Wolters Kluwer have retained the brand name "Accountancy" for their magazine (which ICAEW members will have to pay for as from February 2012 if they still wish to receive it).

Christie Malry on FCAblog is worried about finding a decent URL, it seems the main ones are owned by non ICAEW organisations (why didn't the ICAEW check this first?).

I have checked and the Economia url is still available with the "xxx" adult extension, together with org.uk and me.uk.

As tempted as I am to buy them up, this time I will let that opportunity pass:)

Oh what the hell, I can't resist, I have now bought www.economia.org.uk!

Accountancy Asleep At The Wheel

Kudos to Christie Malry, of FCAblog, for highlighting Accountancy's faux pas over their article about Anton Colella being appointed CEO of ICAS.

As Christie points out, Anton has been CEO of ICAS since 2006.

I dare say that Accountancy may not be delighted to have this error so publicly pointed out, and could possibly strike Christie from their subscription list.

Oh, hang on a minute, Accountancy will be charging for their services next year (as the ICAEW has parted ways with them). Therefore it is up to Christie and others as to whether they choose to continue to subscribe to the magazine (£79.20 per annum), and/or pay the absurd charge of £239 for access to their website.

Can you guess what they will choose to do children?

The Road To Nowhere

As noted on this site in July, the ICAEW is parting company with CCH wrt publishing a monthly magazine for its membership and will use another publishing house.

As from February 2012 Accountancy (as published by CCH) will be subject to a number of changes:

- Instead of being free to all ICAEW members, Accountancy will be £79.20 per annum (£99 to non-members)

- The previously free Accountancy website will now only be available for an annual subscription of £239

- The website address has switched from www.accountancymagazine.com to www.accountancylive.com.

Given that ICAEW members resent having to pay (within their subscriptions) for a magazine that is invariably binned still in its shrink wrap cover, I cannot see that they will be prepared to stump up an extra £79.20 per annum for another magazine covering the same issues that their new Institute magazine will presumably cover.

As for charging £239 to access the website, well that's just daft!

Accountancy Parts Ways With ICAEW

Accountancy Magazine have announced that they will relaunch the magazine in January 2012 to widen access to accounting and finance professionals, and that the 10 year contract with the ICAEW will end.

Cathy Wolfe, CEO of Wolters Kluwer UK, says:

"The strong growth of Wolters Kluwer's digital publishing means that we see a great future for Accountancy magazine on multiple platforms. We plan to take the journal in new directions, to meet the evolving needs of accountants and a wider group of finance professionals.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

The relaunch will follow the ending of the current 10-year contract under which Accountancy has been published by CCH as the official journal of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. This publishing association is ending by mutual agreement, allowing Wolters Kluwer and ICAEW each to pursue their respective publishing plans.

At the same time, Wolters Kluwer is in discussion with ICAEW to identify areas where we will continue to work together."

This gives rise to a few interesting questions:

1 Given that the magazine will no longer be the official journal of the ICAEW, may we now expect more critical articles about the the ICAEW as from next year?

2 Does this mean that the ICAEW members will no longer be forced to pay for the magazine, and may in fact have their annual subscriptions reduced? I guarantee we will see no reduction in membership subscriptions (even if the magazine is no longer sent out to the membership)!

3 Are the ICAEW going to launch their own magazine, if so at what cost to the membership?

Re questions 2 & 3, here is part of the answer (as per the ICAEW site)

"From February 2012, PCP will take over a suite of existing ICAEW communications reaching over 156,000 members and students in the UK and internationally. PCP will build a significant publishing team that will be responsible for eight different member and student magazines and linked website channels. As part of the agreement, PCP will also be launching a new magazine, in print, digital and online formats, that will be provided free of charge to ICAEW Chartered Accountants, students and affiliates.

Robin Fieth, Executive Director of ICAEW said “Our tender process began at the end of 2010 and involved many leading publishing groups and customer publishing agencies. PCP offered us a unique and innovative solution to develop our publications in a way that will help drive forward our brand and reinforce ICAEW as a world leader of the accountancy and finance profession – they were a natural agency to partner with.”

Dan Davey, Managing Director of PCP said “To win a long-term, multi-million pound contract with a superbrand such as ICAEW in our first year is testament to the unparalleled opportunity that we, as part of the Progressive group of companies, can offer clients. It was clear right from the start of the tender process that ICAEW and PCP, together, could build a market-leading proposition that will set a new standard in business-to-business and membership communication.”

Factoid: The new magazine is not "free" (despite what the ICAEW says), the costs of publication and delivery are built into the annual ICAEW subscription (whether or not the member actually wants the magazine).

It will be interesting to see if the new magazine suffers the same fate as Accountancy currently suffers in the hands of many of the members of the ICAEW, namely being cast into the bin still in its plastic wrapper.

Cost Saving Suggestion

Given that the ICAEW made a loss of £1,909K in 2007, I assume that they are looking for ways of saving money in order to avoid raising my members' subscriptions (oh, my mistake, we are being asked to vote for an increased in subs of 4%).

I note that the accounts state that communications expenditure increased by 71%, mainly due to the provision of Accountancy to all members. I can't see in the accounts how much the figure actually is though.

Given that all the qualified accountants that I know simply throw the magazine in the bin, unopened.

Why not stop sending out accountancy to members?

Accountancy Auction Now Closed

The auction of my collection of Accountancy magazines has now closed.

My congratulations to the highest bidder who, by bidding £100 and offering to pick them up from me, has won the auction.

Accountancy Auction

My thanks to Martin Waller of The Times, for featuring my Accountancy auction for the third time in his City Diary.

The auction closes this Tuesday at 17:00.

Accountancy Auction

The auction of my collection of Accountancy magazines will close at 17:00 this Tuesday 10th April.

The highest bid received, so far, is £100.

Praise Indeed

I see that The Times reports that Accountancy, the official organ of the ICAEW, has described me as "meticulous".

High praise indeed!

In other news, I have today received a bid of £100 for my copies of Accountancy, dating back to 1984; any other bids?

The Times

My thanks to Martin Waller, of The Times, for helping to spread the word about the back editions of Accountancy that I have for sale.

In the event that I actually manage to sell them, I will be happy to send a percentage of the earnings to him.

However, the best offer I have had so far is £0!

Accountancy

I have almost every edition of Accountancy magazine printed, going back to late 1984, they are in good condition.

What am I bid?

Ethics

Despite a recent report in Accountancy Age, quote:

"The ICAEW is revamping its syllabus for 2007, with a focus on ethics and allowing employees to choose modules relevant for their trainees".

It seems that the ICAEW will not be setting a separate Ethics paper in the revamped syllabus. This is somewhat baffling, as in 2005 the ICAEW had decided that the subject of Ethics was so important that it deserved a separate paper.

Whilst Ethics can be covered to a limited extent in the other papers, the ICAEW has sent entirely the wrong signal to the world by not setting a specific paper on the subject.

Frost Selected For Honour

My thanks to my ICAEW colleagues who nominated me for the AccountingWEB New Year's Honours awards for "services to the opposition".

"Qualified accountant and AccountingWEB member Ken Frost was recommended by some of his fellow members for an honour. With a degree in economics from Edinburgh University, Frost joined KPMG in 1984 where he gained his accountancy qualifications.

With several years audit experience in businesses including Philips and De Beers, Frost is best known for his outspoken comments on the ICAEW. He has been most vocal in his opposition to the institute's attempts to merge with other accountancy organisations.

In 2004, Frost set up the 'Stop the Merger' website where he regularly voices his opinion on the issue. Frost is currently seeking support to stand as a candidate for the ICAEW council.

Member's reason for award:

'Sir Ken Frost sounds about right. He has done the most for the ICAEW in recent times and his messages now command widespread support amongst its members and students'"

The Numbers Game

It was reported last week that domestic ICAEW member numbers have all but stood still over the last year.

The Professional Oversight Board's recent survey, Key Facts and Trends in the Accountancy Profession, shows that domestic member numbers for the ICAEW grew by a mere 350 over the last 12 months or 0.3%.

However, ACCA membership rose from 56,837 to 59,059 over the same period, and CIMA grew from 51,386 to 53,697; growth rates of 3.9% and 4.4% respectively.

ACCA also trounces the ICAEW in terms of its age profile, with 70% of members under 45 years old, whilst the ICAEW and ICAS both have around 50% over 45 years old.

As we know, the ICAEW preferred method of addressing this stagnation in membership has been that of merging with other bodies. This method, because it dilutes the brand value of the qualification, was rejected by the membership last year.

However, I have been discussing with Dr Jeff Wooller (founder of the Ginger Group - not ICAEW approved) another solution.

We believe that we need to offer a solution which addresses both the needs of the market, and maintains the brand image of the ACA and FCA qualifications.

The ICAEW needs to offer the market what it wants, namely a tiered membership pitched at different levels. We should offer two additional qualifications, each with its own set of designatory letters:

• An accounting technician qualification, which would be very popular overseas and rival the CAT qualification of ACCA.



• A non practising qualification, at a higher level than technician, for those who do not wish to endure a training contract. This again would be very popular overseas, and would compete directly with the CAT of the ACCA. It would also be a cheaper and more practical alternative than MBA courses.

Thus the ICAEW could compete in the entire market place, without losing the brand value of its existing qualifications. Future growth rates in the ACCA and CIMA may plummet and the ICAEW would have a global qualification to rival the MBA.

However, we would first need to find out from leading ICAEW members, in business rather than in practice, what they would want from such qualifications. We believe that the ICAEW Faculties would be ideal vehicles for such research.

It will be interesting to see the reactions from the ICAEW competitors to our proposal, an attack would indicate that we have a winning proposal.

Honorary Fellowship

My thanks to Dr Jeff Wooller, President of the Institute of Professional Financial Managers (IPFM), for awarding me an honorary fellowship of the IPFM.

The IPFM made this rare honorary award, for my work on this site in opposing the recently proposed mergers in the UK accountancy profession.

To read the full details please click here Honorary Fellowship.

Absent Minded Anstee

The ICAEW has announced that new group will be formed to support over 8,000 of its members who work, or have an interest, in the public sector.

Seemingly the ICAEW will pay CIPFA to provide these services. Eric Anstee is quoted by Accountancy Age as bemoaning the fact that if the merger had gone ahead:

"we would have kept the qualification separate and made cost savings".

In other words, he is blaming the failed merger for the costs of this project.

The trouble with this argument, is that it conveniently ignores the £1.42M of our money that the ICAEW bunker wasted on the failed merger attempt.

Funny he forgot that!

A Coup Within The ICAEW Bunker?

I read with interest, and a degree of amusement, the article in Accountancy Age that stated that new ICAEW Council members have actually had the "stones" to criticise the current ICAEW structure.

Seemingly they believe that the ICAEW Council is "parochial", "ill defined" and should be slimmed down.

Correct me if I am wrong, but have I not been arguing for this over the last two years on this site?

As long ago as March 2005 I published this article "Best In Class", arguing for a slimmed down version of council.

Could this report indicate that there stirs within the hearts of some members of council the desire to actually listen to what the membership say?

Maybe the residents to the ICAEW bunker, who have for so long jealously guarded the out of date Victorian structure of the ICAEW, are facing a coup. They will find themselves having to finally accept the fact that the ICAEW, if it is to be fit for purpose for the 21st century, will have to cut council down to size and reorganise along the lines that I have been arguing for during the past two years.

We shall see.

Nonetheless, it is at least encouraging to see that some members of council are reading this site and finally taking on board the message that I have been repeating ad nauseam for the last two years.

Regionalisation

Seemingly the ICAEW is considering turning Scotland into a region, without districts.

The logical consequence of this would be for the current district structures of England & Wales to be restructured into regions.

That at least is what Accountancy Age think.

Herein lies one of the fundamental problems with the current ICAEW structure. The ICAEW was formed in the 19th century and the structure laid down by the "founding fathers" is still in place today; ie districts and a large, cumbersome and unnecessary council.

The ICAEW needs to restructure itself to reflect the realities of the 21st century, rather than the 19th; ie council should be abolished and the districts restructured.