have u been offered any other jobs in sg? or this is the only one in sg?... if this is the only one, just take it... and wait for better opportunities later...
no no.. finance is a big industry... banking doesnt need big4 exp.. for me i believe being at least 5 years in an auditing firm shows that you are able to understand financial statements at an advance level which is a must for any top management position..
got lor.. shuttle bus lor... sgd 0.40 per trip... i take it every morning to work... have to cross a bridge to get to the private bus waiting stop

its a light blue bus... with big big label on the side

After the MP Seng Han Thong made an uproar comment about Malay
and Indian broken English, the PAP's MPs have been making statements against each other.

Its quite surprising LHL hasnt step in yet

what do you mean by overpaid money? i also paid 15% when i failed to comply with 183 days requirement when i changed company. now waiting for 183th day to pass in order to request for refund from IRAS.

Hi All,

Wish to ask; anyone renewed their passport in sg b4? mind 2 share ur exp? heard that really need to be there at the commission very early for the queue? is it true abt that? thanks 1st!

btw, merry christmas 2 u guys + gals 2

Nice...is Science Park 2 nearby?? I got a place in CCK crescent. Near Yew Tee MRT!! What company is yours?

i went the to Msia Hi Comm a couple of times this year. Queue is not really that long but saw ppl start queing before the doors open (0815hrs?). I'm not to sure what time the main embassy door open (you gotta get the pass), so not advisable to go too early.

a few of us stays at cck cresent 2nd bangla town after boon lay

wah. stay near to bunny . what block ?

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Added on December 24, 2011, 6:00 pmcck is pale compares to Boon Lay (Little Dhaka), land of the picnic ppl . But there a lot of nice food

This post has been edited by Mackiddo: Dec 24 2011, 06:00 PM

I mean the money that you are entitled for the refund
perhaps the term "overpaid" is not really suitable in this case.

Most CEOs, GMs, Presidents etc are not from the auditing firms. Top managers need to understand the concepts of profit & loss, balance sheet, cash flow and ratios of course but they don't need to know all the mechanics, accounting standards etc in depth. That's what the CFO or finance business partner is for. Financial acumen or financial general knowledge and going through the finance module in a MBA or executive MBA (for some basic mechanics) is more than enough for business managers.

Actually, even the CFO doesn't need to understand everything about the legal financial statements (which is 99% of what external audit is about but is only about 10% of what overall finance is about). That's what the financial controller or accounting director is for.

This post has been edited by seantang: Dec 24 2011, 06:30 PM

My FD is from Pwc, he is always proud about Pwc. He said working in Pwc is an image coz of that Pwc always stays in the TOP. However, my SPV is NOT from AUDIT firm, and in his 30, his salary is above most big4 people counterparts.

In addition my Spv told me that, he can never cheat the FD about the financial statements but he can cheat the CEO.. cheat what I mean is not manipulate but told something wrong about the finance..

Anyway, what is the difference between CFO and accounting director??Don't say financial controller is a accounting director la haha..Btw, my Spv is a financial controller, he reports to the FD. and he is not from audit firm.

And you know, the easier path to become FD is a Financial controller PART! So he needs to understand FS la.

This post has been edited by Materazzi: Dec 24 2011, 09:05 PM

These are just titles.

There are many subfunctions in finance, from treasury to taxation to internal audit to accounting etc etc (even within accounting, there's management accounting or internal/mgt book and statutory or external/legal book). In most large companies, a different person takes care of each subfunction and all of them report to the CFO. So each subfunction may have a different director (ie. many finance directors) but all of them report to the CFO. There can only be one CFO.

In many US companies, accountants in the accounting subfunction are called controllers. So the financial controller or chief controller is basically the director of the accounting subfunction ie. accounting director.

In my company, it's the CFO (1) -> global subfunction finance directors (10), global business finance directors (5), continental/area finance directors (5) -> global sub-subfunction finance directors or regional subfunction or regional business finance directors (200) -> rest of us.

You only need to be very good at finstat if you want to do accounting or audit subfunction. A company will need a different kind of CFO (or in your mind, FD) according to its needs at the moment. If the company is growing fast and needs to raise capital/funding, then they want a CFO strong in treasury. If the company is quite steady and focused on competition and improving profitability, then they need a strong business finance person. I've never seen a company require a CFO who's strong in accounting, especially finstat. Accountants doing accounting are very easy to get, adds no value to the bottom line and the CFO can just anyhow get an accounting director and let him run the accounting subfunction or process.

This post has been edited by seantang: Dec 24 2011, 11:12 PM

I renewed mine a couple of months ago. I reached there about 20 minutes before gates open, only was about two dozen people in the queue. Once in, I headed straight to the counter and got the #1 number for the day cos I had everything ready already (photos, form, etc).

Few things to note: Embassy is fucuking far from the MRT station, it's like a 25 minute walk. Also, you have to go guardhouse to get your visitor pass before joining the queue.

I don't know why my FD didn't hire someone from Big4??! He only hired(the audit background) me and 1 FM in subsidiary, both of us are from mid tier audit firm. And I just had 10 months exp whereas she had 4 yrs exp.

Ya, all of them report to my FD. Even purchasing director you called it, production directors, etc report to my FD.
And accounting director and financial controller is not same la because we also have chief accountant. And chief accountant directly reports to my FD not my FC. They have different role. My FC don't bother about FS, it's chief accountant role to manage AP and FS thingy. so you know la my FC role, don't you?

Yes, our company is too small to be listed haha..However, our cashflow is very strong. Even we didn't claim back the tax up to 2 years, we offer 3 months credit to our customers and we will get about $5 million for the tax claim on GST/VAT.

And one question to you seantang, is it a norm for MNC that most MNCs don't have Internal Auditors in their branches in other countries?Most FC in business unit will have many tasks in Internal auditing, financial analyst, budgeting, stock count, monthly cash cost reporting, hedging, PO verification, reconcilliation of inventory, cost pricing etc.

This post has been edited by Materazzi: Dec 25 2011, 12:20 AM

Like I said, it's just titles. Your company likes to call each subfunction's leader differently. That's all.

That's why you need to look at someone's job scope and pay package to know what they do and how senior they are - rather than rely on job titles.

So you would say indirectly that CIMA is good since it focuses on the business and CIMA people don't need to bother the strong accounting background.

But why did you take CPA Australia than CIMA??

Merry Christmas Sean!!

true.. agree, what i mean is the understanding portion and not the being in audit firm portion..

merry christmas to all...

No, that's not what I said. CIMA's also accounting what. It's management accounting, not finstat, but it's still accounting.

Hi guys,

I would like seek advice from you guys on following questions:

a) I have near to 1 year experience (include internship) working in one of the Big 4 in KL. is it qualify enough to be an experience hirer if wanna get a job in spore?
b) hearing that audit line in spore is easier for those who has external auditor background to get in compare to joining commercial/finance sector? as i would like to find an non-audit job in spore
c) now is it economy downturn in spore? would like to get clarify especially who work in spore right now.

Thanks so much! Merry Christmas

a) unlikely to be an experienced hire but you will stand out for the entry level positions.
b) it's always an advantage to have related experience no matter where you are. if you plan to do management accounts in commercial, proficiency in accounting software will give you an edge over the rest but it's not mandated.
c) from my observation, it's only slower growth.