WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT: “Filipino CPA’s In UAE”

I am not a CPA but I will tell you something that you don’t know about.

My ex-employer instructed me to hire a Filipino CPA and I asked him why? I mean why not other nationality or the same nationality he is. Surprisingly, he told me this:

• Based on his previous experience, Filipino accountants (preferably, CPA’s) are one the best accountants he had ever worked with. The dedication and the expertise highly impressive.
• Based on salary negotiation, Filipino accountants prefer experience rather comfortable salary and that is why he can get low-paying best accountants without difficulty of negotiations.
• Based on work ethics, Filipino accountants are multi-tasks. They can work even in reception to admin and they even work more than required 8 hours of work.
• Based on mindset, Filipino CPA’s think that they are lesser than the other fields of financial & accounting related certifications such as ACCA, US CPA, CMA, etc.

But unfortunately, my ex-employer is not exactly correct with his own opinions. Why? When I have worked with them, talked with them and argued with them, I realized a lot of things about them:

• For the Filipino CPA’s, the US CPA and ACCA exams are 2x easier to pass than the Philippine CPA exams; of course, except taxations & other local business laws. The only thing hinders them with the US CPA & ACCA curriculum is the expensive fees than the Philippine CPA.
• It’s true that they prefer experience over salary because they thought that they will get a higher salary if they got more experiences.
• Filipino accountants & CPA’s are not highly dependent on accounting software; they can even provide reliable reports without those tech savvy software around them. Therefore, they understood the whole picture of the accounting cycle.
• They are more interested in team plays rather than a supervisory positions and that’s why most of them are in a support group rather than leading a group.
• And it’s also true that the Filipino accountants & CPA’s are far more better in accounting practice and they can extend to some other administrative jobs with less supervision.

Finally, I realized that Filipino CPA’s are supposedly better than among other accountants but they are only used to be “too-good-to-be” in a comfortable working environment rather than in a competitive working cultures.

As for me, if ever I have my own accounting & bookkeeping company. I will surround myself with Filipino accountants & CPA’s because of the quality of their work and the attitude they used to work.