Sahil Ahmed tells about his experiences since joining the firm and how the training compares to that in the Big Four accountancy firms.

1. www.uhyuae.com 11UHY GLOBAL December 2016 13GLOBAL NEWS
FINANCE PARTNERS IN EGYPT
A new partnership between the
Egyptian Society of Accountants and
Auditors (ESAA) and the Association
of Chartered Certified Accountants
(ACCA) aims to strengthen the
accountancy and finance profession
in Egypt, building on an agreement
of mutual recognition in 2003.
As the global body for professional
accountants, ACCA promotes
excellence and improved work
practices through training and a
commitment to sustainable business.
The collaboration will focus on
knowledge sharing, continuing
professional development and enabling
local qualifications. A key element
will be ESAA’s ability to offer subject-
specific training alongside its main
qualification programme, including
an Arabic diploma in International
Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
Khaled Elfakhrani, managing partner,
UHY El Geziry, Elfakhrani & Co. in
Cairo, says, “It reflects the increasing
need for compliance with IFRS as
Egypt’s primary financial reporting
framework. The new programme
will benefit accountants in Egypt
and other Arabic-speaking countries,
providing access to valuable training
to further develop their skills in
relation to IFRS and other areas.”
BREXIT PLANNED FOR 2019?
Britain’s referendum in June 2016 to leave the European
Union continues to have an impact on economies across
the world. Uncertainty around the terms of the exit led to a
weakened sterling, a brake on investment activity and depressed
confidence in Britain’s short-term economic outlook.
In October 2016, British prime minister
Theresa May announced her government
would trigger Article 50 (which states
that withdrawal must be completed
within two years of giving notice) before
March 2017. November’s high court
ruling that the UK cannot leave the EU
without the permission of the British
parliament brought new uncertainty to
both the timetable and the conditions.
At the time of writing an appeal
against the ruling was ongoing.
With terms of settlement a separate issue
from Britain’s future trading relationships
with other economies as a non-EU
member, some analysts believe ten years
to ‘steady the ship’ is likely. Professional
advisors are doing all they can to keep
clients updated on the changing strategic,
legal and commercial conditions.
Read the latest Brexit thoughts from UHY
Hacker Young, UK, in a blog at www.
uhy-uk.com/news-and-events/brexit
BEPS ROLLOUT
GOES GLOBAL
The OECD-led anti-BEPS initiative is
making progress. Base erosion and profit
shifting (BEPS) describes corporate tax
avoidance strategies which exploit gaps in
international tax rules to shift profits to low
or no-tax locations. Following international
government-level consultation and a new
Inclusive Framework (IF) completed in 2015,
over 100 countries and jurisdictions are
collaborating to implement BEPS measures.
At the first implementation meeting in Kyoto
in June 2016, 82 developed and developing
countries began tackling challenges such
as standards-setting and the development
of implementation guidelines. Pascal Saint-
Amans, director of the OECD Centre for Tax
Policy and Administration, said, “Through
their participation in the decision-making
as well as the technical working groups of
the OECD’s Committee on Fiscal Affairs,
members of the IF will have a direct influence
in shaping international tax rules to tackle
BEPS and ensuring a level playing field.”
Implementation is rolling out across the world.
The first regional meeting for participants
from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)
was held in September 2016 in Montevideo,
Uruguay. Delegates from ten countries
and eight organisations, including Oxfam
and the Tax Justice Network, added their
input and were updated on the guidelines
development and other issues from Kyoto.
Further 2016 regional meetings include
Francophone-Africa in Tunisia, Asia-Pacific
in the Philippines and Eastern Europe
and Central Asia in Lithuania. For more
information, visit the OECD website at
www.oecd.org/tax/beps or email Clive
Gawthorpe, chair of UHY’s global tax special
interest group, c.gawthorpe@uhy-uk.com
After graduating from the University of
Wollongong in Dubai, I was exposed to
many campus recruiters and professors
who advised me to start my professional
career in audit at one of the Big Four
firms.
Three years and a few months down
the line, I find myself at UHY Saxena.
Established in 1992, UHY Saxena is
a member of Urbach Hacker Young
International Limited (UHY) a leading
network of independent accounting and
consulting firms with offices in over 325
major business centers across more than
95 countries.
Today, the firm specialises in providing
tax advisory, corporate and consulting
services besides its core expertise in
audit and accounting services. So how
is training at UHY Saxena different from
training at a Big Four firm?
Well, to start off, there are a lot of
similarities. At the end of the day,
whether you are at a Big Four firm or at
a 10 person regional audit firm, audit
is audit. It requires application of the
same technical knowledge and audit
procedures aside from the long, yet
fruitful, man-hours put behind each
engagement. Irrespective of where you
work or which country you work in, as
long as you have December 31st year-
end clients, there will always be a busy
season.
The hours will be long and your family
won’t see you as often. On the upside,
your firm will most likely cover you for
any meals after 8pm and if luck is on
your side, you will be working on a client
that does the same for meals during
the day! All in all, you are required to
have the same technical knowledge,
commitment and professionalism as you
would at a Big Four firm.
The difference in training, as
most professionals in the industry
acknowledge, is in the exposure to a
broad range of engagements for clients
from diverse industries.
Opportunities
In my short 18-month tenure at UHY
Saxena, I’ve successfully completed
and been a part of external audits,
internal audits, forensic audits and
stock audits. I’ve worked on feasibility
studies, valuations, preparation of
private placement memorandums,
financial analysis and forecasting. I’ve
had the opportunity to work on clients
from industries including healthcare,
manufacturing, reinsurance, oil and
gas, construction and real estate among
others.
Not many in the profession are exposed
to such diverse engagements in as short
a tenure as I have had with UHY Saxena
and the number of firms that give you
such opportunities at an early stage in
your career are few and far between.
While the opportunities are there for
the taking, each engagement requires
a different skill set and a broader
knowledge of finance and business.
At UHY Saxena, each engagement is
tailored to the needs of the client. No
two engagements are the same. Since
there is no luxury of a formal training for
each engagement, as would be the case
at a Big Four firm, the learning curve is
steeper.
You rely on your technical knowledge
and your experience from related
engagements. Where this is lacking,
you seek support of your seniors or
you learn at your feet, at the client’s
site. Over a period of time, you become
better equipped to taken on a variety of
engagements as opposed to specializing
in a specific section of an engagement.
At a Big Four firm, the breadth and
quality of client base is unparalleled,
however, as an associate, you might
be restricted to working on a specific
section of the audit (In most cases this
would be Cash and Bank).
Depending on the nature of clients in
that office, you might spend as much as
80% of your time on one single client,
leaving room for little exposure to other
areas, industries and engagements. At
UHY Saxena, based on your capability,
you’re quickly exposed to a variety
of audit areas and in all likelihood
would have prepared a fair share of
financial statements and management
representation letters. This gives you a
complete engagement overview and
a broader idea of the client and the
industry.
While the above might not be a complete
list of all the similarities and differences
in training at UHY Saxena and the Big
Four firms, I hope it does give an insight
into how different our training methods
are.
Clearly, the perks of working at a
Big Four firm far outweigh those
at a midsized firm but the training,
responsibilities and exposure you get at
UHY Saxena is unparalleled and is one of
the many reasons why our clients prefer
UHY Saxena as their choice of chartered
accountants.
Training at UHY Saxena:
a world of opportunities
Sahil Ahmed tells about his experiences since joining the firm and
how the training compares to that in the Big Four acountacy firms
Not many in
the profession
are exposed to
such diverse
engagements in as
short a tenure as
I have had with
UHY Saxena Author Sahil
Ahmed is
currently
working with the
firm’s Audit &
Assurance team