ICAI CA IPCC Syllabus 2012
Subjects for study
Six subjects and Seven Papers of study in IPCC are –
Group I
Paper 1:Accounting (100 marks)
Paper 2:Law, Ethics and Communication
Part I: Law (60 marks)
Business Laws (30 marks)
Company Law (30 marks)
Part II: Business Ethics (20 marks)
Part III: Business Communication (20 marks)
Paper 3:Cost Accounting and Financial Management
Part I: Cost Accounting (50 marks)
Part II: Financial Management (50 marks)
Paper 4:Taxation
Part I: Income-tax (50 marks)
Part II: Service Tax (25 marks) and
VAT (25 marks)
Group II
Paper 5: Advanced Accounting (100 marks)
Paper 6:Auditing and Assurance (100 marks)
Paper 7: Information Technology and Strategic Management
Section A: Information Technology (50 marks)
Section B: Strategic Management (50 marks)
The level of knowledge expected of students in the above subjects is ‘working knowledge’.
INTEGRATED PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE COURSE (IPCC)
Syllabus
GROUP I OF IPCC/ ACCOUNTING TECHNICIAN COURSE (ATC)
Paper 1: Accounting
(One paper – three hours – 100 marks)
Level of Knowledge: Working Knowledge
Objectives:
(a) To lay a foundation for the preparation and presentation of financial statements;
(b) To gain working knowledge of the principles and procedures of accounting and their application to different
practical situations;
© To gain the ability to solve simple problems and cases relating to sole proprietorship, partnership and
companies; and
(d) To familiarize students with the fundamentals of computerized system of accounting.
Contents
1. A General Knowledge of the framing of the accounting standards, national and international
accounting authorities, adoption of international financial reporting standards
2. Accounting Standards
Working knowledge of:
AS 1 : Disclosure of Accounting Policies
AS 2: Valuation of Inventories
AS 3: Cash Flow Statements
AS 6: Depreciation Accounting
AS 7: Construction Contracts (Revised 2002)
AS 9: Revenue Recognition
AS 10: Accounting for Fixed Assets
AS 13: Accounting for Investments
AS 14: Accounting for Amalgamations
3. Company Accounts
(a) Preparation of financial statements – Profit and Loss Account, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow
Statement
(b) Profit (Loss) prior to incorporation
© Alteration of share capital, Conversion of fully paid shares into stock and stock into shares,
Accounting for bonus issue
(d) Simple problems on Accounting for business acquisition, Amalgamation and reconstruction
(excluding problems of amalgamation on inter-company holding)
4. Average Due Date, Account Current, Self-Balancing Ledgers
5. Financial Statements of Not-for-Profit Organisations
6. Accounts from Incomplete Records
7. Accounting for Special Transactions
(a) Hire purchase and instalment sale transactions
(b) Investment accounts
© Insurance claims for loss of stock and loss of profit.
9. Issues in Partnership Accounts
Final accounts of partnership firms – Admission, retirement and death of a partner including treatment of
goodwill;
10. Accounting in Computerised Environment
An overview of computerized accounting system – Salient features and significance, Concept of grouping of
accounts, Codification of accounts, Maintaining the hierarchy of ledger, Accounting packages and
consideration for their selection, Generating Accounting Reports.
Note :
If either old Accounting Standards (ASs), Announcements and Limited
Revisions to ASs are withdrawn or new ASs, Announcements and Limited Revisions to ASs are issued by
the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in place of existing ASs, Announcements and Limited
Revisions to ASs, the syllabus will accordingly include/exclude such new developments in place of the
existing ones with effect from the date to be notified by the Institute.
Paper 2: Business Laws, Ethics and Communication
(One paper – three hours - 100 marks)
Level of Knowledge: Working knowledge
Part I: Business Laws (60 marks)
Objective:
To test working knowledge of business laws and company law and their practical application in commercial
situations.
Contents:
Business Laws (30 marks)
1. The Indian Contract Act, 1872
2. The Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881
3. The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965
4. The Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952
5. The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972.
Company Law (30 marks)
The Companies Act, 1956 – Sections 1 to 197
(a) Preliminary
(b) Board of Company Law Administration - National Company Law Tribunal; Appellate Tribunal
© Incorporation of company and matters incidental thereto
(d) Prospectus and allotment, and other matters relating to use of shares or debentures
(e) Share capital and debentures
(f) Registration of charges
(g) Management and administration – general provisions – registered office and name, restrictions on
commencement of business, registers of members and debentures holders, foreign registers of members or
debenture holders, annual returns, general provisions regarding registers and returns, meetings and
proceedings.
(h) Company Law in a computerized environment – e-filing.
Note: If new legislations are enacted in place of the existing legislations, the syllabus would include the
corresponding provisions of such new legislations with effect from a date notified by the Institute.
Part II: Ethics (20 marks)
Objective:
To have an understanding of ethical issues in business.
Contents:
1. Introduction to Business Ethics
The nature, purpose of ethics and morals for organizational interests; ethics and conflicts of interests; ethical
and social implications of business policies and decisions; corporate social responsibility; ethical issues in
corporate governance.
2. Environment Issues
Protecting the Natural Environment – prevention of pollution and depletion of natural resources;
conservation of natural resources.
3. Ethics in Workplace
Individual in the organisation, discrimination, harassment, gender equality.
4. Ethics in Marketing and Consumer Protection
Healthy competition and protecting consumer’s interest.
5. Ethics in Accounting and Finance
Importance, issues and common problems.
Part III: Communication (20 marks)
Objective:
To nurture and develop the communication and behavioural skills relating to business.
Contents:
1. Elements of Communication
(a) Forms of communication: formal and informal, inter-departmental, verbal and non-verbal; active
listening and critical thinking
(b) Presentation skills including conducting meeting, press conference
© Planning and composing business messages
(d) Communication channels
(e) Communicating corporate culture, change, innovative spirits
(f) Communication breakdowns
(g) Communication ethics
(h) Groups dynamics; handling group conflicts, consensus building; influencing and persuasion skills;
negotiating and bargaining
(i) Emotional intelligence – emotional quotient
(j) Soft skills – personality traits; interpersonal skills; leadership.
2. Communication in Business Environment
(a) Business Meetings – Notice, Agenda, Minutes, Chairperson’s speech
(b) Press releases
© Corporate announcements by stock exchanges
(d) Reporting of proceedings of a meeting.
3. Basic Understanding of Legal Deeds and Documents
(a) Partnership deed
(b) Power of Attorney
© Lease deed
(d) Affidavit
(e) Indemnity bond
(f) Gift deed
(g) Memorandum and articles of association of a company
(h) Annual Report of a company.
Paper 3: Cost Accounting and Financial Management
(One paper – three hours - 100 marks)
Level of Knowledge: Working knowledge
Part I: Cost Accounting (50 marks)
Objectives:
(a) To understand the basic concepts and processes used to determine product costs;
(b) To be able to interpret cost accounting statements;
© To be able to analyse and evaluate information for cost ascertainment, planning, control and decision
making; and
(d) To be able to solve simple cases.
Contents:
1. Introduction to Cost Accounting
(a) Objectives and scope of cost accounting
(b) Cost centres and cost units
© Cost classification for stock valuation, profit measurement, decision making and control
(d) Coding systems
(e) Elements of cost
(f) Cost behaviour pattern, separating the components of semi-variable costs
(g) Installation of a costing system
(h) Relationship of cost accounting, financial accounting, management accounting and financial
management.
2. Cost Ascertainment
(a) Material Cost
(i) Procurement procedures - store procedures and documentation in respect of receipts and
issue of stock, stock verification
(ii) Inventory control - techniques of fixing of minimum, maximum and reorder levels,
economic order quantity, ABC classification; stocktaking and perpetual inventory
(iii) Inventory accounting
(iv) Consumption - identification with products of cost centres, basis for consumption entries in
financial accounts, monitoring consumption.
(b) Employee Cost
(i) Attendance and payroll procedures, overview of statutory requirements, overtime, idle time
and incentives
(ii) Labour turnover
(iii) Utilisation of labour, direct and indirect labour, charging of labour cost, identifying labour
hours with work orders or batches or capital jobs
(iv) Efficiency rating procedures
(v) Remuneration systems and incentive schemes.
© Direct Expenses
Sub-contracting – control on material movements, identification with the main product or service.
(d) Overheads
(i) Functional analysis – factory, administration, selling, distribution, research and
development
Behavioural analysis – fixed, variable, semi variable and step cost
(ii) Factory overheads – primary distribution and secondary distribution, criteria for choosing
suitable basis for allotment, capacity cost adjustments, fixed absorption rates for absorbing
overheads to products or services
(iii) Administration overheads – method of allocation to cost centres or products
(iv) Selling and distribution overheads – analysis and absorption of the expenses in
products/customers, impact of marketing strategies, cost effectiveness of various methods
of sales promotion.
3. Cost Book-keeping
Cost ledgers – non-integrated accounts, integrated accounts, reconciliation of cost and financial accounts.
4. Costing Systems
(a) Job Costing
Job cost cards and databases, collecting direct costs of each job, attributing overhead costs to jobs,
applications of job costing.
(b) Batch Costing
© Contract Costing
Progress payments, retention money, escalation clause, contract accounts, accounting for material,
accounting for plant used in a contract, contract profit and balance sheet entries.
(d) Process Costing
Double entry book keeping, process loss, abnormal gains and losses, equivalent units, inter-process
profit, joint products and by products.
(e) Operating Costing System
5. Introduction to Marginal Costing
Marginal costing compared with absorption costing, contribution, breakeven analysis and profit volume
graph.
6. Introduction to Standard Costing
Various types of standards, setting of standards, basic concepts of material and labour standards and variance
analysis.
7. Budgets and Budgetary Control
The budget manual, preparation and monitoring procedures, budget variances, flexible budget, preparation
of functional budget for operating and non-operating functions, cash budget, master budget, principal budget
factors.
Part II: Financial Management (50 marks)
Objectives:
(a) To develop ability to analyse and interpret various tools of financial analysis and planning;
(b) To gain knowledge of management and financing of working capital;
© To understand concepts relating to financing and investment decisions; and
(d) To be able to solve simple cases.
Contents:
1. Scope and Objectives of Financial Management
(a) Meaning, importance and objectives
(b) Conflicts in profit versus value maximisation principle
© Role of Chief Financial Officer.
2. Time Value of Money
Compounding and discounting techniques – concepts of annuity and perpetuity.
3. Financial Analysis and Planning
(a) Ratio analysis for performance evaluation and financial health
(b) Application of ratio analysis in decision making
© Analysis of cash flow statement.
4. Financing Decisions
(a) Cost of Capital – weighted average cost of capital and marginal cost of capital
(b) Capital Structure decisions – capital structure patterns, designing optimum capital structure,
constraints, various capital structure theories
© Business risk and financial risk – operating and financial leverage, trading on equity.
5. Types of Financing
(a) Different sources of finance
(b) Project financing – intermediate and long term financing
© Negotiating term loans with banks and financial institutions and appraisal thereof
(d) Introduction to lease financing
(e) Venture capital finance.
6. Investment Decisions
(a) Purpose, objective, process
(b) Understanding different types of projects
© Techniques of decision making: non-discounted and discounted cash flow approaches - payback
period method, accounting rate of return, net present value, internal rate of return, modified internal
rate of return, discounted payback period and profitability index.
(d) Ranking of competing projects, ranking of projects with unequal lives.
7. Management of working capital
(a) Working capital policies
(b) Funds flow analysis
© Inventory management
(d) Receivables management
(e) Payables management
(f) Management of cash and marketable securities
(g) Financing of working capital.
Paper 4: Taxation
(One paper - three hours – 100 marks)
Level of Knowledge: Working knowledge
Objectives:
(a) To gain knowledge of the provisions of Income-tax law relating to the topics mentioned in the contents
below; and
(b) To gain ability to solve simple problems concerning assessees with the status of ‘Individual’; and covering
the areas mentioned in the contents below.
Contents:
Part I: Income-tax (50 marks)
1. Important definitions in the Income-tax Act, 1961
2. Basis of charge; rates of taxes applicable for different types of assessees
3. Concepts of previous year and assessment year
4. Residential status and scope of total income; Income deemed to be received / deemed to accrue or arise in
India
5. Incomes which do not form part of total income
6. Heads of income and the provisions governing computation of income under different heads
7. Income of other persons included in assessee’s total income
8. Aggregation of income; set-off or carry forward and set-off of losses
9. Deductions from gross total income
10. Computation of total income and tax payable; rebates and reliefs
11. Provisions concerning advance tax and tax deducted at source
12. Provisions for filing of return of income.
Part II: Service tax (25 marks) and VAT (25 marks)
Objective:
To gain knowledge of the provisions of service tax as mentioned below and basic concepts of Value Added
Tax (VAT) in India.
Service tax (25 marks)
Contents:
1. Service tax – concepts and general principles
2. Charge of service tax and taxable services
3. Valuation of taxable services
4. Payment of service tax and filing of returns
VAT (25 marks)
5. VAT – concepts and general principles
6. Calculation of VAT Liability including input Tax Credits
7. Small Dealers and Composition Scheme
8. VAT Procedures.
Note: If new legislations are enacted in place of the existing legislations the syllabus will accordingly include the
corresponding provisions of such new legislations in the place of the existing legislations with effect from
the date to be notified by the Institute. Students shall not be examined with reference to any particular State VAT
Law.
GROUP II
Paper 5: Advanced Accounting
(One paper – three hours – 100 marks)
Level of Knowledge: Working Knowledge
Objectives:
(a) To have an understanding of the conceptual framework for the preparation and presentation of financial
statements;
(b) To gain working knowledge of the professional standards and application of accounting principles to
different practical situations; and
© To gain the ability to solve advanced problems in the case of different entities.
Contents
1. Conceptual Framework for Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements
2. Accounting Standards
Working knowledge of:
AS 4 : Contingencies and Events occurring after the Balance Sheet Date
AS 5 : Net Profit or Loss for the Period, Prior Period Items and Changes in Accounting Policies
AS 11: The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates (Revised 2003)
AS 12: Accounting for Government Grants
AS 16: Borrowing Costs
AS 19: Leases
AS 20: Earnings Per Share
AS 26: Intangible Assets
AS 29: Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets.
3. Advanced Issues in Partnership Accounts
Dissolution of partnership firms including piecemeal distribution of assets; Amalgamation of partnership
firms; Conversion into a company and Sale to a company.
4. Company Accounts
(a) Accounting for employee stock option plan, Buy back of securities, Equity shares with differential rights,
Underwriting of shares and debentures, Redemption of debentures
(b) Advanced problems for business acquisition, Amalgamation and reconstruction (excluding problems of
amalgamation of inter-company holding)
© Accounting involved in liquidation of companies, Statement of Affairs (including deficiency/surplus
accounts) and Iiquidator’s statement of account of the winding up.
(d) Financial Statements of Banking, Insurance and Electricity Companies
5. Accounting for Special Transactions
Departmental and branch accounts including foreign branches
Note :
If either old Accounting Standards (ASs), Announcements and Limited
Revisions to ASs are withdrawn or new ASs, Announcements and Limited Revisions to ASs are issued by
the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in place of existing ASs, Announcements and Limited
Revisions to ASs, the syllabus will accordingly include/exclude such new developments in place of the
existing ones with effect from the date to be notified by the Institute.
Paper 6: Auditing and Assurance
(One paper – three hours – 100 marks)
Level of knowledge: Working Knowledge
Objective:
To understand objective and concepts of auditing and gain working knowledge of generally accepted auditing
procedures and of techniques and skills needed to apply them in audit and attestation engagements and solving
simple case-studies.
Contents
1. Auditing Concepts – Nature and limitations of Auditing, Basic Principles governing an audit, Ethical
principles and concept of Auditor’s Independence, Relationship of auditing with other disciplines.
2. Auditing and Assurance Standards – Overview, Standard-setting process, Role of International Auditing
and Assurance Standards Board and Auditing and Assurance Standards Board in India.
3. Auditing engagement – Audit planning, Audit programme, Control of quality of audit work–Delegation
and supervision of audit work.
4. Documentation – Audit working papers, Audit files: Permanent and current audit files, Ownership and
custody of working papers.
5. Audit evidence – Audit procedures for obtaining evidence, Sources of evidence, Reliability of audit
evidence, Methods of obtaining audit evidence, Physical verification, Documentation, Direct confirmation,
Re-computation, Analytical review techniques, Representation by management.
6. Internal Control – Elements of internal control, Review and documentation, Evaluation of internal control
system, Internal control questionnaire, Internal control check list, Tests of control, Application of concept of
materiality and audit risk, Concept of internal audit.
7. Internal Control and Computerized Environment, Approaches to Auditing in Computerised Environment.
8. Audit Sampling – Types of sampling, Test checking, Techniques of test checks.
9. Analytical review procedures.
10. Audit of payments – General considerations, Wages, Capital expenditure, Other payments and expenses,
Petty cash payments, Bank payments, Bank reconciliation.
11. Audit of receipts – General considerations, Cash sales, Receipts from debtors, Other Receipts.
12. Audit of Purchases – Vouching cash and credit purchases, Forward purchases, Purchase returns, Allowance
received from suppliers.
13. Audit of Sales – Vouching of cash and credit sales, Goods on consignment, Sale on approval basis, Sale
under hire-purchase agreement, Returnable containers, Various types of allowances given to customers, Sale
returns.
14. Audit of suppliers’ ledger and the debtors’ ledger – Self-balancing and the sectional balancing system,
Total or control accounts, Confirmatory statements from credit customers and suppliers, Provision for bad
and doubtful debts, Writing off of bad debts.
15. Audit of impersonal ledger – Capital expenditure, deferred revenue expenditure and revenue expenditure,
Outstanding expenses and income, Repairs and renewals, Distinction between reserves and provisions,
Implications of change in the basis of accounting.
16. Audit of assets and liabilities.
17. Company Audit – Audit of Shares, Qualifications and Disqualifications of Auditors, Appointment of
auditors, Removal of auditors, Powers and duties of auditors, Branch audit, Joint audit, Special audit,
Reporting requirements under the Companies Act, 1956.
18. Audit Report – Qualifications, Disclaimers, Adverse opinion, Disclosures, Reports and certificates.
19. Special points in audit of different types of undertakings, i.e., Educational institutions, Hotels, Clubs,
Hospitals, Hire-purchase and leasing companies (excluding banks, electricity companies, cooperative
societies, and insurance companies).
20. Features and basic principles of government audit, Local bodies and not-for-profit organizations,
Comptroller and Auditor General and its constitutional role.
Note: Candidates are expected to have working knowledge of relevant Auditing and Assurance Standards issued
by the ICAI with reference to above-mentioned topics.
Paper 7: Information Technology and Strategic Management
(One paper – three hours – 100 marks)
Level of Knowledge: Working knowledge
Section A: Information Technology ( 50 Marks)
Objective:
To develop an understanding of Information Technology and its use by the business as facilitator and driver.
Contents:
1. Introduction to Computers
(a) Computer hardware
Classification of computers – personal computer, workstation, servers and super computers
Computer components – CPU, input output devices, storage devices
(b) BUS, I/O CO processors, ports (serial, parallel, USB ports), expansion slots, add on cards, on board
chips, LAN cards, multi media cards, cache memory, buffers, controllers and drivers
© Computer software
Systems software – operating system, translators (compilers, interpreters and assemblers), system
utilities
General purpose software/ utilities - word processor, spread sheet, DBMS, scheduler / planner,
internet browser and e-mail clients
Application software – financial accounting, payroll, inventory
Specialised systems – Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), artificial intelligence, expert systems,
decision support systems – an overview
2. Data Storage, Retrievals and Data Base Management Systems
(a) Data and information concepts: bits, bytes, KB, MB, GB, TB
(b) Data organization and access
Storage concepts : records, fields, grouped fields, special fields like date, integers, real, floating,
fixed, double precision, logical, characters, strings, variable character fields (Memo); key, primary
key, foreign key, secondary key, referential integrity, index fields.
Storage techniques: sequential, block sequential, random, indexed, sequential access, direct access,
random access including randomizing
Logical structure and physical structure of files
© DBMS models and classification:
Need for database, administration, models, DML and DDL (query and reporting); data dictionaries,
distributed data bases, object oriented databases, client server databases, knowledge databases
(d) Backup and recovery – backup policy, backup schedules, offsite backups, recycling of backups,
frequent checking of recovery of backup
(e) Usage of system software like program library management systems and tape and disk management
systems – features, functionalities, advantages
(f) Data mining and data warehousing - an overview
3. Computer Networks & Network Security
(a) Networking concepts – need and scope, benefits
Classification: LAN, MAN, WAN, VPN; peer-to-peer, client server
Components - NIC, router, switch, hub, repeater, bridge, gateway, modem
Network topologies – bus, star, ring, mesh, hybrid, architecture : token ring, ethernet
transmission technologies and protocols – OSI, TCP/IP, ISDN etc.
Network operating system
(b) Local Area Networks – components of a LAN, advantages of LAN
© Client server technology
Limitation of single user systems and need for client server technology
Servers – database, application, print servers, transaction servers, internet servers, mail servers, chat
servers, IDS
Introduction to 3-tier and “n” tier architecture (COM, COM+)
(d) Data centres: features and functions, primary delivery centre and disaster recovery site
(e) Network security need; threats and vulnerabilities; security levels; techniques
4. Internet and other technologies
(a) Internet and world-wide web, intranets, extranets, applications of internet, internet protocols
(b) E-commerce - nature, types (B2B, B2C, C2C), supply chain management, CRM, Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI), Electronic Fund Transfers (EFT), payment portal, e-commerce security;
© Mobile commerce, bluetooth and Wi-Fi
5. Flowcharts, Decision Tables.
Section B: Strategic Management (50 marks)
Objectives:
(a) To develop an understanding of the general and competitive business environment;
(b) To develop an understanding of strategic management concepts and techniques;
© To be able to solve simple cases.
Contents:
1. Business Environment
General environment - demographic, socio-cultural, macro-economic, legal/political, technological, and
global; competitive environment.
2. Business Policy and Strategic Management
Meaning and nature; strategic management imperative; vision, mission and objectives; strategic levels in
organisations.
3. Strategic Analyses
Situational analysis – SWOT analysis, TOWS matrix, portfolio analysis - BCG matrix.
4. Strategic Planning
Meaning, stages, alternatives, strategy formulation.
5. Formulation of Functional Strategy
Marketing strategy, financial strategy, production strategy, logistics strategy, human resource strategy.
6. Strategy Implementation and Control
Organisational structures; establishing strategic business units; establishing profit centers by business,
product or service, market segment or customer; leadership and behavioural challenges.
7. Reaching Strategic Edge
Business process re-engineering, benchmarking, total quality management, six sigma, contemporary
strategic issues.
