Professional accounting body
A professional accounting body is an organization or association of accountants in a particular jurisdiction. Usually a person needs to be a member of such professional body to hold out to the public of the jurisdiction as an accountant. The designations for qualified accountants vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, such as Cost & Management Accountant, Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certified Accountant, Chartered Professional Accountant, Certified Public Accountant, Certified Practising Accountant, Chartered Management Accountant, Certified Management Accountant, or Chartered Public Finance Accountant.
Some countries have a single professional accounting body while others have several. If there is more than one body, such bodies may or may not compete with each other; in some countries, professional accounting bodies are divided according to their field of activity. For example, India has two professional accounting bodies: the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India deals with financial accounting & management accounting, while the Institute of Cost Accountants of India deals with cost accounting & management accounting.
