Course Overview

This 11 hour course is designed with real life cases and hands-on practices to bring students into a fund accountant’s daily work life and equip students with all necessary knowledge to get through fund accounting interviews. During the lectures and workshop, basic knowledge on financial instruments, accounting 101, and job application will be provided, followed by a deeper demonstration on NAV calculation, reconciliation showcases, fund reporting essentials, corporate actions and tax distribution training, etc. This course will also provide students with quick assessment on individual background, and give relevant advice on their resume. Additionally, coursework will be expected after the second lecture with solutions being provided during the third lecture. All illustrations and practice questions are based on real life interview questions or examples seen in work. After this training, students are expected to gain a good understanding of the fund accounting industry, be able to calculate a daily fund’s NAV, and work out its supporting statements from scratch.

First 4 sessions have a duration of 2 hours, and 3 hours for the workshop.

Session 1 – Introduction to fund accounting industry

• Overview of fund industry and fund accounting industry

• Provide detailed examples of how a fund accountant’s day look like and what kind of candidates are hiring managers looking for

• Learn about what skills and qualifications commonly values from candidates

• Assessment on students’ background and advice on resume 

Session 2 – Basic terminology on fund accounting

• Introduce basic terminology on fund accounting such as capital stock, performance fee, management fee, trade & settlement date, NAV, why do we need to calculate NAV, etc.

• Explain the five NAV reporting statements, connections among each other, how to record journal entries, and how will the journal entries be reflected into each fund statement

• Homework on booking journal entries will be expected after this lesson, and solutions will be given in the third lecture

Session 3 – Journal entries & Reconciliation

• More practical examples on booking journal entries will be shown for further practices

• Showcase on what reconciliations are fund accountants mainly working on ,and how to handle cash to bank reconciliations during interview and work

• Real interview examples on cash reconciliation will be provided by instructor to work with students together

• Basic knowledge on management fee and performance fee will be introduced with some calculation examples

Session 4 – Advanced knowledge on fund accounting

• How to onboard a fund based on offering memorandum 

• What are corporate actions and how will they impact NAV 

• An overview of NAV financial reporting and note disclosure key points

• Basics of T3 tax distribution & other advanced knowledge

Workshop – Mutual fund NAV & reconciliation case study

• Students will then be provided with a comprehensive case study to calculate a mutual fund NAV from scratch by doing reconciliations, booking journal entries, completing NAV statements and writing emails to clients to report the final NAV

• This case will be based on real work case and will be a good demonstration of a fund accountant’s daily work and application of all theories taught in the previous lessons

Course Highlights

Being practical is the main highlight of this course! Most interview related questions will be discussed during this course, and professional advice on resume and assessment of each individual student’s background will be provided. In just 11 hours of time, you will learn all the knowledge required for being a qualified fund accountant, and will get professional illustration on how to work out a NAV with real life cases, which will serve as a valuable project experience both for preparation of interview and first month at work as well as a highlight on your resume.

Qualifications

This course is suitable for all levels of students and new graduates that are interested in fund accounting or currently pursuing for CPA/CFA designation with a long term career goal for back office positions such as financial analysis, financial reporting or investment fund operation. No previous experience is required. However, some basic understanding or pre-course research of financial instruments such as equity, fixed income, and derivatives as well as accounting essentials such as double entry / accrual accounting is preferred for a better absorption of course content.

Mentor Profile

Mentor for this course has been working in the fund accounting industry for over 7 years ,and has helped many students without any related experience gain their first offer on fund accounting in famous financial service and asset management companies, with extremely high success rate and great feedback. Graduated from Mfin, schulich school of business and a current CFA, the course mentor is currently working in CPPIB, one of the largest pension plan in Canada, and have gained her abundant work experience from CIBC mellon, SGGG, Citco, CPPIB etc., all in fund accounting related areas. Starting as an entry level fund accountant and moving on quickly within a few years to the largest pension plan, our mentor has gained her experience in different types/size of funds and would love to share her insight into this industry, useful tips for career development, and her interesting stories in job hunting. Having sat in interviews and hiring, she would love to share with students some common errors seen in resumes, and sample answers for behavioral questions during the interview. Knowing and experiencing the hardship of job hunting, our mentor is very patient and is willing to help each student as much as she can to guide students achieving your first offer!