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OHADA accounting in practice
The OHADA framework organises accounting across seventeen countries around a common chart of accounts and standardised financial statements. Mastering it makes a professional immediately operational across the whole zone.
The accounting chain, from voucher to statements
Every transaction starts from a supporting voucher, is recorded in the journal following the chart of accounts, accumulates in the ledger and is checked by the trial balance. The financial statements follow mechanically: balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement and notes. Understanding that chain as a whole changes daily practice, because each entry is then made knowing where it will appear in the statements and what it will say there.
- A supporting voucher for every entry, filed and retrievable
- A common chart of accounts, making statements comparable across the zone
- A trial balance checked at each closing, before any financial statement
- Documented treatment of fixed assets and depreciation
- A value added tax return reconciled with the accounts
The titles leading to the profession
Four floors of responsibility on the same accounting chain, from voucher processing to financial leadership. Durations and hour counts come from the official catalogue.
| Professional title | Level | Duration | Credits | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accounting Assistant | Level 4 | 9 months | 60 | 600 h |
| Company Accountant | Level 5 | 9 months | 70 | 700 h |
| Chief Financial Officer | Level 7 | 9 months | 70 | 700 h |
| Finance and Administration Manager | Level 6 | 1 year | 80 | 800 h |
The hours devoted to accounting
- hours of general accounting
- 280
- hours of advanced accounting
- 240
- modules in the finance field
- 47
First-year block of the management programme.
Complex transactions, provisions, consolidation.
Continuing-education base, real count.
Practitioners' questions
Do I need prior accounting training?
The management programme builds general accounting from first principles, assuming no prior knowledge. A professional already in post moves to the higher level, where advanced accounting and consolidation take over.
Does the framework apply in several countries?
That is precisely its value: a common chart of accounts and standardised statements make skills transferable across the whole zone. Local tax specifics sit on top, and the tax block treats them as such.
What place for digital tools?
The spreadsheet remains the accountant's daily control tool, and the catalogue offers a short format entirely devoted to advanced command of it. Accounting software is then picked up on principles already understood.
Explore next
- Reading financial statementsBalance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement: the profitability, structure and liquidity ratios that support a reasoned diagnosis.
- Forecast budgetVolume and price assumptions, cost structure, break-even point, seasonality and variance tracking: building a budget that serves steering.
- Steering cashRolling cash plan, working capital, payment terms, customer chasing and short-term financing: steering cash day to day.
- Management controlFull and marginal costing, activity-based costing, budgets, variance analysis and dashboards: management control applied to decisions.
- OHADA company lawCompany forms, incorporation, governance, capital, directors' liability and dissolution: the landmarks of OHADA company law.
- Compliance and AMLCustomer due diligence, beneficial ownership, enhanced diligence, alert scenarios, suspicious transaction reporting and second-line control.