The highest professional accountancy designation available in South Africa is that of a Professional Accountant. Once you qualify as a Professional Accountant, you will be involved in an incredible diversity of work, no matter what area you decide to specialise in. A small or medium sized firm generally has from 1 to 8 partners and up to about 50 trainees. Firms in this category tend to offer their clients a personal approach and the partners in the firms have a broad knowledge of accounting and business issues and can provide a wide range of services from bookkeeping and accounting to tax planning, auditing and management consulting.