The work of CAs can be divided into two areas:

Professional Practice

This entails work in a firm of CAs (partnership concerns), or in a consultancy. This would involve a broad knowledge of the many areas of work that chartered accountancy covers, even while specializing in a particular area. Usually several CAs get together and pool their resources to offer clients a range of services as described earlier.

Industry

CAs may be employed by a company, a public sector undertaking, or even a United Nations agency. Instead of providing professional accounting advice to the clients, they work within the framework of their employers business. Even though the business activity may include areas as
diverse as exports, oil, hotels, engineering, industries etc. and each very different in terms of size, level of technology, and profitability the essential criteria which affect accounting are similar. 

So is the basic logic of the profit and loss account and the balance sheet. CAs in a company can handle and are concerned with internal audits, taxation, wage and salary structure and financial record keeping. This is essentially documentation work, which includes the daily routine of maintaining books of accounts.

CAs can also be involved in management accountancy. This is the money strategy department, which decides what to do with the money or the lack of it. This means assessing the relative importance, value and cost of all aspects of a business for optimum business control. In some companies this work is done by MBAs with experience in each of the departments in a financial, commercial or industrial undertaking. 

In recent times, the difference between CAs and MBAs at the top is reducing, and there are as many CAs who are finance directors as there are MBAs.