The Accountancy profession comprises numerous organised membership bodies with members employed throughout the economy, including commerce and industry, the public sector, academia and those in public practice, either as owners or employees. Those non-members of organised accountancy membership bodies, but performing similar functions or offering similar services, are deemed to be part of the Accountancy profession.

The CA(SA) profession is one segment of the Accountancy profession. It comprises members of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), firms in public practice offering training inside public practice (previously known as TIPP) organisations (in commerce and industry, government and parastatal organisations) offering training outside public practice (known as TOPP) to the extent necessary to obtain the CA(SA) designation, academic institutions offering under- and postgraduate education aimed at qualifications necessary for the CA{SA) designation, SAICA the institution to the extent necessary to obtain the CA(SA) designation. These groups shall be known as the CA(SA) profession sector (see figure 1).

The purpose of figure 1 is not to define each membership body, but to position the CA profession within the wider Accountancy profession. Furthermore, each octagon depicted in the figure (and indeed every organisation and institute) will break down into its own individual sub-sectors, such as for example membership body, practitioners and members in business.

Bodies contemplated in the "others" octagon include organisations and institutes in the Accountancy profession such as the following:

Note that the above list is not inclusive of all organisations and institutes in the Accountancy profession.

The scope of this Sector Code is the CA profession only. In developing a Sector Code (and scorecard) for the CA profession it is recognised that the primary focus should be on skills development aimed at increasing the number of black (especially black women) CAs in South Africa.

Chartered Accountants are trained in commerce and industry, government and parastatal organisations (TOPP) and in public practice. Unlike other industry sector Sector Codes this Sector Code addresses a profession that not only spans a unique industry sector (public practice), but also reaches across many other industry sectors. This uniqueness is recognised in the Sector Code.