I am looking to set up book keeping business through Book cert Business Kit. How much rate would be ideal so as to make the rate attractive for clients as well as make profit out of it?
It depends on where you live as to what rates to charge etc, where I live I have been advised by the ICB that I can charge between £12 and £15 per hour. but you can call a book keeper in your area and ask how much they charge, some might tell you some won't so it is pot luck. Good luck with the business set up, I have just started myself.
Hi Shellie Thanks for you response. Does the work you do just involve entering sales/purchase invoices and working out the VAT on a spreadsheet (which is then passed on to accountants)? Do you do bank recs as well. What software package do you use at present for you work?
I have only just started and I work along side a lady who has her own business from home, so at present I am doing all the accounts for a guy who's data has not been entered onto SAGE Accounts 50 since 2005!!! a bit of a nightmare, she does not like the book keeping side and wants to concentrate on the auditing, business management etc to her clients.
I am qualified to year end for sole traders which is what the client is I am doing, anything over a sole trader and I will hand it over to an accountant to do the VAT and year end.
So at the mo, I am entering all invoices, payments etc setting him up as a new client as from 1 May 2006 on my SAGE as her SAGE input is not up to date, so I am starting him from scratch on my system!! and she will keep hold of his records for the 7 or 10 years required.
Hi Shellie Not long winded at all, as any information will be helpful to me. When you say you are qualified to year end for sole trader, does that mean you are able to produce their financial statements? Where can you learn to prepare the Financial Statements for sole traders, if you are inexperienced? I know that bookkeepers can produce these, but as i am unable to do so at present, i dont wont to feel at a disadvantage before i start off.
I am sorry if i am asking too many questions, as your responses are generating more questions for me.
I am a member of the ICB as I did my exams with them and passed them in order to be able to work from home, I would recommend that you maybe think about getting qualified if you are not already doing so. This covers your back if anything did go wrong and you were sued by a client which can happen. I also have a Practicing Certificate and Professional Indemnity Insurance, as I want to be able to feel like I have got everything covered incase the worst happens.
I have been told that the HMRC that as from the 1 June they are going to be cracking down on people that do not hold those docs, not sure how they are going to manage this but knowing my luck I will be the one caught without them!! lol
Hi Shellie In my current job, i actuall deal with sales and purchase invoices, credit control, Bank Recs and VAT (using Sage Line 50). Based on this i would have thought that i should be ready to deal with this sort of work, but in the event i am asked to prepare the FS, i wont be able to, so for that reason i didnt want to lose potential clients. I am looking at Bookcert at the moment to get me up and running. I have not read any comments on the forum about them yet. Do you know of anyone who may have used them?
I bought the Bookcert kit last year just after I started my Level 1 ICB course. I found it worth the money because I had no business or bookkeeping knowledge and it complemented my ICB course. I still refer to it now so for me it was a worthwhile purchase.
If you already have bookkeeping experience then that part of the course will not be as relevant. It depends on whether you have the cash spare to buy a course which may cover in a small part something in which you already have experience.
Hi Rob Thanks for your feedback re Bookcert. So do you think with the experience i have outlined and the knowledge the manual would provide, i would be in a position to get things up and running. The other issue is that Bookcert provide a spreadsheet based software which they claim to be sufficient to do bookkeeping for small businesses, would you agree with it? An assumption i am making is that i would be given the invoices, bank statements etc and it would just be a case of inputting it on the spreadsheet and then that would work out your VAT and that would be sent to the accountants, who would then take it further. In reality, once the inputting part is done, would all the information be sent back to the client or accountant. How would you know which accountant to send it to?
I think after working through the Bookcert kit and together with your experience, you'll be able to judge whether or not you are ready to go it alone. Dont be in a rush to get started, only take on clients with simple requirements, only take on work you know you can do!
The cashbook software is ideal for starting out doing this kind of work. It is designed for businesses who are not VAT registered or using the cash accounting scheme. If they use invoice method you would need to use software such as MS Accounting Express to do that (it's free!).
When you take on a client it is best to arrange to see their accountant first and ask them how they would like the client's information presented to them..they'll be much happier if you arrange things with them rather than just turning up with a load of stuff.
