I've passed my manual exam with ICB which makes me partly qualified and planning to do final computerised exam in June. I have had a few people already asking me if I could do their books. Am I legally allowed to start self employed yet?
Legally yes, but if you are concidering membership of ICB you will need to register as a practising member when you can (after completing level 2). Remember until then you will need to register with HMRC for money laundering.
The views expressed in this post are my own personal (HRA protected) views, and are not representative of any organisation I have any involvement with.
A member may supply bookkeeping services to the public provided that: he is qualified so to practice and holds a current Practice Licence granted by the Institute he holds a valid policy of professional indemnity insurance against claims for professional negligence appropriate to the size of the business but in any case not less than £50,000. It is misconduct for a member to supply bookkeeping services to the public other than in compliance with this rule.
This is an extract from the ICB rules. I would say, in this case, no. But it may be worth contacting them for clarification.
The views expressed in this post are my own personal (HRA protected) views, and are not representative of any organisation I have any involvement with.
Kris is correct, nothing to stop you becomming a self employed bookkeeper however, you would not be able to use/mention your ICB connection until after sucessful completion of level 2 exam in either manual or computerised. Once you have completed this you will then become an associate member and able to apply for practicing cert, insurance etc., through ICB and use their emblem on your stationary and marketing materials, of course this would incurr additional costs to upgrade your current status of affiliated to associated !
A word of warning though, if for example you only choose to complete computerised level 2 and register as a practising member, in the rules you would only be able to work on computerised bookkeeping only. If you choose to do manual level 2 etc., you would only be able to work on manual bookkeeping, just something to bear in mind.
