I posted some questions this morning but have since read topics on the forum and am now completly confused.
I want to start my own bookkeeping/financial controller business and have 8 years experience as an accounts manager in charge of $20 million accounts. I have been told by our accountant that I was the best in house accountant he ever worked with, although I am not trained but self taught in all areas.
I have no qualifications in this field. Lots of experience with Quickbooks and SAP, none with Sage. Unfortunately I have little faith in myself and know there are areas that I am not confident with. i.e double entry, Dr and Cr always confuse me and Quickbooks always did this for me.
Do I 1 - Buy Bookcert and hope that my experience will get me through?. 2 - Take ICB or IAB courses to improve my chances and boost my confidence? 3 - Take ATT course as suggested by an accountant and hope for the best? 4 - Advertise noe with my experience to get me by and take a course later if out of my depth? 5 - Do a basic sage course to at least learn the basics.
Please help me, the more research I do, the more confused and insecure I get. The accountant that I worked with believes I am capable of being a financial controller and troubleshooting for companies but I am wondering if I can even cope with the basic bookkeeping role.
Personally, I'd get a copy of 'Business Accounts' by David Cox. Have a read, do some of the assessments within, hopefully this will give your confidence a wee boost.
I'd suggest with 8 years experience you'd be well on your way. If you can find a second hand copy of bookcert, it is useful. But I really dont think its useful to the tune of £300, you should be able to pick up a copy for between £100 and £130 on here.
You could do a sage course, but to be honest I think it's use to you would be very limited. You need to ask yourself if you really want to pay hundreds of pounds for a program you will probably never make full use of.
Other than that you could probably get through ICB level 1 and probably 2 manual with just 'Business Accounts', if you really wanted to. But after reading the ICB thread this last week, I'm not sure it's all that useful.
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.
I also purchased the Bookcert kit and found it really useful. I don't know whether Kris has used the bookcert support team as much as me (which is lots!) but they have been a complete lifesaver. One of the first clients I took on was a small VAT registered fabrications business. Seemed nice and simple, but oh no. In the first quarter they sold some goods to a customer in germany and they weren't sure how to account for the VAT, neither was I. I contacted the Bookcert support team and they advised me how to deal with it and also checked my spreadsheets for me.
I value the back up support and I also plan to get them to build a website for me which is included in the £300 so overall I am very pleased with my investment.
I also didn't have any experience and this hasn't hindered my growth. I'm just selective about the clients I take on (although I don't always get it right as mentioned!)
Best of luck.
-- Edited by Trevor on Monday 29th of June 2009 01:06:11 PM
thanks guys, your advice has been really helpful. Kris I think you are right about the ICB course, the recent thread has questioned my original plan. I believe the Business accounts book will be very helpful and will definately get this. Your advice is sound and makes perfect sense. I have been going around in circles and its great to hear from someone who knows what they are talking about.
Thank you Trevor for your advice on bookcert, I think this is the way forward too and I wish you all the luck in the world with your venture.
I am on the shortlist of two for a small bookkeeping job locally and am keeping my fingers crossed for this. The only thing against me is my lack of knowledge on sage but I am hoping that I can pick up the basics by myself, my brother uses Sage so I might book a mornings tuition to get me started.
Thanks again for the advice, I'm sure I will have many more questions but your help has at least put me back on track again. Watch this space eh!!!
Although on the low side, I don't think £10 per hour is too bad. What I've found is that once you have a handfull of clients you should start to benefit from referrals. This is where you can start to push for the higher rates.
