Just need some advice.I am currently studying the manual bookkeeping level 2 and am hoping to do the exam in Octber.I am looking at jobs and must want computer experience using Sage? Am I wasting my time if I wanna get in Job in this field and should I just start the computerised course instead?or are there jobs out there for manual bookkeepers? I just wanted to get more experience before starting out on my own.
In my opinion, I think that when you are learning Sage, it will really help if you understand how to be able to bookkeep manually. If you just go into learning Sage without any bookkeeping knowledge then most of the time you would know which buttons to press, but without any understanding of why you were doing what you were doing, I think that it would make it much harder. If you got something out of the ordinary, you wouldn't have the background knowledge to be able to make the decision of what to do with it.
As an example, I did the manual level 1 and 2 and passed and am now doing a computerised course, learning SAGE Instant Accounts and in less than a month of doing the SAGE course my tutor has told me to send off for an ICB past paper as I am ready for my exam. My friend has never done bookkeeping before and is doing the same Sage course as me and is struggling a lot with it and has been doing if for about five months now and isnt ready to take the exam. I have had to help her several times as she has no understanding of what she is doing or why she is doing it.
I must also add that when I enroled to do a bookkeeping course with no previous experience, the guy at the distance learning company who I went with advised both me and my friend seperately that if we wanted to work for ourselves (which I did) learn manual, if you want to work for a company (which my friend did) learn Sage.
Julie I have passed the level 1 exam but thats as far as my experince in bookkeeping goes. Thanks Terri that makes alot of sense, eventuall I would like to work for myself but would like to work for a company and get more experience first.
I agree with Terri, its best to learn the manual side of bookkeeping as this will give you a good grounding. Also, you dont want to limit yourself to just being able to do computerised accounts.
As you have no practical experience, what you are doing at the moment is the right way to go - learning from scratch.
I agree with the answers given. Its all too easy to just get Sage and input the figures but if you dont understand what is going on behind the scenes, then you cannot make journal entries etc effectively and could make costly mistakes!
Whatever you do, its always best to have an understanding of how things work, rather than rely on computers to do all the work - as they say computers never go wrong, its the data input that create the errors.
