I've had some really helpful advice here recently, and was hoping for a little more pleeeease!!!
I'm completing Level 3 Diploma in Bookkeeping (ICB) and am looking to gain some practical experience (voluntary if necessary) with some accountants.
Soon, I do intend to set up on my own. But 3 things I'm not sure about:-
1) With Level 3, if I wanted to set up with the name "TP" (my initials), would I be TP bookeeping or TP accountant? I wish to complete accounts with accruals, depreciation, stock valuation etc as far as possible with my qualification (and upcoming work experience).
2) To fully complete a set of accounts, is there any other experience / quals that I should be aiming to do - in order not to have to "hand the work back to the accountants" to finish off.
3) Who would need to sign accounts off, on this basis, for e.g. sole traders and partnerships etc?
Once I am confident (I have some previous work experience but not enough yet), I basically want to do as much of the work myself as possible with regards to people's accounts, without possibly having to let another dude take over the remainder of the work.
Thanks very much. This really is a very useful forum.
I would suggest you use TP Bookkeeping, if you use 'accountant' or 'accounting' in your trading name it may confuse clients (TP Bookkeeping says exactly what you do). You will still have to show you 'real' name and address on any letter heads or invoices you use if you are only using your initials in your trading name.
There has been a lot of debate on the forum on qualifications and/ or/ versus experience and I'll leave that up to you but level III covers the topics you mentioned.
Signing off accounts has also recently been covered and in many cases there is no requirement for any official signing off, unless the accounts are to be audited, then you have to be qualified in that field.
