Your such a cynic Bob. Either that or you're getting to know us!

I would start with Margaret Nicholson then move on to Frank woods. Although they cover the same material I find the Nicholson book quite simple in it's approach which means that when you read woods it should feel as though you are building on your knowledge rather than simply re-reading something phrased a slightly different way!
In both instances I would start with chapter 1 and keep reading.
No book that you buy is ever a waste of money but you may find that some are only ever used for reference.
As for a subject. Even though in the real world you won't really use them as such (although you will always think in terms of them) I would say that for starters it should be T accounts, T accounts and more T accounts until you can pretty much do them without thinking about them.
At some stage it may be worth you buying the BPP AAT workbook for units 1-4 which is a series of tests covering pretty much all of the ICB syllabus. Its an excellent book for honing double entry skills gained through other studies.
Have a good evening,

Shaun.

Hi Sheila,

No I'm the same, I do a T account first and then transfer it on to the computer. I think its because it was drummed into me long ago at college the manual way to do it that you don't forget it!!!!

A

Hi Bob,

That was an excellent price for the Wood's book. I find Ebay a bit of a lottery as I've had some books from there at a bargain price that have been pristine and others that are earmarked and full of highlighting... Fine if it's your highlighting but other peoples can be distracting.

I would say that about 50% of my books came from Ebay and most of the rest from Amazon. My save for later list at the moment is 96 items and I check everyday to see if anything has nosedived in price. Sometimes you get real bargains on there cheaper than second hand books on Ebay.

units 1-4 covers the foundation level so really the building blocks upon which the rest of your career will be based.

the units individually are :

Income & Receipts
Payments
Ledger balances and trial balance

Unit 4 is information for management control so you probably don't need to think about that one yet.

To go for the AAT qualification involves a lot more study than those few but units 1-4 (actually 1-3) cover most of what you would be expected to know to pass at least AICB. (Pretty sure also MICB but cannot guarantee that).

My version of the unit 1-4 revision companion is from 2007 and I see no reason to update to the latest version as nothing has changed. The ISBN is 9780751732283. Still go through it myself occasionally just to make sure that non of the basics have escaped.

On the IAB questions, I think that the exams are in January and June so two per year.

The two bodies seem to very much be at equivalent level from the point of view of self employment but looking at the IAB coverage I would say that it encompasses more than the ICB.

IFA recognises IAB qualifications for exemptions if you decided to keep on going from bookkeeping into accountancy.

Passing IAB deems you at a level to apply to study ACCA and the level 4 diploma in international financial reporting standards will also give exemption from ACCA paper F3.

The ICB qualification is not deemed by the ACCA sufficient to warrant any exemptions at all and those passing ICB alone are not deemed suitable to register as a student of the ACCA.

If you want to have a play with various qualification to see what exemptions they offer have a look at this link :

https://portal.accaglobal.com/accrweb/faces/page/public/accreditations/enquiry/main/EnqInstitutionsTable.jspx

As you've noticed before there is no Self Assessment paper with the IAB but the IAB have more papers that touch on Accountancy rather than bookkeeping including taxation, costing and international accounting standards papers.

cheers,

Shaun.

I just got the 11th edition of the Frank Wood book delivered this afternoon.
I already had the 3rd edition I bought in the early eighties when I first studied book-keeping. The 3rd edition cost me £5.50 and the 11th edition cost me £24.99 plus £2.75 postage.
It is so much easier on the eye to read and studying from it will be enjoyable rather than a chore. It is really just to supplement the materials I received from Ideal Schools.

Is it possible just now to get a practsing certificate from the ICB doing Level 1 Manual and level 2 Computerised? Or have the changes been implemented already and you need both manual 2 and computerised 2? I'm not sure if Ideal Schools decide which course I do first as I've ordered Manual 1, 2 & 3 plus computerised 2.

I was going to get my book on Ebay - but when I read it contained some writing and underlining I thought, maybe not.

I think that the ICB announcements are the best thing that's happened for the IAB in a long time.

My impression is that ICB members in practice are being welcomed with open arms as its not only that the IAB get more income but the ICB of course get less.

Also, something that nobody seems to have picked up on is that ICB members in practice are only supposed to hire ICB staff if they want to use the ICB logo and call themselves an ICB practice. If ICB MIPs go over to IAB then why would the practices give preference to ICB bods.

Personally I would always hire based on merit not on affiliation but if I had stayed with the ICB I would have been restricted from doing that and I am pretty sure (touch wood) that I will be hiring this year.

Hi Angela,

It's definitely employ for starters as its for the long term. I have no problem with freelancers and hope to grow to a size where I need to employ people on a temporary basis but at least the first one or two need to be the core staff of my business so don't want for them to be torn between client loyalties.

Its not a done deal yet and it depends whether things continue to pick up. The big concern for me isn't hiring someone but the fact that it's a sign that the business is growing so I'm going to have to think about premises and all that such entails.

Working from home carries very low overheads. The move to premises would be a serious step cost meaning that I would need to greatly increase my client base merely to stand still.

If all goes well I'm thinking of September as a good time to employ as it gives me three months to get them into my way of doing things before the January madness (hoping that there will be one next year as it was very quiet this January).

Shaun.

Hi Shaun,

Thank you for your reply.  I was out at clients offices yesterday, so offline all day.

I am already at that place, I moved into premises last summer - not very pretty, but cheap and functional - and took on an ICB student on a casual basis, she usually comes in once a week.

Just curious, does anybody else have an opinion?

Regards

RobH wrote:

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To be honest until I found this site I didn't really know anythingabout ICB or IAB, it has been a bit of an eye opener and for the future I would possibly consider it as a bonus, but it is like qualified accountants, some are great and some know less than we do on here!

---

What's this?

A potential employer, that recognises ICB/IAB qualifications!! Shaun, you may have to change your mantra

 

Yeah, but Bill, only if they are a card carrying vegetarian!! (we will rule the world this way!!)

An office full of vegetarians? I hope you have good ventilation