Hi,
Hope you get as much out of the Forum as I have. A word of warning that I didn't listen to, I was earning a similar amount before going self employed as a book-Keeper and things are pretty tough at the moment!!Could you not spread your risk and do part time at both to begin with and study at nights?
Best of luck though it sounds like you could offer a larger service than a lot of other people.
Tony

Hi Andrew,

welcome to the forum.

I know how difficult it is to give up one career for another especially where the new career is unlikely to ever be as lucrative as the one that your leaving behind.

Don't be aggrieved at the cut that the agent is taking. Without them you probably wouldn't have found the work and your still getting a good income of around £1200 per week.

What other readers of this thread will probably not appreciate is that although this is quite a good income there can be gaps in the income and holidays are periods of enforced non payment.

I'm moving from working on a freelance basis in banking (retail and corporate accounting, payments, security and fraud) into accountancy and have stopped off at bookkeeping en route.

I don't wish to put a damper on your enthusiasm but can I perhaps suggest that you maybe taking the wrong route though.

From your existing career and experience I would have thought that ACCA or CIMA would have been more appropriate to you. With either of these you are enhancing your existing skill set as well as gaining a new one (These cover business analysis, management accounting, performance management, etc. as well as the financial accounting including bookkeeping).

If you wanted to setup as a freelance bookkeeper, providing that you only wanted to prepare books to trial balance and offer VAT and Payroll services (I believe CIMA allows you to offer more services than ACCA, the above list was the ACCA restriction), what you could do is take the relevant ACCA or CIMA exams which would give you exemptions from IAB exams. .

Anyway, join the IAB as a second supervisory body (as well as ACCA/CIMA) to give you your practice certificate, MLR cover and cheap PII insurance.

Sorted. Two complimentary careers and a serious qualification that's recognised around the world.

Just a suggestion.

Shaun.

Thanks for the encouragement Carole.  After reading this forum for a while I did get the impression that everyone was friendly and helpful to newbies.

Shaun, thanks for the very useful post.  I've read a few of your replies and they are always informative and helpful.  I did consider the CIMA route and it's still on the cards but let me explain why I've first chosen bookkeeping.

For the past few years being self-employed, working on fixed term contracts that are usually extended, business has been good.  As such I've been able to go from one contract to another with no breaks in between and built up a good war chest for time on the bench which I've yet to use. 

However, 90% of my clients have been NHS organisations and with government cutbacks due to hit the NHS in the next year or two, projects are starting to be cut and many contractors I've worked with are taking permie posts when offered just in case.  Agents too are starting to grumble about the lack of work out there compared to this time last year which should be very busy as budgets have been agreed for 2010/11.

I really want to fight having to go permie again and think some of the fear is a bit of a knee jerk reaction, but just in case I was thinking that if my NHS work does indeed get slower or dries up, I need to offer a broader range of services to businesses from other industries. 

Everyone I work with are usually CIMA and I was considering taking their foundation certificate.  However someone I worked closely with recommended rethinking as with CIMA, and I believe it's the same with ACCA, you cannot do anything until you are qualified (5+ years hence) and then you need a few years experience on top of that before going it alone.  The certificate they offer only allows you to progress to the next level in your studies.

Going down the ICB/AAT route I can begin using the qualifications straight away provided I get my practicing license, offer the business analysis as I do now but to a broader industry giving me a second income stream, while still giving me the flexibility to studying up to chartered level if I feel the need/desire at a later date.

Sorry for the long post but hope this makes sense.  Does it???



-- Edited by Scotchpie on Tuesday 23rd of March 2010 01:21:58 PM

-- Edited by Scotchpie on Tuesday 23rd of March 2010 01:24:27 PM

Hi Andrew,

long posts are good for me. Gives me more to work with.

Sounds as though contracting for the NHS is going through the same pains as contracting in the banking world. At one stage I did actually go permie with one of the banks but I never closed down my company... Turns out I was right not to close my company as a year after going permie the entire division was outsourced to Accenture (Andersens by any other name).

Most people transferred to Accenture but I decided that I would far rather go back freelance than work for a management consultancy again.

I think that your CIMA advice isn't completely correct. You would need to confirm the situation on the CIMA website but I believe that PQ CIMA's are actually allowed to do more than PQ ACCA's.

The situation for a PQ ACCA is that as a student one can do bookkeeping to trial balance, VAT and Payroll on a self employed basis. However, unless properly supervised any work done on a self employed basis does not count towards the required practical experience needed to gain full membership after passing all of the exams.

PQ ACCA are not however covered for MLR so to trade on a self employed basis one could either pay HMRC directly (£170) or become a member in practice with either the ICB or IAB.

IAB recognise the ACCA ualification for full exemption where ICB do no recognise the ACCA qualification so you have to take their exams.

If you wanted a really good introduction to bookkeeping try the AAT ABC bookkeeping which will give you exemptions from some AAT exams if you decide to take that route. Note that the AAT ABC course is the same as the Open University course B190 (both provided by EQL).

As I've mentioned in other posts AAT is an excellent qualification. I just worry that in your case CIMA might not be a better route for you.

Note that if you do AAT then go on to take further qualifications. If you take the ACCA route you will be restricted to providing only those services that ACCA students are allowed to provide regardless as to what you would be allowed to provide as an MAAT MIP.

If you take the CIMA route whilst being an MAAT MIP I believe that you are still allowed to offer tax advice and also produce accounts for sole traders and small limited companies.

I know that you state that you want to fight going permie but I think that it's pretty safe to say that you will make more money on a permie business analyst than you will as a freelance bookkeeper. I do appreciate though that it's always good to have more than one string to your bow.

Before getting too far into this and assuming that you're set on AAT take a serious look at the following career path :

ABC AAT bookkeeping

AAT - From intermediate level

IAB - by exemption (using AAT intermediate level qualification) to get MLR

CIMA - simultaneous to AAT technician level

Note that whatever bodies you join really read the fine print as the one with the most draconian restrictions takes precedence over the others.

As the best,

Shaun.

P.S. You're lucky Rob isn't around today (he's on MLR CPD) or your picture might get savaged by our resident veggie.

Shamus wrote:

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P.S. You're lucky Rob isn't around today (he's on MLR CPD) or your picture might get savaged by our resident veggie.

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Unlike me who has gone to his freezer for a Farmfoods scotch pie for a quick scooby snack  after seeing that picture.