Hi Shamus,

Thanks for your reply.

I would like to become self employed eventually, but I would like to get a job either in an accountancy firm or in an accounting role within a job first and really get a good few years experience. I am in no rush to become self employed, I just really want to get a job which involves accounting as I enjoy it alot.

I have been reading about ACCA, and also ACA, CIMA, and I am unsure how these qualifications differ.

ATT does sound very interesting though, would this be a valuable thing to have? Is it seen highly by employers?

Many thanks
Amy

hi!
this is one of those difficult ones... you will have to think about how long does it take to get the qualifications, what practical experience you need to be qualified, how much will your studies cost + membership and exam fees,etc. I looked into ATT recently and it does not come cheap. almost £500 just in exam fees plus student registration and quote from them:

Every application for student registration must be supported by a statement from one sponsor
The sponsor must be any of:


a member of The Association of Taxation Technicians or The Chartered Institute of Taxation

holder of a recognised accountancy or legal qualification

a member of The Chartered Institute of Bankers

an HMRC Inspector of Taxes or surveyor at Grades HO, SO, grade 7 or grade 6

holder of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (TEP) qualification

the applicant's current or previous employer or business partner in a relevant occupation

the head of a secondary or higher education establishment which the applicant has recently attended, if the applicant is aged under 21.

very interesting but i suppose you have to pay the price if you would like to be different to all others with popular qualifications such as AAT. and probably it can be very useful if you have got your own practice, tax is always something people don,t want to get into trouble with.

Attila

Hi Amy,

Just a flying visit to the site today I'm afraid.

Completely behind you with the idea that if you hate what you're doing then change it. Wish that more people had your sort of get up and go Amy. If there is one thing that I can't stnad it's people who languish in self pity but do nothing to change their lives.

Anyway, I digress.

CIMA is not management as such although a lot of CIMA people do in fact end up in management.

Management accounting means that the accountant is trained in preparing reports and advice for management. Strangely enough, financial accounting also covers that which makes the two organisations a bit supurfluous as they both have more or less the same sylabuses!

You will be able to get jobs wit the AAT qualification but like all qualifications it really needs to be combined with experience.

When you get MAAT you are fully qualified AAT. If you then went on to ACCA or CIMA your back to being Part Qualified at that qualification.

From everything that you have said I would concentrate on getting the AAT qualification and then use that to do lots of temp roles wherever in the world your traveling takes you. (AAT is recognised pretty much everywhere).

Where are you thinking of going travelling by the way? I had great intentions to travel to lots of places myself but got to mud/tin hut territory in North East Thailand (Isaan region in a village close to Khon Kaen) and loved it so much I just settled there for a couple of years.

Now bringing up my son 24/7 but when he's at Uni it's back off to South East Asia for me. My basic philospohy is that you're too long dead not to live whilst you're alive! Well, that makes sense to me anyway.

Talk in a bit,

Shaun.

Hi Amy,

Not sure on the CIMA costs but I know that there isn't much between CIMA and ACCA for cost so I'll just go ahead and answer the question that you didn't ask and tell you how much ACCA would cost you (CIMA will be similar to this).

Passing AAT gets you exemption from the first three papers but you would still need to pay for the exams to be awarded the exemptions. (Strange but true of all of the accountancy bodies I believe).

Assuming that you distance learn from the books only (cheapest route) then I would put a minimum of the Kaplan study text and revision kit.

There are also pocket noted, I-Learn CD's and I-Pass CD's which would add another £80 per paper but I don't regard them as necessary.

I always buy both the Kaplan and BPP text and Kit which doubles up the costs of the study material but covers the entire sylabus and clears up any misunderstandings.

I'll give the cheapest route. All based on seven years to pass the exams and passing all of them first time (which very few ever manage).

Cheapest : Initial Registration (£69), Seven years student membership (£483), 14 exams (£974), 11 study texts (£385), 11 exam kits (£220). Total cost : £2131 at current prices.

I would however advise buying both BPP and KAPLAN texts and kits which would increase the price to £2736.

So, including a few resits for distance learning either ACCA or CIMA you should be looking at a budget of around £3000 give or take a couple of hundred.

Of course, the further you get into it the more peripheral books you end up buying so the cost creeps up.

If you take the ACCA route the fundamentals level is the equivalent of a BSc and you get the opportunity to get a BSc via Oxford Brooks University on completion of the fundamentals level by completion of the thesis.

The last five papers (three core, two options from a choice of four) are at MSc level but by the time that you get to that stage your pretty much ready for them. Only problem is that at that stage it's no longer fun and it's just about getting the letters after your name.

Anyway, back to more interesting stuff.

Sounds as though you've definitely got the right idea on the travel front.

South America always strikes me as being way too dangerous a place but I'm with you on the rest on your list... Not literally you understand as sure your significant other might have something to say about that!

I'm not one for the tourist trail so went for total immersion. North East Thailand is just something else. I was the first white person that many of the older people in the village had ever seen. The fact that nobody spoke English made things a bit difficult for starters but you soon pick up what's necessary to get by and build on that.

Only work that I did over there was with my hands. And I didn't do anything that I got paid for. Cutting rice is seriously back breaking stuff as you spend all day bent over.

Great memory of having to walk around a temple as the sun came up when the family gave a naughty uncle over to the keeping of the monks to put him back on the straight and narrow. (He had been sleeping around so much that I think Hugh Hefner would have been in awe of him!).

I ended up getting married to one of the locals, so that escalated the burn rate of funds and we had to return to the rat race. Cut a long story short, didn't work out when I had to work away so now there's just me and my boy.

We've been back to Isaan three times but with a child in tow I stay in hotels in the city 30km away from the village and we shop at Lotus Tesco (Yes, there are even Tesco superstores in tin hut territory!) so it's not really the same experience.

Anyway, I would strongly advise taking in Thailand in your travels. Avoid the beaches though which often seem devoid of cultural diversity and seem to be twinned with Spanish holiday resorts.

Unfortunately I think that you will find it difficult to get work there as they have a government that looks after it's own people and foreign labour is only permitted where jobs are unable to be sourced locally.

Talk soon, hope that the ACCA info proves useful. As I say, I'm assured that ACCA and CIMA are more or less the same in terms of cost so should be around the same whichever route you choose.

kind regards,

Shaun.

-- Edited by Shamus on Wednesday 14th of April 2010 04:06:25 PM

Hi Shaun,

Wow, 7 years?!! I couldnt believe my eyes when I saw how long that takes, are you kidding me?! Crikey, I am going to have to think long and hard about what I want to do after AAT then, as I really cannot see myself studying for 7 years after I finish. I really cannot believe it takes that long!!

Wow, your travels sound amazing, I really cannot wait to get away again! Where abouts are you now, back in England? I am thinking of travelling around a bit, and then maybe settling in New Zealand, Austrailia, Spain for a bit and getting a job. Whos knows though, I will have to wait and see!

Started the AAT last week, it seems fairly straight forward at the moment but it is still really daunting to look at practice exam papers etc, I just hope I really can do this on my own, usually I learn much better sat in classroom being taught so fingers crossed I cope okay!

How are your studies going by the way? Hope everything coming along well.

Thanks,

Amy