I am new to this forum... i need some advice please:
I am currently in my last year of AAT studies, i have just had my results, and i failed one paper of my final year.... (not to worry though, as this was expected) anyway,
i am looking to go self employed, and this is my current situation:
(1)i have no experience of book-keeping (2)i am currently learning sage at Pitman training
From what i have read on here, book-keeping is not so difficult, do u think if i learnt the sage system, i can set my self up as a self employed book-keeper?
I would say you would need to get some experience really before doing any bookeeping for clients as there is alot that could go wrong if you don't have the experience.
Have you thought about getting a job in bookkeeping maybe a local accountant or for a company where they are able to help to teach you.
Qualifcations are a good place to start but with out the experience you won't have the knowledge to do it in a real life situation.
Regards to sage training it is good to know how sage works, but you also need to know what is happening in the background of the program if that makes sense, understanding what should happen with the accounst on sage.
I would say aat qualification is good but you will need experience also before acting on behalf of your own clients
Thats right I do agree with Lorraine, as nothing beats the real life experience of working with a set of accounts and actually seeing how things fit together. Plus with some practical experience it will give you the confidence to tackle the work better also and be able to set up systems for your clients as some will have nothing more than a plastic bag with papers and tell you to sort it out. Good luck on setting up though as we all need it.
i am trying to get a place in an accounts practice, but as u know its quite difficult, i currently live in the west midlands area (coventry) maybe i should try applying places in bigger cities, such as london, manchester? is the situation there better...? any1 know
Don't think the situation is good anywhere. Do you have another job? If so have you thought of volunteering there's a website called Do It http://www.do-it.org.uk/ which gives volunteer opportunities. Or offer your services on a part time voluntary basis to small/medium accountancy practices to gain experience.
I agree with the other posters (some excellent advice from Lorraine there).
Fro the Midlands area Reed Accountancy seem to have the lions share of the business. Have a talk with them and go in to register.
Try to get some entry level temp jobs under your belt in Sales Ledger, Purchase ledger and Credit Control. You will be surprised how much you learn and how ingrained everything becomes when you start working on a clients systems.
I wouldn't contemplate working for yourself until you've done some time working in other peoples finance departments whether that's on a permanent or temp basis.
You do make one comment "Book keeping is not so difficult".
I think that's one of those where for some it comes naturally, others struggle and for some it just never really clicks no matter how much they study.
Also, once you get into bookkeeping properly you will note that it's never as straight forwards as the books. Just look at some of the debates on here involving Bill, Rob, Sheila, Atilla, Myself, etc. You can have professionals with totally different standpoints and at times more than one standpoint is actually correct.
If you are lucky enough to fall in the category of bookkeeping coming easily to you then the likelihood is that you love it and you will make a success of it. All you need is to get a few temp positions under your belt and those AAT letters after your name and you'll be all set to set up as a bookkeeper (even though with MAAT you could (officially) call yourself an accountant).
Good luck with getting your first role, personally I would start with Credit Control as a proper CC role is quite interesting work espechially where you get to do a bit of forensic investigation. Conversely call centre credit control can be a complete living hell of no personal responsibility or interaction with clients so choose your temp position carefully.
Good luck with whatever you do,
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
