Hi Clive,

short answer to your question is no, your not too old.

Were you ever at Filton? I was down there back in the late eighties designing their hanger management system for them for the airbus. All COBOL. CICS and DB2 back in those days. Ahh, happy times!

Coming from a background of working in BOM and Capacity planning area's can open doors to some purchase and sales ledger work for you but you would need to be able to get the message accross to clients with mid range businesses if that was an aread that you were looking to specialise in. So you should be thinking about networking oportunities possibly with business breakfast clubs.

That's very much in the future though. Lets concentrate on the now.

What do you mean by getting overawed by the price of computerised level 2? You do realise that you don't need a training provider for ICB exams don't you? It's not something that training providers bandy about too much but with ICB it's just a matter of join up and take the exams as and when you feel ready.

For some people the rigid training regime of a training provider works well. For others there is no substitute for the books (espechially as with training providers on occassion all they do is read to you from the books anyway).

Charging rates very much depend upon availability of work and the amount of local competition. Some bookkeepers charge as little as £8 per hour, others can command £15+ but of course in a self employed capacity there will be some months when there are not enough hours in the day and others where the phone never rings so you need to average out the rate and factor into it memberships, insurances, software licences, etc.

When you do get a practice licence you will still be restricted as to the services that you can offer. For example, with the ICB you have to pass seperate papers to offer Payroll services and Self Assessment.

You mention computerised level II bookkeeping. How are you coming on with the manual side of things? Have you already passed the level II manual.

Good luck in your studies, it's a long hard path but well worth treading in order to get the level of knowledge that you need to build a business.

All the best,

Shaun.

It seems very reasonable for all six modules but (a) make sure you know what's included in the price (software? Memberships? exam fee's?) and (b) it's still a a lot of money if bookkeeping is not something that you take to. Believe me, there are a lot who never quite get their head around double entry (no, stop with the frankie howard sound effects!!!).

For starters it might be better to sit down and work through a copy of Mastering Bookkeeping and Accounting skills by margaret Nicholson. ISBN 1403992703. Current price on Amazon is £14 but that's more expensive than normal. Usually you can pick that one and Mastering Bookkeeping skills by Peter Marshall for around £20 for the pair.

The Margaret Nicholson book can be a bit dry reading at times. An alternative to check out (an to my mind a far better read espechially when going cover to cover) is Business Accounts for bookkeeping and financial accounting courses by David Cox. Current price on that one is just short of £17.

If you can get all the way through it then you should have a good understanding of double entry bookkeeping and also how the information that you gather relates to the accounts.

Finanlly, when you think that you are ready to be a bookkeeper spend a weekend doing the AAT foundation revision companion for units 1-4. To my mond only when you can do that you are really ready to start learning bookkeeping from a computerised perspective as all too often you find yourself learning to work around the program without understanding why the program is doing what it is.

Don't forget that there are choices when it comes to picking your supervisory body. It would be better if you checked out both the ICB and IAB websites before deciding to go IAB purely on the basis of the course which is available locally. I'm not saying that the IAB is wrong for you, I'm just saying that it would be better to check out both of your primary options (there are others but for going self employed and speed of qualification those are the main two).

I appreciate what you say about you can pick things up quickly but you currently have no idea of the sheer volume of information that you will need to take in. I went on from developing systems for companies like BAe to designing and developing banking systems but nothng gets you ready for the level of knowledge that you need for this.... Admittedly I'm more accountancy than bookkeeping but you will quickly find that many clients don't know the difference and when they look for a bookkeeper they are really looking for a cheap accountant!

It will all become clear in the next few months. In the meanwhile best methinks that you start with a good book rather than the expense of a course. Of course, the route that you take is completely up to you as only you know the way that you learn best.

Good luck in your studies no matter which option that you go for.

Kind regards,

Shaun.

P.S. on the BAe front my systems were the hanger management system, capacity planning project and the time and attendance projects. I was actually a management consultant working with third party suppliers rather than for or with the BAe staff but dealt with people on site at Filton during product planning and implementation. Never know, we might have met in passing.

Hi Clive,

Since you are an Excel specialist, I think that this might encourage you:

I work as a Financial Accountant, usually in a practice environment. Most of my assignments have involved the use of accounting software such as Sage, Pastel Accounting, Quickbooks and Caseware.

What's exciting is my present contract:
I'm working for a Chartered Accountant and the ONLY software I am using is Microsoft Excel (the CA is from the "old school" so doesn't have much use for computer software).

Example:
Doing bookkeeping of a cheque account in Excel is easy - set up columns for "date", "details", "withdrawals", "deposits" and a "running balance". Once done, insert a column to the right of the details column and type in a suitable "account name" for whatever is in the "details" column. Hint: use filters and copy and fill to save time.
Assign a suitable "account name" to each line.

Now the fun begins! Insert a Pivot Table to display the data you have entered. You would need to select "account name", "withdrawals" and "deposits", and set up values to be the sum of.
I'm presuming that you have used Pivot Tables, so let me know if you need help with this. Journal entries can be incorporated into your data - when you "refresh" the Pivot Table, the totals will update. Hint: make sure all columns have headings, otherwise Pivot Table will not work.

Pivot Tables have limitless possibilities: draft financial statements, produce general ledger .....

Have fun with some Pivot Tables ... and no, you are certainly not too old to be doing bookkeeping - you obviously have a love for figures so that's important.

Good luck,
Sue