Hi Elena,

welcome to the forum.

I would consider the essential skills to be :

understanding of how to do books manually or you will never really understand journals. (Sounds as though you're covering that path)

Good grasp of basic maths

Sound knowledge of Excel (Rather than do a course buy this book and self study : Excel 2007 Data Analysis and Business Modelling by Wayne Winston (ISBN 9780735623965))

Able to work alone for long periods

Not be overwhelmed by huge amounts of data (you will get presented with the occassional large plastic bin liner full of everything for a business for the year. I find it helps in these situations if you have access to a very large floor space).

Finding jobs is quite different from going it alone. Many employers prefer applicants who have AAT training rather than the bookkeeping qualifications such as ICB and IAB. However, even with AAT there is no guarantee that you will find employment as there are a lot of people retraining at the moment. You will eventually find that there is no substitute for experience and getting your first role can be a major headache.

Try applying for temp work as well as permanent. Look at credit control as well as basic data entry roles.

Accounts assistant roles are very sought after and near (but not absolutely) impossible for non experienced people to get. Local to myself a recent job ad by reed had 935 applicants in under two hours!

Ultimately I fear that as with most people starting along this patrh you will find your only option to be self employment but that shouldn't put you off applying for permanent roles is that's where you feel more comfortable.

Good luck with your studies and eventually finding a role that you are happy with. It certainly sounds as though you've started in the right way down this path.

All the best and kind regards,

Shaun.

I think with your current qualifications your best bet for getting experience is the temping route, however, you may find it quite stressful to begin with. Also don't go on a course at a college to learn Excel it won't teach you what you need to know to use spreadsheets for book-keeping. Buy a book as Shaun said, I used to have a decent one - Successful ICT Projects in Excel (A Level ICT) by Pat M. Heathcote - but lent it out and haven't got it back so can't give you ISBN.

Elana, I guess if you are asking the questions you are asking, you have not become a member of the IAB? Doing the qualifications is just one part of becoming a professional bookkeeper. so you should also become a member of a professional body. Its not just about paying subscriptions, but getting help, support and information from your professional body and you will only get that if you are a member.

IAB members are starting to get recognition with employers, and this should increase a lot with the IAB qualifications being accepted for Apprenticeships. Its just a matter of time, before you start seeing Agencies and employers requesting IAB member in the same way you see AAT member when advertising jobs.

If you take ICB exams will aim to join the ICB, if you take the AAT exams you would expect to join the AAT, so if you take the IAB exams you should join the IAB .

Hi Shaun, thank you for your reply . I will take in mind everything you adviced me . About being self employed , what does it mean , is like working part time for different campanies? I am not expecting to find a full time job , even a few hours a week will be good for a start , anyway I have a 15 mths old boy so I wouldnt want to send him to nursery full time yet (plus its soooo expensive) .

About Excel,a friend also adviced me to learn using a book , the problem is , english is not my first language so it will be very difficult to understand everything , but it will be cheaper,so I will see .

 Thanks again

Elena

 

 

Hi again , could you please explain me a bit what u said , "Look at credit control as well as basic data entry roles" . I have seen ads asking for Credit Controller , what does involve ,dealing with Control Accounts ? Or maybie its something I havent studied yet , as I only did level 1&2 of bookkeeping.

I know in level 3 bookkeeping I am suposed to learn about depreciation , production of complex financial statements for a Sole Trader or Partnership from both complete and incomplete records and others . Its this something that a ussual bookkeeper does or rather a accounts assistant ? 

  And about account assistant , what do they do or know more than an usuall bookkeeper ? Or they just have more experience ?

 

  Hope u dont mind so many questions .

Thanks

Elena

Hi Elena,

unfortunately as English is not your first language credit control may not be an option for you as one spends a lot of time on the phone chasing debts.

That's not to say it's definitely a write off as often credit control positions come up for native speakers of other languages. (I've seen ads for Russian, French, Thai and Chinese speaking credit controllers recently)

The original suggestion was because credit control encompasses working a lot with the ledgers to track mispostings and also recasting accounts, interacting with the sales ledger team, performing bank recs and producing management reports.

As you can see it's an area that covers a wider range of material than basic sales and purchase ledger roles.

I would classify depreciation as well as accruels and prepayments as being basic bookkeeping knowledge.

Production of financial statements is where bookkeeping and accountancy crosses paths as many bookkeepers do indeed produce the books for small businesses.

Even if you don't produce accounts it's a good idea to have a sound knowledge as to what goes where and why in the financial statements as it gives clarity to why you are recording transactions as you are.

Hope that this helps,

Shaun.