Hi Julie,

congratulations on passing your AAT level II.

What do you mean by "getting nowhere with your training provider?".

bookkeeping is one of those area's where official recognition is not everything and certainly there is nothing to stop you from setting up as a bookkeeper at the end of AAT level II. See the site Resources tab at the top for invaluable assistance in this and there are plenty of dicsussion posts on here for anything that you need more assistance with.

The question that you should however be asking yourself is not "am I allowed to?" but rather "can I?".

AAT level II is a good foundation but AAT goes to level IV and whilst fully qualified AAT people can call themselves accountants personally I feel that AAT level IV is the level that bookkeepers should really attain before going solo (or ICB or IAB membership levels).

That said, you don't need the qualifications to set up. What you need is the knowledge and much of what you find that you will need will be found buried on the HMRC website rather than in the study texts that you will have been working from so far.

There's an old addage that there is no replacement for experience and that's very true so if you really feel that you are ready to set up now (rather than your finances telling you that you need to set up now) then go for it rather than wiaiting on bits of paper to confirm your readiness.

Good luck with the new venture whenever it starts,

kind regards,

Shaun.