I've recently graduated with an accounting and finance degree (Awaiting results, the minimum will be a 2:1, possibly a first class honours) and have been looking into book keeping. The graduate jobs market is currently quite competitive, and my previous grades were not that great and so i'm not in the best position right now.
I was considering bookkeeping as a career, and have researched into IAB and Sage as possible paths. I have studied double entry and some manual bookkeeping two years ago, but would need to refresh my memory. I have also gained an IAB level 2 in computerized bookkeeping, but would also need to study further.
My questions:
What is the best path to re-study (so to speak) manual bookkeeping in the shortest amount of time?
What is recommended to master sage? Would the sage certifications be enough (sage 50 & payroll).
I will also gain ACCA exemptions in F1-F9 (bar audit and taxation papers), would it be worth gaining acca membership now?
Are there any other recommendations?
Thanks for any help!
-- Edited by Nunkey on Wednesday 6th of July 2011 06:48:40 PM
I would probably say, i may be corrected, to answer your first question, AAT, it covers the manual bookkeeping you refer too and more, but can be done in as little as 6 months especially as your a degree student! (wish i did that! :( )
Any other suggestions? Is the AAT route the best for me at the moment? The aim is to be employed to gain as much experience as possible before becoming adventurous!
P.S just found out I've achieved a first class honours!
there are a few questions in there and I'll try to answer them as best I can for your specific requirements and prior learning.
Firstly glad to hear that you did bookkeeping at Uni. So many courses have that as an option then the individuals go onto ACCA exemptions without ever having done the basics.
On the ACCA front you need to make a call on whether you believe that skipping so many papers will help or hinder you. The later papers build on earlier studies. Personally I believe that you should at least sit F7 (financial reporting (FA)) even if the ACCA will give you exemptions from it.
Without doing F7 you may find F8 (Audit), P2 (Corporate reporting) and P7 (Advanced Audit) near impossible to pass.
Go onto the ACCA website and download a few recent sittings of F7 and see whether you would really be able to justify skipping it.
Of note with ACCA. If you want to be an Auditor in the UK you must sit the UK stream P2 (corporate reporting) and P7 (Advanced Audit). Many people from Uni will have only studied the international variant.
One other important thing about the ACCA if you intend to be a bookkeeper is that as soon as you sign up you will be restricted in the services that you can offer to bookkeeping to trial balance, Payroll and VAT.... No tax work, No accounts, no advice. This actually puts you at a disadvantage against people who have only studied bookkeepping.
Whilst AAT is excellent if you are looking for employment if that was what you wanted goining straight to PQ status with the ACCA makes AAT superfluos in this instance.
Better options for working as a bookkeeper and to give you MLR cover and reasonably priced PII would be either the ICB or IAB.
If you go down, say the ICB route and do all of their exams then that covers your bookkeeping revision requirements.
Right, onto the second part of your question abaout a revision course. For the ICB you don't need a training provider (although the training providers try to hide that fact!). You're not going to thank me here for any basic suggestions as to study materials for ICB so give me a minute and I'll try to come up with a more appropraite book list for your circumstances...
Right, I'm back, did you miss me?
You will need Excel and an accounting package on your PC. I would suggest for starters Sage Instants, or Quickbooks Simplestart. When you start using the software commercially then move up to Sage Line 50, Quickbooks Pro or VT Transaction+ (there are many other offerings available in the market including cloud offerings. You're final decision will be very much down to personal preferences and market demands. It is however always worth having a fundamental knowledge of Sage as you will find many clients use this).
I would go for the following books to get you from a revision course to an ICB member in practice :
1) AAT Revision companion for units 1-4 (BPP, ISBN 978075173228 - Newer versions available)
2) AAT Text / Workbook Unit 5, Maintaining Financial Records and Preparing Accounts (Kaplan, ISBN 9781847103222)
3) ACCA stud text paper 1.1 Preparing Financial Statements, (BPP, ISBN 0751702307 - Still to my mind the definitive version of this text and to my mind better than paper F3 materials).
4) Computerised Bookkeeping, Dr Peter Marshall (Accredited textbook of the ICB but seems more geared towards IAB! ISBN 9781845283971. Includes old IAB papers with answers for levels I, II and III. Also includes an old ICB paper without answers?).
Most of my Sage books deal with older versions and it would be little use giving you their ISBN's for those. If you can afford Sage certification then that would certainly be something worth looking at.
I'm sure that I've missed loads out. If I think of anything else I'll post later or just post a follow up question asking specifics and I'll try my best to point you in the right direction,
good to have you on board Nunkey (what is your first name by the way?).
All the best,
Shaun.
__________________
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.
Right, you suddely became of interest to the big four (PWC, KPMG, E&Y and Deloite).
My personal favorite is KPMG but only because I have worked with them a lot and find them to be thougherly nice people... I also worked a lot with the accountants previously in pole position in the top five and to be honest I cannot say the same of them. (Think sharks in suits and you're about there).
All four of the biggies have a good name and with a first you will get your training with ACCA or ICAEW paid for you... Provided that you don't fail more than one paper!
The opportunities available to you with a first are too good to miss out on for setting up a bookkeeping practice. Invest the next five years in working for one of the major players, get your ACCA (or ICAEW) and your post qualification experience and then set up as an Accountant rather than a bookkeeper,
Don't forget to sign up for PQ magazine (its free) that will keep you abreast of developments with all of the major accountancy firms and supervisory bodies.
Good luck moving forwards and don't forget to keep us all informed of your progress.
kind regards,
Shaun.
__________________
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.
Thanks for all of the fantastic information! I will take everything on board. The issue with the big 4 is that they require excessively high grades for A levels, regardless of my degree. I was not (regretfully) as study focused in my college days which I think would hold me back. What would you suggest here? I will most likely be pursuing any accounts experience I can get, regardless of the role, as I really have no relevant experience at the moment.
although the big players may indicate the importance of A level results I've sat on the other side of the fence looking at CV's coming through and despite what may be on the application forms A levels often only get a cursory glance (that's my experience but it may not be true of all institutions).
The important factor here is a first class honours degree. Getting an invite for an interview for a position then comes down to the number of applicants with the same results as yourself and then it comes down to which Uni you studied at... Sorry to say but Oxbridge firsts still get the choice of the roles although other uni's are very well thought of and prioritised for specific subjects, for example, studying Law at Nottingham uni is very well regarded.
All of the big four are having major recruitment drives this year due to a general upturn in the market so don't give up on them just yet and don't let their advertised requirements put you off applying. You might be surprised but I fully expect you to get a callback.
For practice roles knowledge of Sage makes you of more interest. (the other two that are biggies in practice are IRIS and SAP but the likelihood of being able to pick one of those up before getting a role is remote). Sage certification to level III lets people know that you can find your way around the product but don't break the bank acquiring certification. Being able to find your way around sage is probably more than enough for now.
Only consider chartered or chartered certified practices. Nothing against the others (such as IFA's) but getting your post qualification experience so that you can set up in practice yourself will require that your mentor is suitably qualified under a relevant supervisory body.
Good luck and if there's any further help or advice that we can offer don't hesitate to post follow up posts. Also, if you don't get a response within a day don't worry about bumping your post back up to the top of the queue. Sorry I missed your post when you first posted it but sure tht you'll appreciate that the regulars on here don't get paid for our responses and are also trying to run our own businesses so the occassional post that should have been answered does slip through the net. Applogies again for that.
kind regards,
Shaun.
__________________
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.
Thanks a lot once again. I will be watching these forums from now on, it's an amazing resource of information. I will also see where i can get to with regards to the big 4 (and any other training contracts in the city).
