I am going to be made redundant and hope to become a self-employed book keeper. I have some experience of bookkeeping in my job and my boss is very keen to help me as she thinks it is the right move for me. I have taken OU B190 (awaiting result) and I definitely want to do further study preferably with qualifications/exams. I like the idea of self study and started Peter Marshalls Computerised Book-keeping book. The ICB is more flexible for future study and I can take the exams locally. My current plan is to use my B190 to become a member of IAB and see if I can get some clients. If there is no work it doesnt seem a good idea to invest too much in getting qualifications.
My question is would being a member of IAB (with clients) preclude me from becoming a student of ICB at a later date? If I stayed with the IAB I would be unable to take any more qualifications because of the exam locations.
we had a bit of a debate on here the other day in that I think that OU B190 is an excellent introductory course but I feel that the IAB give too much exemption based on that qualification. It's basically the same qualification as the AAT ABC bookkeeping course and that doesn't gain the same level of exemption from IAB.
ICB or IAB are both excellent qualifications in order to set up as a bookkeeper but OU B190 will not on it's own prepare you as much as if you had taken either of those qualifications by sitting the exams of the supervsory bodies.
Personally if I were you I would go ICB and sit their exams. Nothing against the IAB but you state that there is a problem getting to an IAB test centre for you.
There are only three exams to pass to get you to AICB at which point you could set up as a bookkeeper under the ICB banner (you also need to get a practicing certificate from them which will cover you for MLR. To get the practicing ceertificate you will need PI Insurance which is available from Trafalgar (once you reach AICB) or from Arlington (see top of this page) or numerous others but few are as reasonably priced as those mentioned.
On the specific question you can be a member of as many supervisory bodies as you wish but you will have MLR cover from only one. James would be the best person to answer this specific question as I can see a potential issue where you offer payroll or self assessment services under your IAB banner but have not passed those modules with the ICB... Then again, I'm assuming that if you do not mention the ICB at all you will probably be ok in that situation. As I say though, this is best answered by James but I just didn't want you to feel that you were being ignored.
Welcome to the site,
kind regards,
Shaun.
P.S. I found the Peter Marshall book is a bit disappointing in that it doesn't give the answers to the ICB test paper, It does however redeem itself with the three levels of IAB papers with answers which I did the other day to test out the differences between doing the same exams under Sage, Quickbooks and VT Accounts.
__________________
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.
Thank you for you thoughts Shaun. I do agree with you B190 on its own is not enough. You are only telling me what I knew, mainly through reading this forum. Though it will take a bit longer to pass the exams for ICB it is best choice, then just hope that I can get some work.
I would like to ask for some more advice. I have been offered some part-time work and have a choice of either going employed or self-employed at the same rate of pay. As I will get other work I can take the self-employed option. Has anyone any thoughts on the fors and againsts.
The downside of self-employed you don't get paid when your off sick or on hols. The plus side is you are not tied into a contract and if you really don't like it then you can walk away if this is the case I would always give abit of notice anyway. It also depends if the part-time job is flexibel hours to suit you or are you tied to certain days etc? I did work in an office on a self-employed basis for a while a long time ago and to be honest they treated me as though I was employed and I even had to fill out a holiday form, even though I didn't get paid for my holidays so be careful as to what you are letting yourself into. And they were totally inflexible with the hours, if I had to take a day off sick because my child was ill (this happened once), they promptly told me to make the hours up even though that didn't apply to me. I may have just been unlucky buy they really didn't understand the difference between self-employed and employed! They never really understood that they only got invoiced for the hours that I actually worked! One last thing they also wrote me out a contract saying I couldn't work for anyone else at the same time!!! I pointed out to them that that was an 'employed' contract that they had just adapted for me and I already had other clients that I was not going to ditch because of their contract! They just didn't understand that self employed means exactly that and I could have other clients as well!
Obviously if they employ you you will get holidays paid for etc, just make sure that if they employ you they understand that you may at a later date take on some other clients. Dont' let them restrict you if you want to grow your business. Of course these are only my thoughts from a previous bad experience that I learnt from very quicky, others on here may well have different thoughts.
HTH
-- Edited by Amanda on Wednesday 20th of July 2011 11:57:25 AM
Also worth considering is that as a self employed person your training costs are down to you but if you are employed then you "should"(!) be able to get this through your employer.
As a self employed person you must be paid more as you will also be responsible for your employers N.I. contributions.
other things to consider (as Amanda touches upon) as a self employed person you are not entitled to holidays, sickpay, paid maternity leave, redundancy, training...
Another consideration is that as self employed your client can normally just turn around and tell you not to bother turning up the next day if they are short of work whereas on an employed basis you have rights.
If it was me, unless you have multiple clients or this client is willing to pay at least double the rate that they would as an employee then as a choice is on the table I would go for employment.
__________________
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.
This employer/contractor seems not to believe your choice will effect them much one way or the other. For the reasons outlined, it effects you very much, as an employee has far more rights - it might be worth asking if you will be in the firm's pension scheme? Pension is another reason why a self employed person should charge a much greater rate per hour, along with insurances, new equipment etc.
If it was me, I'd be tempted by the regular employment income while you garner your own client base. You can always hand in your notice later if you no longer have the time!
If you do self employment alongside this job then put away ¼ of your income so you have something put aside for the nasty tax man. You can adjust that proportion, when you have an idea of what your tax bill might be.
Thank you for all your replies. I had already decided to except employment before I read your replies, so it is nice to know I have made the right choice!
