I keep seeing people refer to roles like Credit Controller, Accounts Assistant etc as good stepping stones to becoming a bookkeeper.
At what point can you be called a bookkeeper.
My official title is 'Accounts Assistant'. My role includes Bank recs, purchase and sales ledger, credit control, debt collection, stock taking and a few other things. I deal with all the company credit cards, all the company vehicles and most of the insurance issues.
As a bookkeeper, what else apart from the above would I expect to undertake?
the differentiation between titles is not exactly that clear in this line of work, and it doesn't help that the titles are not officially defined or protected although I believe that the ICB and ACCA are working on changing that (not together of course).
Often bookkeepers produce accounts and giving tax advice which is properly the territory of accountants making them basically cheap accountants (thats meant in monetary not necessarily quality terms).
From your description I would say that you cover the work of a bookkeeper so if you want to call yourself one feel free... Although you may find that the bulk of bookkeepers want to call themselves accounts assistants or assistant accountants as that's more of a stepping stone to accountancy.
Another way to look at matters is based on your qualifications.
I would call ICB and IAB bookkeepers, ACCA and CIMA accountants. AAT... I don't know. Accountants think of them as bookkeepers and bookkeepers think of them as accountants so if you're AAT just call yourself flexible!
All in all you are just hanging a nameplate on yourself so call yourself whatever you like provided that you are capable of doing the work at that level.
kind regards,
Shaun.
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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.
Yep, I really don't mind what I'm called, my point was really was to see if the work I do will be the sort of thing I will be doing once I go self employed.
No matter what you know or what you do any future client will expect you to do something that either (a) you've never done before or (b) never done in the way that the client wants it done.
It's a good idea to have a quality qualification behind you before you get in out of your depth though. If you're intention is self employment then I don't think that you would really need to look any further than MIAB or MICB status (or maybe start a practice at AICB level as you come to this with previous experience).
HTH,
Shaun.
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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.
If you have Level 2 and 3 completed within 2 years then you get partial exemption from Level 2 ICB (AICB).
If you also have Level 4 you get partial exemption from Level 3 MICB (Certified Bookkeeper).
Partial just means you need to do a scenario paper, done at home, ICB send you a fictional set of accounts to do. Shouldn't take more than 2 hours. It is just to cover the bits AAT skips.
I am not sure how the AAT Level 4 matches the ICB Level 4 in terms of exemptions, but I think it will probably get you exemptions from that too.
