I have just made the decision to quite my job after 2 yrs of maternity leave to set up my own bookkeeping business for sole traders and small businesses. My background is a business degree (which included some accounting) and 10yrs at IBM doing commercial management and account management. So no finance experience as such.
I am 2/3s of the way through City & Guilds Bookkeeping & Accounting and love it. So am working on gathering all the info I need to successfully set up my own business... here are just a few of the questions that are buzzing around my head after reading a lot of the threads on similar topics..
- What is a practising certificate and do I need one to work as a self employed bookkeeper?
- I assume I need PI insurance - can anyone recommend a good supplier?
- Data protection - what do I need to do here?
- I get the impression that C&G qualification that I am working through probably won't cut it so am considering going down the ICB route. Has this worked well for most of you?
- What is MLR?
- Do I need any special qualifications to do someone's tax return for them?
I do apologise if any of these questions seem stupid, but being new to all of this I am keen to get as much info as poss.
Thanks for reading this, and thanks in advance for your help. v excited about this new chapter in my life! :o)
Best I take all of your first batch of questions seperately (sure that there will be more ).
- What is a practising certificate and do I need one to work as a self employed bookkeeper?
A practicing certificate means that you are able to trade under the banner of a supervisory body. The practicing certificate is peculiar to that body.
If you don't have a supervisory body you don't need a practicing certificate although joining someone like the ICB or IAB would probably be beneficial in terms of getting advice and feeling part of a larger community.
- I assume I need PI insurance - can anyone recommend a good supplier?
Very sensible but not actually a legal requirement (although it will be a requirement of your supervisory body).
A good supplier of PII is Arlington from this site who get you insurance through Zurich for £78 (plus site membership of £24).
- Data protection - what do I need to do here?
Have a read of this thread : http://www.book-keepers.org.uk/t27826678/data-protection-act/
- I get the impression that C&G qualification that I am working through probably won't cut it so am considering going down the ICB route. Has this worked well for most of you?
ICB are a great organisation that have helped many people to form their own bookkeeping businesses and are very much geared up towards self employed members in practice.
I was a member for a while and have no complaints. I only left because the restrictions that the ACCA place on me through regulation 8 rendered the ICB membership useless to me.
If the ICB had been my only professional body I would have still been with them.
Before going ICB though don't forget to also check out the IAB before making an informed choice.
- What is MLR?
Money Laundering regulations and you really, really need to be registered for this either via a practicing certificate of someone like the ICB or directly with HMRC.
Not registering carries the potential for an unlimited fine and possible serious jail time.
- Do I need any special qualifications to do someone's tax return for them?
No but certain professional bodies will restrict the services that you can offer as far as final accounts and tax returns are concerned so best to check the rules that your chosen professional body will impose before joining up with one of them.
Hope that helped to get you started,
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.
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