Hi Lyndsey,

Just to echo Kris's welcome to the forum.

Quick warning about going down the ACCA route though.

You may find that under ICB you are able to offer a full range of services to clients but as soon as you join the ACCA as a student regulation 8 will restrict the services that you already offer so that you are able to offer only bookkeeping to trial balance, VAT and payrol work. Basically base level bookkeeping with no advice, no tax work and no accounts work.

There are several threads on the site (a lot of them with myself as a main contributir) by people who have hit the wall ACCA restrictions.

Also note that you need three years practical experience under a suitably qualified accountant to gain membership and two years after you've passed all of the exams to gain a practice certificate.

The actual ACCA qualification is second to none and the knowledge that you bring away from it is to my mind withour equal... But, you just need to be aware of the restrictions that regulation 8 will place on you.

As an alternative to ACCA have you thought about IFA post ICB? They are now an IFAC recognised body even though they are not a CCAB member.

I am very adverse to advising anyone to study anything but ACCA as I know how well the qualification will set you up but considering your scenario I think that you really need to look very hard at whether your career will be able to survive the restrictions that going down that route will place upon you.

kindest regards,

Shaun.

Hi all

Thanks for your responses

Shamus thank you very much for the advice! I wasnt aware of the ACCA restrictions! I did know that you had to work in a firm to complete the qualification, this was why I was looking for an alternative.

With the IFA could you be classed as a "Certified" accountant. My concern was many people don't understand the difference between a "bookkeeper" and a "accountant", so I would prefer to be able to say I'm a certified accountant rather than a certified bookkeeper... I will definately look at the IFA - are there any disadvantages of IFA against ACCA?

Also when checking for a remortgage calculator on a well known comparison site, if you put yourself in as being "self-employed" it asks whether the accounts were produced by a "certified" or "chartered" accountant. Do people come across difficulties applying for a mortgage when a bookkeeper completes the tax returns? Do they need to be certified by a qualified accountant? If I had the IFA would they still need to be certified?

Hi thanks for your help :D this is a VERY helpful forum.

I am not too worried about the heirarchy at the moment, as I am not looking at getting a job at a big accountancy practice/blue chip firm (had enough of working for them...). As I am only planning on doing freelance accounts/tax returns work for small independant local businesses, who probably wouldnt have a clue between ACCA/IFA/CIMA, from my experience talking to people they will only really know the word "accountant". I am just concerned if there are anything missed, as would like to be able to do returns for Limited Companies (extemely unlikely that they will be PLC). This is my plan for the next 10 years or so (my daugther in only 9 months).

Hi Lyndsey,

the training that you receive through the ACCA qualification is second to non, espechially the skills level papers F4 through F9. It really is a shame that regulation 8 effectively stops you from taking them (on an official footing) if you also want to be self employed.

Personally I would not advise being without a supervisory body as it gives status not just in the minds of clients but also respect in the eye's of other accountants (sometimes I think that the levels of qualification are more for ourselves than the clients!).

You could of course study for the various papers by self study or distance learning, sit the exams on your own under exam conditions and get a freind / associate to mark you results which would give you a feeling of satisfaction in knowing that you can do it even if you don't get the letters.

At the moment the ACCA papers are freely available in the past papers section of their website. Before anyone should think about calling themselves an accountant (regardless as to their actual qualification) I feel that they should at least be able to sit ACCA papers F6 (Taxation), F7 (financial accounting) and F9 (financial Management) under exam conditions.

As Mark states, audit (as with insolvency) is protected in law so unless you have the correct level of practice certificate you would not be able to offer those services even if you were Chartered or Chartered Certified (There are even many ACCA practicing members who cannot offer audit and assurance services).

Personally even though I have done the advanced audit which would give me the right to apply for an audit practice certificate I have no intention of going down that route as it's a very litigous area to get into and I really don't have the time or money to spend proving my case in court.

Mark, you state current member so I'm assuming that you did your qualifications and then walked away. I see no problem in that approach as you know that you passed the exams so why pay every year if you are not receiving the benefit from membership of whichever body you were part of.

As for clients asking about your qualifications though, as a senior in a chartered practice clients will not ask about your specific qualifications because there is a level of expectation that you are qualified.

I'm not saying that an unqualified person who is QBE, or a previously qualified person who has allowed their membership to lapse is an inferior alternative as skill is very much down to the individual rather than the bits of paper that they hold. There are some very good unqualified accountants and some not so good qualified ones.

However, there is an expectation gap between what the client believes to be true without asking and the actual reality of this scenario.

In some ways the chartered status is your best form of advertising so would the clients decision to come to your practice have been different had they realised that their accountant was not chartered?

Just done another search and can only find study books for the IFA on BPP & no actual supported course, which is fine by me! Does anyone know whether there are set dates for exams ie every 6 months or are they as and when like ICB?

It recommends 140 hours study per module, which if I can keep up the rate I'm going at the moment, will take about 1 month (but I probably will kill myself in the process), I do prefer to only study one module at a time, take the exam, then start on the next, which may take a while if the exams are only every 6 months.