Hi, I am new to the site. I am a practicing bookkeeper with a good longstanding client base. I use Sage but have never done manual bookkeeping or had any formal training. I was taught the rudiments by my previous business partner and the rest I have learnt from an accountant I have worked for and by experience.
I have been running my bookkeeping business for about 12 years. Most of my clients are small businesses and one man bands but I have recently taken on a client who has a larger turnover and trade in Europe and beyond.
I would like to feel more confident in my knowledge of not just the day to day bookkeeping and bank reconciliations etc but to have a deeper understanding of the management accounts I am producing, HMRC regulations, money laundering regulations etc etc. I want to step up my service and I enjoy learning anyway.
I am thinking that the AAT Level 2 Bookkeeping Course might be the best route to take but am limited in time - my work keeps me busy full time although I am more than happy to study in the evening at weekends and also cost - I am on a limited budget. What other courses are available - is AAT the recognised qualification?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks. Sue
your #1 priority has to be Money laundering as to operate without it carries a jail term of up to 14 years imprisonment and unlimited fine.
You will be able to register your office with HMRC for £110 but you will need to perform Customer Due Dilligence procedures on all of your clients (you need to confirm who they are and where their funds are coming from. Remember that tax evasion is a crime so comes under Money laundering and you are legally oblijed to report clients that you suspect of money laundering).
As for qualification, your experience to date if a suitably qualified accountant is willing to vouch for you you should be able to get membership of the IAB or IFA by exemption if you wanted to go down that route.
If you are concerned about your lack of knowledge on the manual side of things then considering your experience I would have thought that readiing a good book would be all that you need to get you up to speed.
Have a think about what I've written so far and then repost with your thoughts
Your number one priority though has to be that MLR cover either from HMRC or by immediate membership of a suitable professional body that is recognised as a supervisory body for MLR purposes.
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.
Hi, Thanks for your reply. I am already registered for MLR with HMRC and have been since the regulations came in. I am also attending a course on the subject in October so hopefully I can keep up to speed on that subject.
Thank you for those book recommendations. I will certainly have a look and see if those will help fill the gaps in my knowledge.
I guess, having taken on this client and dealing with such things as Deferred VAT, dollar and euro transactions etc of which I have had no experience I feel a little unsure of certain aspects and anything I can do to fill the gaps in my knowledge has got to help.
I was reading through all your posts...I`m a newbie is here and need some advice, please.
I was working as a bookkeeper in the last 2 years for a small ltd, did double entry bookkeeping, payroll, invoicing, on-line banking, VAT returns (quarterly), supported year-end accounts preparations mainly.
I`m holding the ICB qualification through HLC (please don`t laugh, when I arrived in the UK, I didn`t know much about your system and only wanted to get a UK qualification....) Now I`m i na job hunt and looks like my ICB is not enough, neither the recruiters don`t really seem to care what I`ve done in the past - they seem to ask for AAT constantly :(
Could you please suggest me the cheapest and quickest way how I could pass these AAT exams, which level should I start, how and where?
Sorry to be so awkward, but the country I`m coming from doesn`t really make any difference between bookkeepers and accountants, these positions are the same.
if you have the ICb qualifiction you can probably skip level II of the AAT and start at level III.
how to study depends on yourself. You could enroll at your local college but you have to study at their pace and take exams when they say. You can study via distance learning and take exams as you feel ready which will speed up the qualification time. Or you can get a book and study at home, which will save you money. However, there are certain modules that you need to have an assessor for which you will need to pay for if you are not with a training provider.
The advantage of the AAT is that it is widely recognised and you are able to gain exemptions if you want to further your studies eventually and study one of the "big" accountancy qualifications, ACCA, ACA and CIMA.
Nick
P.S. i take it you didnt find HLC a laughing matter then?
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Nick
Nick Craggs FMAAT ACA AAT Distance Learning Manager
The main advantage of AAT is, that this seems to be the only qualification which employers accept
Or PQ ACCA / CIMA.
As for how long AAT takes, the changes seem to be making it faster so I see no reason why you couldn't get AAT level III under your belt well within two years.
As for equivalents that's a difficult question as exemptions between bodies are often more down to internal bargaining of the bodies than legitimately one being better than another.
My feel is that AAT level III, AIB level IV and ICB level IV are all about the same level and it could be argued that much of AAT level IV is within the ICB and IAB syllanuses at that level.
The real issue as you've already discovered is that employers want AAT, ACCA or CIMA and are not much interested in any other qualification and even then experience seems to count more than the qualification does.
Rather than starting AAT at level II you could sit the skills test which your ICB studies should see you sail through (maybe with the help of an AAT revision book for the old units 1-4) so then you would be able to start at level three and bring your studies at that level down to about a year.
There is also the alternative that you could go straight for the ACCA qualification either via the FIA or MSER routes.If that was your eventual intent it would make sense to go down that route rather than working your way towards it only to be able to get exemptions from the first three ACCA papers for all of your AAT studies.
Your ICB studies would give you good foundations to get started with the qualification but ACCA doesn't actually give any exemptions for the ICB qualification.
Be warned, some papers are an absolute nightmare (Paper P2 is officially the most difficult paper of any professional body although Alex Watt, examiner for P5 is really testing that at the moment with exams that are ridiculously time pressured).
Any one paper with the ACCA (after the first three) is as much study as a whole level of AAT and ACCA regulation puts severe restrictions on the services that you are allowed to offer on a freelance basis... But... When / if you pass it you know that you have achieved something substantial and that a good many who start that journey don't complete it.
Think long and hard about where you see yourself ten years from now and if it's as an accountant then either via AAT to ACCA or direct to ACCA (or CIMA) that's probably going to be the route that you end up taking so rather than pay for courses to lead up to that, go directly for what you really want.
You can study ACCA from books and just pay for the exams. 10+ years of past exam papers are freely available to download from their site for every paper except the first three which only have pilot papers so you really need the exam kits for those as well as the texts.
Good luck with whichever route you choose,
kindest 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.
As it's home study you can actualy complete AAT Level 3 very quickly. if you pick the righ training provider that has instant access to tutors and a very prompt marking turnaround then you have cracked it!
We have had a student that has completed the AAT level's 2, 3 and 4 in 8months! Of course this is not everyones cup of tea but the point I am making is that there are no barriers so as much time as you commit to your studies will basically dictate the lentgh of the course.
Visit our website www.premiertraining.co.uk and you'll see the difference in the syllabus of the ICB and AAT. There is a fare bit of difference at levels 2 & 3 so you could say they are not quite equivelent.
Let me know if you have any questions I'll be glad to help.
In ten years I definitely see myself as an accountant - sooner if it`s possible!
What I don`t want to do really - wasting money on training providers if it`s not essential. honestly, I had no problem with HLC, but I felt I never got clear answers when I needed them, and I don`t want to step in the same kind of mud again :( And can`t afford to try out all training providers...
I`d really appreciate if you could advice me useful books to start with.
Am I correct to believe that the first step is to register with ACCA? Then to apply for the first exam as early as I can?
As I`m not British and gained all my qualifications abroad, I suspesc I need to take that FIA Qualification first?
no need at all for a training provider with the ACCA and you have the option of either FIA or MSER routes.
I find the best approach to be the following
I-Learn DVD courses from BPP
Study texts from Kaplan
Free online lectures from Open tuition (The lectures are being given in English but in Eastern Europe).
Past exam papers downloaded free from the ACCA website.
For Tax and financial reporting papers (F6, F7, P2 and P6) you will also need the exam kit from Kaplan or BPP as the exam answers on the ACCA website are never updated with the latest tax rules or financial reporting standards.
For your first steps think seriously about I-Learn courses for F1, F2 and F3 plus Kaplan study texts. The BPP courses will have to be purchased new as the licences are none transferable. Sometimes Amazon have good deals available on these.
F1 and F2 study texts can be purchased second hand (Amazon resellers or Ebay).
F3 study text needs to be new (Amazon normally come in 10-15% cheaper than other providers including the publishers).
As a minimum you need to be thinking of £70 in study materials per paper plus the cost of sitting the exam.
If I could do it all again I would study one paper ahead of the paper that I was looking to pass. For example, to pass F3 I would study F3 and F7. To pass F7 I would study F7 and P2.
Take audit papers at the same time as financial reporting papers and group management accounting papers as the studies are very complimentary.
Good luck in your studies and I look forwards to chatting as you progress with whichever route that you choose,
kindest 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.
Thanks again. I didn`t disappear - only started to dig deeper in my possibilities. Hopefully next week I`ll register with AAT and do the online skillcheck... will keep you update.
