As i am looking to start my own part time freelance bookkeeping business I followed some of the advice on the resources section. I looked on do-it.org for volunteer finance positions. I applied for a volunteer position and am currently in discussions with someone with regards to me helping them with finances.
It should help me gain experience in other areas than what I am used to.
cheers for the update Elain and good luck in the new role.
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.
Thanks for the update too, I looked at the website and have found someone in my area looking for the same. I've signed up and hope to do my part for Charity too! :D
Hope that it's Porsches for ex bankers. A really under rated and under funded charity that really needs peoples money.
p.s. either a black one or a silver one would be fine... 3.2 litre engine prefered but it's a chasrity so I'll settle for a 2.7 litre engine. Beggers can't be choosers and all that.
p.s.2 joking aside, big crongratulations on getting the role Gary. Sure it's the first step on the road to donating that Porsche to a worthy cause (me).
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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.
Well they havn't contacted me yet Shamus! LOL But its Marie Curie Cancer as a Treasurer, and as i lost my dad to Cancer last year i thought maybe I could give something back.... :D
(and Porsches are for men with little willies or hair dressers, and as i fall in to niether category, I'd MUCH rather have the new Nissan R35!!! ;) THAT'S my car of choice!!!!!)
Nice when one works for charities that one has a belief in.
On the car front R35's a nice replacement for the old Skyline. My aspiration is actually a BMW M3 but would have settled for the porsche (or an R35) if someone would give me one.... Think that the little willie thing is just a rumour spread by people who can't afford them and the obligatory hairdressers cars are the Toyota MR2 and the Mazda MX5. Or generally something that looks sporty but isn't expensive... which might actually scrape as high as a boxster. But then according the Jeremy Clarkson the boxster is just the Porsche that you get when you know that your life will never fund the purchase of a 911.
My boys aspiration is a Shelby Mustang.... Didn't even think that we had them in this country and then I noticed that there seems to quite a few new one's around by me replacing the 4x4's as obviously the latter just didn't use up enough petrol for their drivers.
All this talk of real cars is making me want to put on a Fast and Furious DVD and watch some Car Porn. lol
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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.
My boys aspiration is a Shelby Mustang.... Didn't even think that we had them in this country and then I noticed that there seems to quite a few new one's around by me replacing the 4x4's as obviously the latter just didn't use up enough petrol for their drivers.
All this talk of real cars is making me want to put on a Fast and Furious DVD and watch some Car Porn. lol
Cant beat an Eleanor!! Damn i love that car!! HAS to be Blue with white stripes though... :D
And ya know what i might just do the same Shamus! cant wait till Fast n Furious 6 comes out next year!!! (around May time FYI! ;) )
After hitting a gap between contracts (I had signed for a contract for a project that didn't start for three months) and having no UK love interest I went to heathrow with passport, creditcard, minimal baggage and some cash and picked a country. Travelled around for a bit but ended up in the North East of Thailand where I settled down with someone.
Ended up that I worked in London but lived in Thailand. I would spend up to three months at a time there during which time I worked alongside extended family in the fields harvesting rice (much to the ammusement of the locals at my speed compared to theirs).
Notable achievements were buying a tractor for the extended families use and also getting one of the family out of financial trouble when a road was built through his restaurant and to try and get restarted he borrowed more than he should have.
Great memories were things like circling a temple at dawn seven times with the son of a particularly naughty Dad carrying his dad around the temple until the monks would accept him for a bity of repentance time as a monk. (the naugtiness involved a young maid and a not very happy wife!).
Always remember that the first day that I slept in the village I opened the door onto the farm forecourt and it was full of little old ladies that had been sitting there silently until I got up.
They had all been given medicine by the local doctor but had no idea how to take it as the instructions were in English. I read the instructions and every person there, no matter what their ailment had been given evening proimrose oil in different packages. Didn't have the heart to tell them the truth of matters so just told them how to take it.
The Thai's think that I am crazy because the men eat the turtles (#2) that they find whilst draining the paddy fields down to the next level but I would exchange one bottle of beer for one turtle then go and take it off to a small pond somewhere and set it free. Also did the same with live fish being sold from buckets except had to pay cash for those to set them free.
Sure that some of the locals made a very nice living overstocking on live food just for me to liberate it (for then no doubt to catch again).
The villages in the North East are really poor and although they hate the idea of charity and would not accept it I would like to give them some free English lessons in order for them to be able to work in the hotel trade or Hospitals in Bangkok rather than as happens so often for them to be sucked into the seedier side of the tourist trade in the country.
Cambodia and Laos are very similar to Northern Eastern Thailand in culture, beliefs and attitude. Given the choice of those two I would definitely take Cambodia over Africa but that's just me.
kindest regards,
Shaun.
#1 you can catch the 21:30 BA flight out of Heathrow on a Thursday for an extended weekend. Then the 00:30 (Thailand time) Quantas flight out of BKK on the Monday morning you can be sitting at your desk in central London by 8 a.m. (UK Time) in the morning. Only did that once but it is doable.
#2 the women have been convinced that turtles are poisonous to women but make men stronger!... Must try that line with tins of quality street and see if it works in the UK.
p.s. edited to change the times to 24 hour clock and a couple of spelling mistakes
-- Edited by Shamus on Friday 31st of August 2012 09:30:03 PM
__________________
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.
When my boys at Uni I intend to do a few months teaching EFL in North East Thailand.
If Thailands your pick and you need any info just email me for a chat as I used to live there so know a bit about the place.
all the best,
Shaun.
__________________
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 that's very kind. Cambodia and Africa has been suggested so far. Because it will be my first project they said they're very welcoming and friendly. They're used to accepting volunteers I believe. I'm excited but nervous. I'm considering doing EFL course too for the future. Last year I volunteered with wildlife in Africa but I wasn't impressed as it seemed to be a money spinner rather than a genuine cause. I hope I'll soon find a rewarding project where I can make a difference.
What did you do in Thailand? Heard lots of positives.
Wow Shaun that sounds abs. Fabulous and very brave. I want o experience things like that. Im thinking Cambodia too. I'm trying to persuade my family to join me later - I think that will give more more courage to go for it! :). At 20 years old I wouldn't have thought twice. It's the unknown ESP accounting overseas. But like the IAB examiner said once accounting is accounting just in different bottles. Something like that anyway. :)))).
If I were your family I would feel a lot safer with you in SE Asia than Africa.
Thats not saying there are no dangers anywhere that one goes in the world but I have to say that I always felt a lot safer in Bangkok in the middle of the night than I do in Wolverhampton in the middle of the day! And I would not even say that Wolverhampton was one of the bad cities in the UK.
Anyway, to get you started on your journey heres the Deloitte page for Cambodia's adoptions of International Financial Reporting Standards.
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.
Got my charity accounts volunteer position. I start tomorrow for 2 hours each Wednesday evening. The lady has told me everything is done in an excel spreadsheet but different funding's are recorded separately. It'll probably take me a couple of weeks to get my head around it but looking forward to it.
I've been to the charity tonight to look at the books for the first time. I have no experience of charity accounts whatsoever but get a feeling that things are not quite right.
Its made up of excel sheets. A different sheet for the different projects/funding areas. On each sheet there are just 2 separate columns. One for income: ie fees for the attendees, donations etc. The other column for expenditure. The receipts for expenditure where all over the place not even kept in a container. Some where on the floor and others where on top of a table and from different months and years. I've added in subtotals to the columns to see how much has been received and spent so far this year.
The lady has told me that her accountant charges her £1000 to do the accounts. If the prep work is done via a bookkeeper ( myself) shouldn't this make it easier for the accountant and therefore reduce the bill to he.
Does this sound like charity accounts and/or is there a better way to record this information and make it easier/less work for the accountant to do at year end?
Any help/advice would be appreciated. This is my first volunteer position that I was hoping to use to get me on the ladder to doing books for other people.
Welcome to bookkeeping for the third sector. You're right, if you sort out the bookkeeping it should reduce the accountants fees.
Some charities don't need to have proper accrual accounts, a simple income and expenditure account is enough. Why not speak to the accountant and find out what would make it easier for him/her and therefore cheaper for the charity?
Do you think they would give me any information on how the accounts are done as this is taking work away from them but then she is talking about looking for a new accountant. Should I speak to the woman at the charity first before approaching the accountants? Bearing in mind that it is a charity you would think the accountant would try and help but you never know.
If you get a good bookkeeping system in place you're sure to save accountancy fees. That fee is quite high prob because they're working with incomplete records. Before speaking with the accountant double check if they're on a fixed fee or time rate! Ob ask permission first. They can't keep info from you. say you want to improve record keeping to make their job easier. I would hope they would appreciate it and encourage it!
Thanks Sonya. Do you think they will tell me the correct way to prepare the books. I really want to help this charity get things in order but also want it for future work for myself on a self employed basis.
Yes they should provide some guidance. However I would suggest that it would be helpful if you work out how you would do them yourself, show them, then ask the searching questions.
