I wondered if anyone had had any problems in communicating with the ICB on leaving. I am a member with a practice licence.
I have never done any self employed work and after two years have decided to a) switch to IAB (the QCF status alone is enough for me to decide to switch) and b) stop paying for a practice licence that I don't use.
I first wrote to the ICB mid October and have written three times since. I have not received an acknowledgement or reply at all and today seem to have two e-mails on both separate issues advising me to renew online or phone them!!
So, I have forwarded the first e-mail I sent again. I don't expect to do this sort of business via telephone and anyway my day usually involves driving from school for 40 mins to work, working until I have to leave for the school pickup when I do the return drive to collect my daughter, looking after my horses on the way home and arriving home wiped and after office hours even if I was inclined to call, which I am not because there isn't really anything to discuss and I have provided six weeks notice of leaving.
Has anyone else had this lack of communication when trying to leave???
The PC that my correspondence was on is in the office so I don't have the emails to hand today.
I don't remember it being a particular problem. It was simply an as of x date I will not be renewing my membership / practice licence (I let the practice licence expire first and then the membership afterwards).
I vaguelly recollect an email indicating that if I left then I couldn't get MLR cover but that was just rubbish and I ignored it.
The key that you have is evidence that you have sent the letters via email so when you do not renew what can they do?
When I get chance I'll have a read of the letters that I sent (Which I do seem to recall was more than one) and let you know the person that I corresponded with.
Actually, I do remember being ignored for months over my letters with regard to accountants not being able to do bookkeeping so they didn't at the time give any exemptions for ACCA, CIMA, AAT, ACA, etc (they now do give credit for some entry level accountancy papers but not the advanced ones... Personally I would expect someone who has taken ACCA fundamentals level or MAAT to go straight to MICB but that's a whole other arguement).
When I did get a reply it was factually incorrect (ACCA are management accountants! Really!!!) and also refered to the statistics that they will not publish the data for.
I think that the ICB has come on in leaps and bounds since that time and James posts on here have certainly helped, I feel both ways in our gaining an understanding of their thinking and also the fact that James does listen and I feel that the minor changes over exemptions are really down to him.
Thats getting away from the issue though.
Yes I have been ignored but I did get it resolved when I started emailing someone directly... But for the life of me I cannot remember their name. My approach was not to ask to leave but rather telling them that I would not be renewing.
kind regards,
Shaun.
NOTE : You have to send your certificates back (Membership and Practicing licence) when you leave the ICB. You can keep your exam pass certificates though.
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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.
Thank you very much for replying. It does seem odd that I haven't heard back although I didn't have a direct e-mail address. I did send to both membership and info e-mail addresses on their web page.
My initial reason for looking elsewhere was that the OU Certificate in Accounting is not recognised - and it was hard work! I am now using the credits for MAAT, this is a second career for me and having spent 12 years studying in another field I can't face the thought of spending years doing ACCA when I struggle to fit everything in on a daily basis. I should have finished MAAT by the end of 2013.
As I said, I never actually made the switch to self employed so that bit is not important for me and my decision was made long before renewal so I was able to advise that I would not be renewing just like you did it just hasn't been acknowledged or confirmed.
I find it amusing that an organisation can ask you return membership certificates (!)...... Do they reimburse the postage and costs of the envelops?
What happens if they are destroyed or you don't know where they are? Are you supposed to purchase new ones to return? LOL .....
If you did not renew your membership because you were deceased, would your executors be asked you to return your certificates?
If someone needs to know if I am a member of an organisation I say I am a member of, all they need to do is contact the organisation to check - the certificate just looks pretty, but can never be the sole proof of membership.
-- Edited by YLB-HO on Monday 3rd of December 2012 11:19:10 AM
thanks for the kind words. We do what we can to help people get started on this path.
I've just been looking through my old emails and I now think that it actually went offline and back to snail mail.
The debates that I vaguely remembered were actually in relation to the issue over the ACCA qualification not being recognised by the ICB.
I initially joined the ICB and did the first two papers in order more than anything else that in doing the higher ACCA studies I had not lost any of the foundations of my knowledge base.
After doing those (got 99% and 98% respectively) I could see no point doing any further ICB exams but felt that the qualification gave me networking opportunities so was quite happy to retain the qualification and practicing certificate.
I dropped the ICB an email asking about whether I could upgrade based on my ACCA status (at that time just past the Skills level so first nine papers).
It took two months for a reply to arrive and when it did it simply said that ACCA qualification did not warrant any exemptions (#1) as it was management accounting.
Queue strongly worded letter from me.
I was not upset so much about the ICB not giving me the upgrade, it's their qualification, they can do as they like. My issue was that they didn't give it on the grounds that ACCA was management accounting and ACCA accountants cannot do double entry!
On the grounds that its predominantly financial accounting (but includes all of the management accounting of CIMA) and that I had got near perfect marks using only ACCA study materials I took umbridge and got a much faster response from Pat Marshall where got hit with the old only 32% of accountants can pass the entry level ICB exam (level I).
More red rag to a bull.
A couple of emails later then there was a selection of emails to Viv Burrows at the IAB (very nice person and very helpful by the way) about transfer and they were more than happy to recognise the ACCA qualification. I would certainly recommend IAB from a communication perspective (I have no personal experience from any other).
I had a long hard think about things and decided that IFA was the way to go for a practice licence whilst I continued with completing my ACCA. I could still work within the remit of ACCA regulation 8 but IFA is an accountancy qualification strongly rooted in the SME sector which would serve better as a stepping stone in my career than a bookkeeping qualification alone would.
At the time there were still very strong links between the IAB and IFA and I must admit that the professionalism of the IAB in handling my query and their respect for the ACCA qualification helped in making my choice to go down the IFA route.
I know that even though the IAB now have IAPS, many IAB people still migrate to IFA when they have completed their IAB studies if they want their career to head more towards accountancy than bookkeeping and to my mind IFA is going to be one of the strong brands of the future (certainly a lot of it's members are also ACCA Affiliates who are having difficulty getting the required experience in a recognised training practice to get their ACCA practice licences).
When it came to ICB practice licence renewal I told the ICB that I was letting it lapse (I can find no reply to that one).
When it came to my membership the following January I wrote again but that time I believe now that I actually received a letter in the post which I will have filed in the ICB's folder at home (I'm never in the right place to give a full answer am I) which requested that to terminate my membership I must return my certificates (not the exam one's but the membership ones).
Hope that my experiences and thoughts help in resolving your own issues, if ever you need advice on books for specific papers or situations always happy to point you in the right direction.
kindest regards,
Shaun.
#1 If I had passed F3 within 2 years I could have claimed exemption from level I ICB that I had already taken anyway... But if you think about that, you need to pass the entirety of AAT to MAAT level in order to gain exemption from ACCA paper F3 which could then give you exemption from ICB level I.... Its not enough. F3 or MAAT are worth MICB, not some entry level exam.
Whilst I have a lot of respect for the ICB and where they are trying to take the profession I do think that their exemptions database is messed up. But, as I say, their qualification, they can set whatever rules they see fit.
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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.
Do they not issue a new practice licence every year like the AAT do?
I have to submit my CPD records and only then will i get the new practice licence for the new year. If i didnt renew my membership, i would be left with a practice licence which would state that it is only valid up to a certain date and so would be worthless, so there would be no point in sending it back.
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Nick
Nick Craggs FMAAT ACA AAT Distance Learning Manager
I think there was a little bit of confusion, just to clarify (please confirm with relevent body, below is how I understand it from various sources):
OU B190 Introduction to Bookkeeping and Accountancy will get you entry level exemptions from ICB and AAT. However, it will get you full membership with the IAB.
OU B291 + B292 will get you MICB and MAAT status, but they are both needed together.
@Frauke: Membership certificates remain the property of the membership body, this is a standard of professional bodies including AAT, ACCA etc.
Just noticed your post, yes the ICB Practice Licence is valid for 1 year like the other professional bodies, it is just the membership certificate that does not have an expiry date on it.
This does not include qualification or CPD certificates which are yours to keep forever.
I think the difficulty with ICB is that they are not unitised, which is both a positive (cheaper and simpler/straightforward) and a negative.
It is a negative in that they cannot give partial exemptions, so if you cannot get full exemption from all of the qualification, you don't get an exemption from any of it and have to do the whole thing.
I have actually been banging the drum about having a 'unitised' exemption system for qualified entries, as the ICB gets a lot of ACCA or AAT applicants and they don't like being told they have to do the whole qualification
Well it seems to have worked as back in October they have started putting in place key areas which are 'skipped' by the accountant bodies, or areas which are commonly failed, and will put together a test specific on that area.
So you can do a short test on the 1 subject you may not have covered in your course, rather than doing the full examination.
It might not make it so easy though, as the ICB does have ACCA and ICAEW advisors who state they have never seen areas of the ICB qualification and therefore are against giving some exemptions.
I guess it down to the individual, what their background is, did they do any further subjects etc etc.
