Hi Kris

Yes that thought had crossed my mind, its just i have become rather attached to my "Brand" name but i am going to give it some careful consideration and not make any rash decisions.


Richard

Yeah but Level 4 AAT covers all that, i'm not sure about the ICB IAB quals but i don't think they stop at trial balance lol.

 

That's what i meant, either calling your business 'bookkeeping & accounts services' or 'bookkeeping and accountancy   services'

It doesn't seem to matter as long as you are confident in the work you undertake. I don't think Joe public will care either way.

Does one name sound more professional? I suppose that's down to the type of client you are after, which in turn will be down to what you know, what you can do and what you are comfortable with.

BTW i am now ever more slightly confused as to whether the higher levels of the lower qualifications are bookkeeping or accountancy. 

If i can pick up a chartered study book and understand what is going on due to previous study of a bookkeeping qualification then either the chartered qualification is bookkeeping or the bookkeeping qualification is accountancy lol dizzy............

-- Edited by Spamkebab on Saturday 23rd of March 2013 03:18:37 PM

-- Edited by Spamkebab on Saturday 23rd of March 2013 03:25:25 PM

Kinda. Although the term 'accountant' is not legally protected, if you are a member of a professional body they may not allow this. ICB don't, and rightly so. You also need to ask yourself if you feel it's morally right.

Kris

There also some protected words that cannot be used in a trading name either.

International, British, Group, Holdings, English, Scottish, Wales, King, Royal, are just a few but there are a lot more.

Although these are listed for companies, there are restrictions for soletraders too. The name shouldn't imply something that it is not.

I am aware of one business that has Royal in its name (and it is not the owners name), which might suggets it has royal approval.

There has also been the case recently of the company that took over one of the defunct Woolworths stores (member of staff formed a company to keep others employed) and called it Wellworths. The owners of the Woolworth brand name ( a couple of mega rich brothers)

were successful in stopping them using it, as it was too similar to their own business name. Unfortunately the cost of changing the name etc made it impossible for them to continue,

 

I've decided to use another name now as i feel that for the reason posted above that the other company is too close for comfort and i wouldn't want to be confused with another business, so i am in opting instead for my surname along with the rest.

However whilst i would not advocate the use of the name accountant in the business name if one was not a qualified accountant, i have seen quite a few bookkeeping businesses using the word "accountancy services" along with bookkeeping, i'm not sure of the i.c.b policy on this but am sure i have seen members use this wording, so what do others think about using this phrase?

On the grounds that the ICB state that accountants do not understand bookkeeping would it not follow logically that the ICB should ban their members from using the term accountant or describe their services as accountancy services.

lol. of course they won't. It suits their needs to state accountants are not bookkeepers whilst denying that their own members are not accountants.

Either stance denies the truth where there are people in both camps making a perfectly good job of offering the services of the other.

Which is basically what I was saying in the previous post.

There are bookkeepers working perfectly well as accountants and accountants working as bookkeepers.

However, the ICB argue that accountants cannot do bookkeeping so logically that must mean that bookkeepers cannot do accounts. lol

Reminds me of the union that I was forced to be part of years ago where the employer offered x amount but the union that was supposed to represent us argued that we should actually get less than was being offered as the differential between front line workers and management was too high and needed to be redressed...

And I was being forced to pay to be part of that!!!

Shamus wrote:

---

In the perfect world there would only be one qualification (and it would be called AAT what else) and everyone would be a bookkeeper until they were an accountants (which is the basic thinking behind regulation 8).

Unfortunately we live in a far from perfect world and have to live with the mess that many organisations all looking to secure their own slice of the cake create.

Ooh, that turned into a rant...

---

 I totally agree Shaun.

Lol Steve, nice try.

Sorry guys, I am a little bit confused,

after I have completed AAT ? What am I ? Accountant or bookkeeper ? A little bit of both ? :)

Does it make any sense to continue with ACCA after AAT ?

Does "abc accountancy and bookkeeping services could be" the name of my new business ?

Whooooaaa :) too many questions for a Sunday morning ! :)

Cheers,

Adrian

TRAINING LINK wrote:

---

Or if you want to appeal to the masses then why no Budget Bookkeeping? Well it worked for Tesco until the horses were found lol.

---

 

Wait! What? Tesco were offering budget bookkeeping services, and someone found out they were using horses to do it?

Hi Adrian.

on the are you a bookkeeper or an accountant question its really a neither and both.

You would be higher than a bookkeeper whilst having done all of the studies incorporated within the ICB and IAB qualifications.

Your knowledge base will give you firm foundations in the accountancy camp and MAATs are referred to as accountants except by other accountants as you will appreciate that there is a quantum difference between the 2-3 years to get to MAAT as opposed to 5-10 years for ACCA.

Basically the qualification is exactly what it says on the tin. An accounting technician and that is respected in practice as the foundation of moving onto a career in accountancy rather than being an end in itself.

That said, many set up in practice as self employed MAATs and refer to themselves as accountants.

The first three papaers of ACCA are very much AAT level IV sort of complexity but thereafter the ACCA qualification makes you really realise the difference in the qualifications.

50% in the exam is a pass mark but there is a reason why in some papers less than 30% obtain a pass mark. Whilst you may look at the exams and think I know how to answer that. The real trick is the amount that needs to be answered in three hours and it is more the time pressure than the knowledge that gets people (there are papers such as P2 where one could easily spend three hours on one question and you have at least 4 to do).

If you intend to set up in self employment ACCA regulation 8 will actively prevent you from offering anything other than bookkeeping to trial balance, VAT and Payroll (no accounts, no filing, no advice). Note that even if you are allowed to offer far more services under another qualification such as MAAT being a student of the ACCA takes precedence over all other memberships.

To gain a practicing certificate requires three years experience in practice under a suitably qualified accountant. Two years of experience must be gained post qualification but the 2 years post may be part of the 3 year requirement.

Audit and insolvency are different licencing requireing different burning hoops to jump through which is why many ACCA pratices do not offer those services.

For all the difficulty obtaining ACCA it is one of the most respected qualifications to achieve (right up there with ACA and CTA and there is reason behind that).

Your best approach may be to obtain AAT, get a job in practice and then do ACCA whilst gaining the necessary practice experience. Some employers will support this but many will not. Also note that you may need to change employers several times in order to cover all experience requirements.

The line about the name of the new business doesn't read properly so unsure what is being asked. Can you rephrase that one.

Hope that the above helps,

kind regards,

Shaun.