I work full time as an Accounts Assistant, mainly PL,SL, Creidt Control, and I am also AAT L2 & L3 Qualified. Starting L4 in September.
I feel I am not really gaining much from my current role, and I am very interested in possibly doing some bookkeeping work for some sole traders and partnerships.
I am pretty confident I could do this efficiently but I am confused about what I can offer, and any legalities it may involve.
My aim is to gain 3 or 4 SMALL businesses (builders / electricians / tradesmen) and offer bookeeping services and charge a small monthly fee, as it's more about the experience I would gain and not the money.
I am clearly going to state I am not an accountant, all I can do is prepare your accounts (accounts prep 1 & 2). I do not have sage, I would use Excel, would this be OK? Does any body else do this? If so how would you lay it out? I was thinking a work sheet for each month with T accounts set up, and the BBD as the opening balance on the next sheet for the next month? I would do this to TB and IS? Would this be allowed?
If any one can give me any advice it would be great. I would get PII, Would I have to register for MLR? I know I wont be able to advertise AAT anywhere, but thats OK.
I am not looking to start an empire, I am looking to gain experience and confidence and every one has to start somewhere. I would also explain this to any clients.
welcome to the forum and good luck with finding your first clients in a self employed capacity.
You must forgive me but the flow of your post got a little lost around the middle and I came out confused as to whether you are looking to sub contract work or find your first few small clients.
My answer assumes the latter to be the case.
To my mind Excel will not really get you anywhere in a professional capacity. Don't get me wrong, I use it all of the time but it is not what clients or accountants expect.
If you were also producing the accounts then the software used is no never mind. If you are not then your software will need to be picked up by the businesses accountants to complete using their software.
Considering your background you may not find difficulty finding the clients as they don't ask the software being used. However, when the accountant talks to the client they may cause you issues.
And there is another issue.
The businesses that you are aiming at do not want a bookkeeper and an accountant. They want a bookkeeper who acts as their accountant so paying bookkeeping rates for a full service (and still complaining about the rate that you charge! Clients, bless em).
Clients further up the food chain require use of software that will reduce the time spent by the accountants. Quite often that means Sage which as you know is expensive.
I do not use Sage but I do the full service myself so it's not an issue. Offering a bookkeeping only service may struggle if not using the correct software for the situation.
Just my input to get the ball rolling.
Please don't take this as negative. I really wish you the best in your new venture but I think that it may require more investment than you are currently contemplating to get it off the ground.
kindest regards,
Shaun.
p.s. remember that there is a legal obligation for you to have MLR cover and that you can make absolutely no mention of your AAT status or affiliation to prospective clients. Also ensure that your current contract of employment does not have clauses restricting your ability to offer such services outside of your current role.
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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.
May I kindly ask what is you opinion about the bookcert bookkeeping softwarel. Can I start with that one for very small companies e.g. self employed people ?
Many thanks,
Adrian
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This is just my personal opinion. Advice should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
P.S. I only ride a motorbike because I want to dry my clothes faster
Thanks for that. And yes you assumed right, I am looking to take on a few of my own clients. So what I am gathering from your great reply is :
I will need Sage to produce the appropriate reports for any clients Accountants, and as long as I do ensure I register for MLR and do not use any association with the AAT until I am MAAT I should be OK offering a service to small (which is what I am looking for) sole traders / partnerships? Only if I manage to get the clients obviously.
I am trained up to L3 AAT, so I can do Accounts Preparation, TB - IS -SFP in theory. I can also look at incomplete records which I am assuming will be a big part. Is there anything else you could suggest?
Its just a little daunting, because I know I can do this, it's just I don't really know where to start. Trying to gather as much info and advice as possible really.
doesn't have to be Sage if its not dictated by a tie in with the software of the accountant (personally I use VT but offer the full end to end service).
To be honest I think that the only way to get this off the ground with micro businesses is to be offering the full service rather than stopping at bookkeeping.
That really needs you to get through the level IV first as all the tax stuff and final accounts is at that level which is important knowledge that you are going to need and probably beyond the things that you have been doing to date (ensure that you do the two tax papers as you options).
The work that you are currently doing is the dream of many on this site where they are exposed on a daily basis to the opportunity to hone their skills. Once you have your MAAT to add to that the experience that you have makes it a short hop and a skip over to MIP.
If your contract permits and you do find small clients that need bookkeeping only then there is no reason that you could not explore that avenue. From experience though I'm not seeing a lot of micro clients who have a seperate accountant needing that service.
It seems daunting at the moment but it doesn't stay that way.
First client is always the hardest to find but don't be tempted to try winning clients on ridiculously low rates where you are virtually paying to work with them. I know that a lot of first timers make that mistake along with not performing all of the checks on a client that they should and also accepting clients with dubious history just in order to find clients.
It seems that you are in a good position to get to where you want to be,
good luck moving forwards,
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.
I can't really comment on the Bookcert kit as I don't have a copy but I'm sure that there will be others on here who will have used it and can pass better comment than myself on that one.
One thing that I will say is that basic bookkeeping software is often insufficient for the needs of a bookkeeping professional.
For example, VT give away a free cashbook for end users to enter their data. We've had cases on the site before where new bookkeepers have been asking questions based on using that software rather than VT Transaction+ as the cashbook was free but transaction+ is above a hundred pounds.
The VT approach is somewhat different to cloud offerings in that VT gives the software to businesses and charges the bookkeeper where cloud offerings give the software to the bookkeeper and charge businesses. More profit for the cloud company but if I were a business owner looking for a solution I would be questioning why if I went to bookkeeper (a) I needed to pay for software and a bookkeeper and an accountant. where if I go to bookkeeper (b) I get everything from a single person without any additional costs but have the option to potentially reduce those costs by doing some of the data input myself.
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 your replies. Maybe I will try and volunteer for some experience, a local club/ charity maybe. I appreciate your feedback, I think I will get L4 over and see how I shape up. In the mean time I may totally sort my home finances out as though they are a business just for the practice :)
I have just looked at that VT software as I am not familiar, it looks great. I have downloaded a 60 day trial to play with.
Also I am wondering if you can help. In the nominal of the VT software, under expenses, there's 'mortgage'. This has confused me. I thought a mortgage was a liability, money owed? Is there a reason it's under expenses? Also, I don't really need to know this I am just curious, how do you account for interest payable on a mortgage? Is this done through a journal?
Sometimes I confuse myself just sitting here thinking :)
I assume that the Mortgage expense that you refer to is mortgage interest rather than any capital repayment which as you say would be a liability.
mortgage interest would be an expense and the mortgage itself is a liability.
taking an example of just a normal business loan the loan is broken down by Creditors amounts falling due within one year and Creditors amounts falling due in more than one year.
Each year you would journal (or set up an automatic journal) to transfer an amount from creditors more than one year to creditors less than one year.
Each eriod payment is then divided down into the repayment of the loan and the interest expense. For example :
Capital repayment : Cr Bank Dr Creditors bank loans Interest Cr Bank Dr Expenses: Interest - Bank
So reducing the creditors The interest on the debt is an expense.
A mortgage would follow the same principle as its just another form of secured loan.
HTH,
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.
