Come on Dave where's the Friday fun! - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

Spamkebab · Expert

Come on Dave where's the Friday fun!

Amanda · Expert

Well I thought I come on here and have a look and find the Friday fun again! But no where is it................

Come on Dave, have you calmed down from last night yet?

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Sshhh, absolutely nothing happened last night. we weren't here and nobody saw anything...

Giving Dave one Friday off from his normal commitments.... tries desperately to find a Joke with no swear words in it... Oh, here you go.

!cid_00a901c4d4e7$c90999c0$beda6751@oemcomputer.jpg

kjmcculloch83 · Expert

What about the latest news on the ICB website? I recently had a conversation about the folloing level of education in young people, but this is funny. It seem that "Aviva to stop ensuring small businesses", ensuring they do what?

Maybe it's just me who finds this funny.

Stardoe · Guru

Spamkebab wrote:
Nope that's funny Kris
I love typos on professional websites, it's so.....professional

-- Edited by Spamkebab on Friday 19th of April 2013 06:37:47 PM

Talking of which....in the Ideal Schools ad at the top of this page, they have "Fully licensed software" which is correct.....and then "NOT 180 day License"...which isn't! lol (One for Brian I think).

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

I don't see how that works (mainly how can it be offered for the price?).

Is it the legitimate software fully paid up, not another penny to pay to Sage ever or is it signing up students onto a monthly subscription when a 180 day trial runs out which is an option with all of the trial software anyway.

Brian, if you're reading this big opportunity here to clarify the details here for readers,

kind regards,

Shaun.

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Brian,

just took a look at your site to see if the answer to the question was in the small print but I got waylaid by your ACCA figures which I'm afraid to say are wrong.

You say that there are 270,000 ACCA students and 110,000 members but the figures should be 432,000 students and 154,000 members (actually, from the last published accounts the figures are more precisely 432,396 and 154,337 respectively (figures from March 2012)).

Just though that I would point that minor thing out as you may wish to update your figures.

kind regards,

Shaun.

p.s. for all of the ACCA facts and figures see here : http://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/acca/global/pdf-agm/ar2011-12.pdf

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Stardoe wrote:
Methinks I have got Brian into trouble now that Shaun has had a closer look! lol

lol.

Don't worry Brian, you're not in trouble. Just after a clarification of a statement and a correction of some of the figures published on the site.

I actually went back to 2008 and even back then the ACCA figures were not as low as those on your site so unsure where they actually came from.

Also of course one could argue that if you have to tell someone what the ACCA is then they were looking at the wrong course anyway.

Not to detract from Kudos to Ideal though for offering FIA as an alternative to ICB.

kind regards,

Shaun.

p.s. amended only because there was half a blank page at the end of the post?

-- Edited by Shamus on Sunday 21st of April 2013 02:02:33 PM

TRAINING LINK · Senior Member

Howdy BKNers

Sorry Amanda after my storm in a tea cup Thursday night and added to the fact I have been left with running the Training Link Admin, student registraions, exam registrations and course dispatch on top of my own job while the gaffer is on his hols I forgot about the Friday fun post, but have no fear it will be back with a vengence next weekend.

Lol Pauline good spot on the banner, I look forward to the reply.

Enjoy what is left of the weekend.

Dave

Stardoe · Guru

Methinks I have got Brian into trouble now that Shaun has had a closer look! lol

Brian McVean · Senior Member

Good morning all, hope you all had a great weekend.

Pauline,

Maybe Im not into full working mode yet, but I cant see whats wrong with the Ad. Ive also had Scot here have a look at it and, with a MA Hons in English Literature, he cant spot anything wrong from a marketing perspective. Perhaps we need to add a hyphen to separate the two statements!!

Shaun,

Thanks for heads up re the information provided on the ACCA stats. Were about to launch a slightly different website within the next day or so and will have these figures updated. You are right, these havent been updated in many years and is something we should have noticed when updating our course information from CAT to FIA. Isn't it uncanny that ACCA Student numbers are exactly 432,000......this is remarkably accurate biggrin .

Re the Sage licensing, what we try to emphasise is that we do not use the training packages with the limited day license and that our students can continue to use the software professionally on completion of their study, without additional costs, unless they choose to take out Sage cover, which is completely optional.

Over and out smile

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

No probs Brian, glad to be of assistance.

Many thanks for the site clarification of the Sage licence arrangement. Very useful to have people armed with the right information when you have the sales people from Sage or Intuit on the other end of the phone.

I know from experience that the way that the guy at intuit was phrasing things when I phoned up to register my quickbooks that I got at the roadshow it really came across as though you had to sign up to be registered and if I didn't know what was what and had a firm attitude when calling them I would imagine people being suckered into the support arrangements.

The script at Intuit actually went along the lines of...

Me : Hi, I need to register my software
Intuit : ok, we just need to get you signed up for support, this shouldn't take long.
Me : And will this support cost me anything...

It went downhill for Intuit after that. lol.

kind regards,

Shaun.

Brian McVean · Senior Member

Love it, it's great when you talk to someone who has been programed to work through an automated "to do" list. No such 'hiddens' from us.

Have a good week Shaun

Stardoe · Guru

Brian McVean wrote:
Pauline,

Maybe Im not into full working mode yet, but I cant see whats wrong with the Ad. Ive also had Scot here have a look at it and, with a MA Hons in English Literature, he cant spot anything wrong from a marketing perspective. Perhaps we need to add a hyphen to separate the two statements!!

Hi Brian,

No, there's nothing wrong with it from a marketing perspective, just a spelling perspective. The advert says "Fully Licensed software supplied" - (the spelling of licensed in this case is correct as it's an adjective) - then you have "NOT 180 day License" - (the spelling of this should be Licence as it is a noun in this case).

Sorry if I'm being really pedantic here!

Brian McVean · Senior Member

Ah, thanks Pauline,

I was concentrating mainly on the phraseology and not the spelling aspect. Couldn't see the woods for the trees, as they say smile

Stardoe · Guru

No problem Brian

Once you start looking too closely you can't see it...lol

Spamkebab · Expert

Said the Nun to the Vicar

Stardoe · Guru

Lol....yes thank you Neil.

TRAINING LINK · Senior Member

Hi Brian

Hope you enjoyed the golf last week? I do get the impression from the advertisments that the Sage software is free but when you supply this software how many licences does the student get?

If only a licence for one client is supplied do your students realise how much it will cost to put more clients on the software? And of course how much it costs to upgrade? If there is some reduced cost arrangement for your students I am leaving Training Link, signing up to one of your courses and becoming a Bookkeeper. lol,

Dave

p.s. amended under request by moderator for gramatical errors.

-- Edited by Shamus on Sunday 28th of April 2013 11:05:07 AM

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

My reading is that people end up with a version of Sage 50. That may not stay the current version for long and it's only a licence for one client but it does not expire after 180 days and later versions of the software are backwards compatible for at least three years (normally longer) so students are getting piece of software that they can work with albiet in a limited capacity.

Dave, TL are free to negotiate the same deal with Sage that Ideal have so I'm not seeing a problem at all there... Well, except that it's Sage but that's a whole different debate.

I'm sure that if TL came up with a new innovation then Ideal would have an equivalent shortly after.

Thats just the way of business. Certainly thats how the banks work.

kind regards,

Shaun.

-- Edited by Shamus on Saturday 27th of April 2013 12:01:30 PM

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

But Dave, when all's said and done it's still Sage... lol

If people are accounting practices then the Sage licencing is fine (if you like their software which I don't).

For bookkeepers if you are using client software for most of the time then having your own copy at home is a bonus so the Ideal arrangement would work well for that sub group.

If on the other hand your a bookkeeper with the (seeming) average of 10 - 20 clients and your not not using client software you might as well get your clients to write all of the cheques out directly to Sage.

And besides that, if you became a bookkeeper you would miss the luxury of TL towers, what with the champagne fountains, solid gold desks and £20 note toilet paper rolls!

Could you really swap life in a training company for the life of a bookkeeper!

lol. Have a great and well deserved weekend matey.

All the best,

Shaun.

TRAINING LINK · Senior Member

Hello Shaun

Your totally right (as per norm) lol

But that is exactly my point, if offering something for free then make it FREE no hidden costs, no unadvertised hidden extra's regardless of if Sage software or dog meat for life lol. No posts of how great we are or how our students score a 100% LEVEL 2 score, just good old what you see is what you get on the tin lol.

Have a great weekend yourself mate, I am totally mentally drained out as TL towers management have been on their hols leaving dummy brummie Dave to hold the fort and they still have a company to come home to, a massive bonus comin my way me thinks lol.

Dave

Brian McVean · Senior Member

Sorry Dave, you've managed to lose me again. At no stage have we ever stated students receive FREE software, I think you are mixing us up with another college. Students pay their fees and the cost of the software is incorporated within this. With regard to the licencing aspect, perhaps you'll find this page interesting: http://www.idealschools.co.uk/sage-courses

TRAINING LINK · Senior Member

Hi Brian

Checked your link and it takes me to a search page on babylon? Not great at these search engines but delighted to see Training Link had a gold star rating with 66 reviews and the only provider to be reviewed! Ideal advertise the fact that students receive a fully licenensed copy of Sage 50 Accounts software and not a 180 trial version. As Sage upgrade their software on a regular basis would you not agree that it is better for the student to learn how to use the software before purchasing it regardless of it is given as part of the training package?

Dave

Brian McVean · Senior Member

Can't resist this question, but was that not self promotion? You're not the only college with good reviews. I've 30 years worth in a filing cabinet and I'd be happy to let you read them if you ever visit. I don't need to say that we have our fair share online as well.

I don't know if you are familiar with the workings of sage, Dave, but annual upgrades on accounting software are not necessary. If you are asking me if I'd rather have something tangible upon completion of my study then the answer is YES. If you consider that the cost of the bookeepers club is roughly £500 +vat per year for a 10 company license, then over the years this mounts up and becomes a very expensive option.

Lets be honest, who is going to qualify and instantly have 10 clients. Client bases build through time. Through us it is possible for students to have multi company license software, and a 10 company license for considerably less than two years of bookkeepers club membership.

Stardoe · Guru

OMG.....it's Training School wars! I can't help feeling a little bit responsible for it, after my spot on the advert....lol

With regard to posting questions on a forum instead of phoning the training provider, I think a lot of people do that because they feel embarrassed about phoning their provider. They would rather post anonymously.....silly I know, but I'm sure a lot of us have done it! (Not saying I'm one of them..lol)

Spamkebab · Expert

Or the response is quicker!

Rhianrach · Expert

My experience of phoning the training provider has always been a bit rubbish, I always got stock answers with no real depth. I can read a book, if I need to ask a question then the chances are I can't find the level of understanding in the book that I need, the training providers don't tend to go into any further detail than the book, so I signed up to this forum and got the answers I was after. This is no disrespect to training providers, it just appears people on here have a better way of putting things, or writing things is an easier way of putting things across.

Stardoe · Guru

I was in IT support for quite a while and I found that a lot of IT experts had difficulty in imparting their knowledge in a way that ordinary users would understand. I had a friend who was an MCSE and was very, very IT knowledgeable and a bit "geeky" lol and he used to try and help out a friend of mine who was hopeless with computers and she always insisted I was there when he was trying to help her in order that I could "translate" lol He found it difficult to "come down" to a level that she would understand. Maybe it's the same with training providers...lol

In their defence though, I was with Ideal Schools for my training and I always found them very helpful and reasonably quick to respond and I always got my Assignments back quickly with some helpful comments on them.

Brian McVean · Senior Member

Evening all,

Pauline, recents posts in this thread have in no way been brought on by your previous post, and thank you for your kind comments.

Neil, students that post questions direct to us receive a quick response. If I see any question on any forum that I can help with I'll reply. Posting questions via a forum may not be replied to sooner, but we would never courage tutorial communication via this method, as I've previously stated. Indeed , we actively encourage phone calls as questions can be answers instantly.

Rianrach, it doesn't sound as though you had a great home study experience. From our perspective we have tutors and authors with over 100 combined years of teaching experience, with the qualifications to match. If a student selects the correct provider proper support and advice should always be available.

With regard to this thread, I logged on late on Friday afternoon to see statements re Ideal Schools that were completely untrueI'm sure if anyone reading this thread would have defended their corner as I have.

-- Edited by Brian McVean on Saturday 27th of April 2013 10:49:30 PM

Spamkebab · Expert

Hi Brian

2 day response time to emails when studying with Kaplan. I can totally understand a student posing a question on here and getting a quicker response.

I wasn't talking about any particular training company, just offering an opinion. But now you know why i wrote it.

I contacted my tutor about 3 times over 2 levels and by the time i received an email i had read over half the internet (usually in the form of one of Shauns replys lol)

I understand that i may have missed something special by opting for a larger training company as the smaller companies all seem to offer that personal touch. Too late
for me now i'm afraid.

I never phoned Kaplan, i thought i had already paid with my tentacles and didn't want a huge phone bill to boot. Luckily i didn't need much tutor support after some initial advice i was
given on here.

Neil.

Brian McVean · Senior Member

Morning Neil,

Sorry, I felt I had to reply to your previous comment as earlier we had been accused of encouraging student involvement on these forums to boost our profile. Thank you for the clarification.

Rhianrach · Expert

I went from college tuition to home tuition so it was always going to be a bit of a letdown biggrin

Spamkebab · Expert

My college days were even worse.

I'm not explaining this comment lol.