An Accountant would have had to have known you for a minimum of 6 months to meet the requirements. To sign off on 12 months experience they would have had to have known you for 12 months.
You are looking at asking a Qualified Chartered Accountant who has worked damn hard to get where they are to sign off on work experience of someone they have never met?
Or
You already have a good relationship with a Chartered Accountant in which case you really should be talking to them instead of posting on here Adrian.
First time passes are neither here nor there, i have first time passes for 13 consecutive exams in an 18 month period, this shows i am pretty good at passing exams, not that i have a great understanding of the subject. That's why AAT ask for experience.
It could also be that i am just pretty flippin lucky, in which case i am off to the corner shop to do the Lottery.
Neil
-- Edited by Spamkebab on Saturday 11th of May 2013 11:18:41 AM
1. I have started ACCA a couple of months ago, due to regulation 8 I am not allowed to do tax return but I am doing tax return online from 2010 for my self employed courier business. Should I quit ACCA immediately ?
2. AAT asks for 1 year experience, my experience so far is 4 months for other companies and considering the fact that I work from 2010 on preparing my own accounts, may I contact a qualified accountant in order to confirm my experience to AAT in order to become MAAT ? I confirm that I have first time passes in all my exams.
Many thanks,
Adrian
__________________
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
Just to confirm. the courier business is your own, yes?
If thats the case then you are not offering your services to the public but filling in your own tax return which the ACCA cannot stop you from doing.
Basically, you can do your own accounts and tax returns. You just cannot do anyone elses.
I'll leave it for others such as Neil or Michelle to cover the MAAT question
kind regards,
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.
One assumes that if Adrian can get onto ACCA, he can become MAAT quite easily... however, becoming MAAT initially just means you are a student, until you pass the whole course. And then at the end of that, you have to show 5 years experience, signed off by an employer, so that you can get your practising licence and offer services to the public.
I dont know anything about ACCA, but I imagine its the same - until you pass and get approved experience in each services you want offer, you cant do anything for the public? So ACCA and AAT - you have to gear them, so that you are doing the subjects you want to offer.. ie business taxation etc - AND you have to get a job in a place that will cover the experience criteria.
with ACCA you have a personal experience record where you have to get all elements signed off to prove that you have experience of that area.
You need to prove at least 36 months relevant experience covering all elements to become an member of the ACCA.
To gain a practicing certificate you need to gain two years in practice post qualification but those two years can be included within the three years to gain membership.
The three years signed off relevant work may take several changes of employer to cover all elements and it may take considerably more than three years working in a relevant role to get all of the experience requirements signed off.
Basically, it's really difficult to get membership and for many near impossible to get a practicing certificate... But, if it was easy then it wouldn't be worth having.
__________________
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.
Erm.....MAAT is a fully qualified AATer with 12 months relevant work experience signed off by a) Your line manager if you work in industry or b) A suitably Qualified Accountant (This includes FMAAT & MAAT)
You can't get the letters after your name unless you can provide proof of work experience and then it goes in front of board members who decide. It's not all that hard to achieve so long as you can get it signed off.,
My idea was to work as a bookkeeper with an experienced accountant, me doing marketing and selling and bookkeeping work and than pass the next level to the accountant and in the same time get more experienced as I work and get MAAT Status as he/she can confirm as I have work along his side. As I have read in here, this service is offered by some accountants.
Is it my idea ok ? I mean buying VT + , learn how to do the bookkeeping in VT and then pass the work to the accountant. Is there anything else I have to consider ?
Many thanks,
Adrian
__________________
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
no problem at all with answering any and all of the queries that you have but it occurs to me that when you joined the ACCA as a student you would have been sent an information pack that contains much of the detail that we've been relaying on the site. (Mine came in a nice plastic binder, don't know if they still do that).
Also have you read the rule book (specifically regulation 8).
If you are not reading things like the welcome pack my worry is that if you continue with this qualification you will be expected to read financial reporting standards, Audit standards and things like the IFAC code, Government legislation and legal cases in raw form.
You need to get into the habit of analysing the documents that you have and asking questions based on that rather than jumping straight to the question.
That probably doesn't come accross as it is intended but what I am trying to get to is that whilst we are all here to help, in taking shortcuts to answers you may not in the long term be helping yourself.
I hope that this comes accross as intended which is not in any way meant to be derogatory but rather in itself should assist in changing the way that you learn or perhaps show that maybe ACCA is not the way for you to go.
If you are going to back away from the qualification then it is much better to do such now than after you have invested thousands in your studies.
If as I hope you decide to continue with the qualification then you need to start reading every word of the documents available to you as getting into that mindset will help you when the qualification starts to become much more demanding than the first three fundamentals level papers which are very, very different to all of the others.
I really hope that this post helps you and as I say, such is intended to be constructive and I hope that it is taken that way.
kindest regards,
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.
Erm.....MAAT is a fully qualified AATer with 12 months relevant work experience signed off by a) Your line manager if you work in industry or b) A suitably Qualified Accountant (This includes FMAAT & MAAT)
You can't get the letters after your name unless you can provide proof of work experience and then it goes in front of board members who decide. It's not all that hard to achieve so long as you can get it signed off.,
Sorry for not explaining this clearly, I was cutting a corner - the way Adrian explains it, with no detail to exemptions from the AAT exams, he might have to start with student membership, so he would be a "member" before being able to use the letters. But also, he says he is on ACCA, so it might means he has some qualification that exempts him from the AAT exams.... Whether he is student member, or a full member, my point is that: being a member of the AAT, and being able to offer services to the public under AAT, are two very different things. He would have to be MIP to offer public services, and that involves 5 years proven experience, professional references, a continuity person in place, as well as, insurance and 12 months CPD.
When comparing the ACCA route to the AAT route - it depends what you want to offer. From a study only point of view, AAT is a lower level qualification, and hence easier to get experience in the fields. But, the remuneration at the end of it is lower than what an ACCA can command - of course that's not set in stone, its the general view, and will always depend on the individual circumstances.
I think Adrian is AAT without the relevant work experience (Affiliate Member) and has progressed onto ACCA, to be honest Adrian is in the same position as hundreds of other AATers and is looking for advice that no one can give.
It's do or die time Adrian. It seems you have choices that only you, yourself can make.
