I have spent hours browsing this forum and various training websites and now my brain hurts so I am hoping you can help!
I am currently a stay at home mum, looking at a career change (I have an engineering degree from many years ago and have spent the last 10 years working in aircraft leasing) and believe that accountancy is the direction I would like to go. I am looking at distance learning whilst finding a part time job to gain some experience. Having looked at some job websites there are more part time jobs in book keeping than accounts. I don't want to move to a full time job for at least 5 years so I am wondering whether to go in this direction first and progress to an accountancy qualification in a few years time. My questions are,
1) If I eventually want to end up either AAT or ACCA qualified am I best starting with the AAT book keeping certificate?
2) My understanding is that the AAT BK cert doesn't provide qualified status as a book keeper. Does it provide any exemptions from the ICB?
3) If I went the ICB route initially (as this seems cheaper) would it provide exemptions from AAT later on?
4) I have read some interesting threads about self study for AAT, however I notice that AAT are changing their syllabus in Sept 2013. Does that mean if I went down this route I would be in danger of buying out of date books?
5) Which jobs are likely to provide the best experience to eventually become an accountant?
6) Another option is to become a self employed book keeper and progress to accountant later on. Has anyone done this?
For advice you have come the the right place, my thoughts/answers to your questions are as follows:
1) If I eventually want to end up either AAT or ACCA qualified am I best starting with the AAT book keeping certificate?
I couldnt say 100% for everyone that it is the best but i recomend if you want to become AAT/ACCA do the bookkeeping certificate. This gets you exemptions from 2 units at level 2 from the AAT, but you get taster of what it is all about without having to sign up to the whole level 2 course. As for ACCA, you are so much better off learning the fundamental principles, and getting a recognised qualiifcation sooner than jumping straight into the ACCA.
2) My understanding is that the AAT BK cert doesn't provide qualified status as a book keeper. Does it provide any exemptions from the ICB?
After doing it you can call yourself a bookkeeper (not that you couldn't before hand) but it isnt enough to get a practice licence with the AAT as start up as a self employed route.
3) If I went the ICB route initially (as this seems cheaper) would it provide exemptions from AAT later on?
Yes, you could and if you did ICB levels 1 and 2, you should be able to get an exemption form AAT level 2. But i would suggest just reading the basic costing book as the ICB doesnt contain any real costing in it.
4) I have read some interesting threads about self study for AAT, however I notice that AAT are changing their syllabus in Sept 2013. Does that mean if I went down this route I would be in danger of buying out of date books?
You are in no more danger of buying out of date books self studying than if you were with a training provider. The old syllabus is still assessable all the way up to December 2014, so the danger isnt that great.
5) Which jobs are likely to provide the best experience to eventually become an accountant?
This is quite an open ended question, and depends on what you mean by accountant, if you want to work in practice, obviously getting a job with a firm of accountants is better. But if you want to become a management accountant getting a job in industry would be better.
6) Another option is to become a self employed book keeper and progress to accountant later on. Has anyone done this?
yes, i did. I started bookkeeping myself, (alhtough i was regulated by the AAT not the ICB) and I ended up being a chartered Accountant.
These are just my thoughts, others will give theirs, but good luck what ever you decide.
Nick
__________________
Nick
Nick Craggs FMAAT ACA AAT Distance Learning Manager
Not much to add to Nicks reply except to expand a little on point (6).
When you try to break into accountancy it can seem at times that you are in a catch 22 in that you cannot find a job without experience and you cannot get the experience without a job.
Many people set up as bookkeepers offering limited services to the general public for two reasons :
1) To gain experience that will make them of interest to practice, and
2) To gain sufficient clients to exchange with a practice for a job. Basically buying into the profession.
Practice are interested in you having a good understanding of the entire AAT syllabus rather than only bookkeeping so to have that bit of paper puts you in a better position to find work.
Nick filled in the details as to a route to getting that and as he says, starting with the AAT Bookkeeping qualification is not a bad place to start.
Try to pick up Sage, Quickbooks and maybe a couple of the cloud offerings as the more software that you know the better.
Also ensure that you are very comfortable with Excel which will become as much a part of your equipment as a pen and calculator.
Good luck breaking into the business,
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.
Thanks Nick that is very useful. I think I will start with AAT.
Can you explain how the exemptions work for the AAT Level 2 Cert if you already have the book keeping cert please? When I look at the training providers website they only seem to offer the whole course. Also are there any restrictions on time between completing one certificate and starting the next?
Lastly, on the Premier website it recommends two books for additional reading but both seem quite expensive. Doesn't the training package provide all of the materials necessary?
Thanks for that Shaun. It is an interesting point about experience as most of the jobs I looked at on Reed this week required former experience and only a couple mentioned qualifications!
If you do the AAT Award in bookkeeping, you don't have to do the BA 1 and BA 2 exams. They are essentially the same, so you are learning the same things, taking the same number of exams, but you get an extra certificate. There isnt a time limit between taking the Award in Bookkeeping and going on to level 2 AAT.
The books you mention are Frank Woods (which may start a further debate) but people rarely buy them. We sometimes get asked what extra books students can buy to get a wider knowledge of accountancy, bit just what the AAT cover, and we recommend these. There is more than enough in the material we provide, we have actually wrote and published our own books for level 2, so you can be confident you have everything you need.
Any further questions just let me know.
Kind regards
Nick
__________________
Nick
Nick Craggs FMAAT ACA AAT Distance Learning Manager
