Buying the same books again doesn't do a lot of good. You need to alternate them which is easier said than done.... I can see that probably makes no sense so let me expand on my meaning.

Each year I buy Taxation by Melville. Excellent book but after a couple of years reading the same thing again but with different numbers refuses to sink in so I have to alternate the book. I tried a few including Taxation Policy and practice by Andy Lymer and Taxation by Alan Combs but after much pulling of jair and gnashing of teeth I have settled on alternating Taxation (Melville) and the Kaplan ACCA study text for paper P6.

The key is finding what is right for you.

As you have already discovered the industry that you are moving into is about constant lifelong learning and if you don't use it it slips out of your ears whilst you sleep.

I have several sets of cards that I revise daily as even if I forget the detail of peripheral bits there are some things that are core to what we do.

The decks that I constantly revise are every IAS, IFRS, ISA, FRS, SSAP, ISAE, ISRS, ISRE, Sections of the IFAC code, basic ratios, all basic definitios plus about 40 acronym lists.

Sounds really anal but if I didn't do that I know that I would forget it and the last thing that I want is to be sat there not knowing which standard that I need to look at for a given scenario.

Try working your way through the Open tuition ACCA lectures and relating that back to your ACCA studies.

Do the exam kits for ACCA papers F2 and F3 which is entry level study with built in twists but basically still AAT level 4 minus the tax and audit.

Now that you have started your studies there is never, ever and end to them... And if you ever did memorise everything they would just change it all anyway.

Hope that gets you thinking about your plans moving forwards,

kind regards,

Shaun,

Hi Adrian,

its a mistake that many make when thinking of a career in this industry that you do the training and then you make the money.

The reality is that this business involves constant lifelong learning.

The most common of course is that tax changes every year so we need to keep abreast of that. The way that I approach that one is detailed in the previous reply.

Financial reporting standards, change less often than tax... But not much less.

If you look at the standards now and the standards when you started there will be new ones (IFRS10,11,12,13) disappeared ones (IAS31), transient ones (IAS32, 39, IFRS7, IFRS9, etc.).

Thats not a complete list but its just illustrating a point that nothing stands still so you need to invest your CPD time wisely in ensuring that you keep abreast of the changes that affect you plus keep a knowledge of the changes that don't.

Its an occupation that you live rather than something that you do nine to five... Which is probably why it seems that most of the successful marraiges of accountants are to other accountants. (same with management consultants which is the world that I came from so not too much of a system shock for me).

When I refer to using ACCA study materials I am not suggesting doing the ACCA qualification.

AAT level 4 and ACCA foundation level (first 3 ACCA papers) are the same level but with more twists in the ACCA stuff. At AAT level 4 you should be able to do the F2 and F3 exam kits and thats excellent practice to keep you on your toes and the knowledge current without keep buying the same AAT books so you basically learn to remember answers rather than think them through.

Sorry if you thought that I was implying that you start down the ACCA path, that wasn't what I meant.

When meeting with clients you need to sound confident and work to the 80/20 rule in that you should be able to answer 80% of the clients questions in the meeting but for lesser used things like specific tax issues you can generally get away with deferring an answer.

My trick is that I have seven billy bookcases (the big ones from Ikea) sitting behind me bulging with accountancy books and if a client asks a question that I either don't have the answer to or I do have the answer to but want confirmation before I give it I'll make a quip about it being in there somewhere (pointing towards the bookcases).

Meeting clients is a play and we are the actors. Know your lines and appreciate that you need to convince the audience.

Confidence sells as if you keep having to refer to the books or the internet the client will end up thinking, "this guys no expert, I could do this myself". Or even "my old accountant didn't have to keep looking everything up".

As an example of what you should know, what you might need to look up.

Clients often get confused over basis periods. You should know that as thats a base knowledge.

A farmer asking about the different VAT treatments between ordinary and red deisel you may need to look up.

As I say, work to the 80/20 rule that you should be able to answer 80% of the clients questions in order to justify needing to look up the other 20%.

HTH,

kind regards,

Shaun.

p.s. see that you've figured out the strap line. Better safe than sorry as they say.

well, those were just guidance.

some things are constant. the principles behind bookkeeping and management accounting never change so you just need to keep constant what you already know.

Financial reporting and tax change constantly as detailed above. P6 is just F6 with more of it so only need to keep abreast of one of them. If you are going to advise anyone then it needs to be P6. If you are mainly going to be working on the technical side then F6 is fine.

F2 and F3 are just basics to do n your spare time the way that people do puzzles on the train on their way to work... I quite like doing entry level questions and still get a real buzz even now when a trial balance does (even though they now almost always do... I say almost as I've done some evil mid year foreign subsidiary acquisition consolidations).

To stay up to date with financial reporting subscribe to some quality newsletters including accountancy age, financial directors newsletter and accountingweb.

Review the ACCA P2 list of examinable standards each year (its in the P2 Syllabus), and read each new standard in original form including any application notes (one of the most important concepts in UKGAAP FRS5 is hidden away in application note G).

All in all the whole idea of studying once a year is out the window. Its constant daily study and revision. Although the more varied your accounts work to less that you need to study.

At the end of AAT level 4 you should be able to real off the name of every international accounting standard. You mustn't let that knowledge slip so if you have draw up a load of index cards with the standard refarence on one side and the name of the standard on the other and every day do them both ways around (name to ref and ref to name).

For example IAS17 on one side of the card, Leases on the other.

Shuffle regularly so that you are not just memorising in sequence.

Don't forget to add and discard standards from your deck as they change.

It may be rote learning but this is all part of the 80% that we spoke about above that is expected knowledge.

kind regards,

Shaun.