Sorry for the endless posting but I would like to know if there is/has been someone else in my situation.
I only have 4 months of employment in accounts and all AAT exams completed.
I want to start my bookkeeping small business but I see here people who have done this after many years of having a bookkeeping / accountancy related job.
To be honest I do not know what is the best course of action for me now,
I already have a lot of useful information and I would love to be my own boss, but is this just too early ?
In the same time I see this as a continuous learning profession, so even if I do get a job again, it will get me the experience required at that job and not the experience that I would probably need to set up on my own.
Uff, I`m really confused and your advice will be much appreciated.
Best regards,
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
If you are a member of the AAT, you should speak with them and find out whether they will allow you to do bookkeeping. Thats probably the best option, as you can discuss it fully and explain your full position to them. They are really helpful.
For start I am planning to work without advertising in connection with AAT.
I was just simply wondering if there are any other people here who have started working as a bookkeeper without having a strong accounts background.
It feels good to know that I am not the only one. :)
Cheers,
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
I'm confused. I thought that you were still doing the tax papers?
Doesn't affiliate mean that you've passed all the exams for level IV but haven't managed to get your MAAT status yet?
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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.
The reason I am self-employed is because, in 1994, after 13 years' loyal service to my then employer, I suddenly became surplus to requirements. Unlucky 13, huh?
I vowed never to find myself in the same situation again, and since then, I have always made sure my income was not dependant upon just one source. I have never regretted my decision, although I have never become rich, I work long hours, have lost my paid holidays, sickness benefit (I was off work for 3 months in 1997 and my insurance policy didn't pay up because of something in the small print!), and I have lost other employee benefits too, but I find I have greater security and more appreciation of my own worth. The greatest thing I find about it is the freedom. I can live my life the way I want to (within obvious limits of course!).
I don't believe you need to be highly qualified to be a bookkeeper, and I imagine you could easily qualify for a practice licence with (say) ICB or IAB (not that I am recommending either of them, or that you throw over AAT - but it is an option if you feel AAT is holding you back). After all, you don't need any qualifications at all in order to practice if you don't want to.
Setting up on your own is a giant step into the unknown, and is very frightening, especially if you have no safety net - say a partner's income to help, or generous relatives - but you'll find it's its own reward if you keep at it, and you'll soon find personal strengths that you can exploit.
Don't be put off by temporary frustrations or obstacles. Find a way to overcome them and push on to achieve your own self-fulfillment (apologies if that's trite).
I wouldn't start out as a self employed bookkeeper without more experience, unless you have someone you can go to when you don't know the answer to something. This may be your professional institute or someone who has more experience than you.
I worked in bookkeeping and accounts for 15 years before going it on my own. You don't have to do 15 years, but some experience is good. It not only gives you bookkeeping experience but also experience in dealing with accountants at year end.
You can have all the qualifications in the world but you can't learn experience.
I'm the opposite from Liz. I came to bookkeeping with no experience at all. I think this helped me from a practice management point of view as I had not preconceptions about how things 'are done'. I think this helps me to be a bit more innovative.
With regards to the actual bookkeeping, as long as you don't take on work you're not confident with you shouldn't have any major issues.
My impression is that a fair chunk of ICB people come to the table with no prior experience as that is the way that the couses are sold.
(role up, role up. just a few short weeks of traing to £30k p.a., plenty of opportunities, no experience necessary) (#1).
Coming out of the other end of the process you get the good, the bad and the indifferent.
My impression is that those who succeed are those who would have suceeded anyway but were helped by structured learning to give them foundations in their career.
Those who saw the £ signs and thought that this would be an easy route to guaranteed work quickly disappear into other professions or no profession once they realise that rather than a few weeks of learning then guaranteed income with clients lining up to break down their door what they have actually signed up to lifelong learning and a real business with all that such entails in a very competitive environment.
So, in answer, there are plenty here who had no prior experience.
The one's that suceed such as Kris and Peasie and Bill to name but a few are the one's who love the subject matter and have an attitude that every day is a new learning experience.
The qualification only gives you the foundations of that. It is completely down to your own skills to build the busienss upon it whilst making sure that those foundations remain firm.
Personally I did have quite a bit of prior experience but very limited in quite a few aspects.
I understood and was experienced with limited companies (20 years) and IR35 (10 years of fighting it) and management accountancy (25 years). From that basis little by little everything else has been added and still I know that there is so much that I do not know.
And that would explain why almost all of my clients (all but 2) are incorporated businesses.
And thats a key. find something that you are knowledgeable about and build from there adding new knowledge in small incremental steps rather than ever attempting a big bang approach to skills acquisition.
I know my area's of weakness (and I'm not telling anyone here what they are, lol) and whilst I attempt to obliterate them I would not attempt to sell a service to the public for something that I was not comfortable with myself.
The key is trying to chip away at the lack of knowledge by it being a tiny part of something else.
And that is where this site comes in. We attempt to fill in the gaps. For instance someone may know about mileage rates but not the rules surounding when they would not be available to self employed clients.
Tiny example there but what I'm getting at is that we build on what we know and add linked services and then build on those.
In your case work on your own accounts and then work with other couriers providing a service that you know. Then maybe expand that to taxi firms picking up the additional knowledge required there, then maybe haulage contractors.
At each stage try to enter it with knowledge and experience of some part of the service and then build from there. And at each stage you will be learning other skills that are usable outside of the specific industry sector plus you will be becoming an expert in your software of choice (pretty sure that you have decided on QB although you are yet to part with foldies for it).
Good luck going forwards,
Shaun.
#1 not aimed at any of the regular training provider contributors to this site
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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 came into this with no prior knowledge of book-keeping, other than when I worked in Corporate Finance I analysed the books once Book-keepers had finished their work - I tended to look at larger companies, but they were all Limited Company Accounts once they were in 'Audited' or final version category. Plus I love 'playing' with numbers. The former probably explains why I now exclusively look after incorporated businesses, with a fondness for new start-ups. There is some advice/comments already - I would just add don't rush things (including building your customer base); try to get people around you who can help answer questions; read up as much as you can ( be a sponge!) and even maybe set up a dummy company on your software and post some entries and try to drill down to find out what is happening behind the scenes with your postings. Good luck Adrian.
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
on the dummy company front, slightly different in that its a real company but whenever I'm trying to pick up new software I have a company that I always use and process two years data then compare the results to the originals to see if there are any variances in the final accounts.
I can't let anyone have that companies data but I reccon that there would be money in creating a final set of accounts and all the data that made up those accounts and then let people try to make their software hit those results.
I know that their is monkey level stuff out there already but I'm thinking of real life data input including hardly discernable invoices with real life errors, opening balances including opening accruals and prepayments (which the books never seem to have).
As I say, I reccon that people would pay good money for something like that to practice on.
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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.
You could let me people have the data if you remove all references to real people/businesses. I used to do that in my former life when teaching newbies how to write Credit reports, but the tipex used to clog up loads. I reckon if you had the time you could well have a new business idea there as I think people would pay for something like that. I would certainly pay for some good real lifelike examples of prepayments and accruals as opposed to the woolly ones Ive seen in textbooks!
Have you got time though? Only if fed through a straw perhaps!
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
I'm already on about 2 litre's of red bull per day!
Even that couldn't keep me awake in yesterdays heat though.
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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 did AAT exams at home on my own and worked for a local accoutancy firm part time doing tax returns whilst doing the exams. I then just took on customers as they came to me and read up on anything I needed to know (and came here). As there were only a few to start with I had the time to read up thoroughly on what I needed to know. I have a few friends who are financial controllers/accountants who have kindly helped me out when I've had questions. I call HMRC if I have doubts and can't find the answer anywhere else. I also found a local accountant who gives me bookkeeping work and I give him the harder clients that come to me in return. If I pass any work onto a client's accountant I always ask for feedback on my work. I wouldn't say I'm an expert yet but I'm getting there. My clients are happy and I haven't lost one yet and it's been 18 months now.
Working for the accountancy firm was the best thing I could have done. I don't think I would have had the confidence to take on tax returns if I hadn't done that. Doing them one after the other several days a week and getting feedback on them was really good experience. I've just started offering payroll. I only have a few clients for that and they are relatively simple. I would like to take a course in it as it wasn't really covered in the AAT exams but haven't found anything reasonably priced that I can do from home so I'm just going for it and will ask other bookkeepers I know if I get stuck.
I think it depends how much you want it. I really didn't want to work full time in an office 30 miles away any more and wanted more time with my son. And I want to pay the mortgage too. I have worked really hard on my marketing and have bored people silly with how successful I'm being with the idea that success breeds success. It's working so far. I now always have some work sitting here waiting to be done and am enjoying seeing clients from last year to do their tax returns, it's always easier the second time round.
Happy customers recommend you and things have started to grow exponentially now and I think within another year I will have all the work I need.
Good luck with it if you choose to go that route. I know I have never been happier with my work and wouldn't go back to being an employee with awful bosses and office politics.
Maybe thats where Im going wrong, NOT drinking red bull!! Ive not slept for the last 3 nights because of the heat and at 1.30 in the morning was practically hung from the bedroom window trying to get some air!
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Princess
Sounds like you have made a really good move for you personally and are loving every minute of it. I would certainly like to be where you are in 18months time, with more confidence and yes more clients. I havent done personal tax returns other than my own as I feel that I dont know enough about it to tackle them, but Ive been learning lots and you never know - maybe one day. I often hate seeing the piles of work waiting to be sorted but as soon as I get stuck in I really enjoy it. I love it more when Ive waded my way through it and sorted it all out to everyone's satisfaction. One of my clients recommended me to another new client this week (thats two from one client already)- its so good when that happens! Ive just started doing payroll too - I thought I had a simple one, but within the first month I had some 'issues' - but I learnt much faster how to deal with them because I had too. I got help from on here, as well from the software provider, which is why I like this forum so much. The best way to get experience is sometimes to dive straight in (whilst keeping a firm hold of your swimwear!)
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Seems that many people spend their summers in the UK and winters in places such as Spain.
I'm all for spending Winter here and summer in somewhere like North Greenland or Alaska.
Hate to think what this months electricity bill is going to be as we have fans on full blast constantly (day and night).
Just remembered last time that I was in Thailand.
Hotel air con on full blast and I still end up sitting starkers in front of the mini fridge, door open on max setting.
Strange thing was that I went there in their winter and whilst I was melting all of the locals were wearing thick jumpers and balaclava's... Mmm, couse they could have all just been off to rob a bank...
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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.
If you are paying a subscription fee, you are a member, and being a member governs how you proceed. If you were no longer a member, then they have no hold over you :) Give them a call, they will set you on the right path. They will know what exams you have passed, and you can go through your experience with them, they can tell you what you need to do, and that will give you a bang on answer.
I am helping someone who is AAT intermediate, while they embark on technician stage. He is a fireman, and uses his days off to build his knowledge, so that when he retires, he has something to fall back on. He is finding his own bookkeeping work - so far from workmates who run their own businesses on their days off. He has offered to do it for free, so that he can train. The idea is that they will bring the accounts and tax work to me, and when I invoice, I add in that the bookkeeping was part of the year's fee, so that it comes under the umbrella of my insurance. I am hoping this can develop into him being a paid contractor (subject to following his memberships rules), where I will invoice him out, and then pay him - he deserves to earn if he can, after all.... and then hopefully by the time he becomes a member, I can give him a reference when he applies for his licence. Gotta pay it forward :)
-- Edited by FoxAccountancyServices on Sunday 21st of July 2013 10:47:39 AM
Good luck with it if you choose to go that route. I know I have never been happier with my work and wouldn't go back to being an employee with awful bosses and office politics.
I have completed all AAT exams, Business Tax is marked on the syllabus as optional one, but I consider it as being extremely important and after completing this one, I see as a must to get all ACCA books to enhance and update my knowledge.
I am gathering information from March about all the details I need to set my own small bookkeeping practice.
I have done everything I could to make this happen, even quit my social life by taking an evenings and weekends job.
At some point I was afraid when I`ve realised how many things I don`t know.
And I felt embarrassed when I`ve seen people who are doing this for more than 10 years.
But I think this is exactly the beauty of it, everyday it is a new learning day, software, books and practice.
I really have to say a big thank you to the wonderful people of this forum for great advice and encouraging me.
After all it is important to really want something.
If I will have the chance, I will get a job for an accountancy practice to get more experience.
Until then, I know that every day I spend learning new software (e.g. QB) ,updating my knowledge and handling my own books is a big plus.
Kind regards,
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
Bear in mind that doing your own bookkeeping will be considered experience. You might find that just to offer bookkeeping in the interim, is easier to get permission for... remember that an accountant would then verify that work when they do the accounts, and you can ask what they felt you could have done better.
You can then build your experience with accounts and tax.
Let me know how you get on with ringing the AAT :)
I have emailed AAT a couple of weeks ago and they`ve told me what I ve already knew, that I am not allowed to advertised in relation with AAT until I get MIP, and my work should be checked by a qualified accountant who also has to confirm my experience.
First I need to apply for full membership after 12 months of experience.
Please consider that I am very opened to take bookkeeping work and soon I will purchase Quick Books, I am also very keen to purchase other software if needed.
If someone needs to outsource work, please consider me as I am keen to develop my knowledge.
I will also pay all the postage fees incurred as I live in London.
Thank you all very much for your help and I hope to hear from you soon.
QB is due for purchase next week.
Have a fantastic day !
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
