I would be grateful if anybody could give me advice on which course to do as I am completely confused. I am looking for a change in career - I was a PA for over 15 years before having a family and am now looking at returning to work. I would like to do a book keeping course which would qualify me to be a self employed book keeper or go and work for a company. My local college does the the C and G introduction to booking keeping 1 and 2, after which you can go onto the AAT level 2 course. I am completely confused about which is the right course to do especially after reading all the posts - I don't know which way to turn - any advice would be really appreciated. With many thanks. Helen
Welcome to the forum and don't despair Bookkeeping is one of those careers than throws up 1001 questions especially when it comes to which body is the best. If looking for Self-Employment then ICB is a great avenue to look at, ICB hold regional seminars and an annual Bookkeepers summit, gaining ICB qualifications up to I believe Level 3 will I believe allow you to go straight into AAT at Level 4 as one of our tutors did but I would advise to go to Level 3 AAT if taking this route. I may be wrong with this but if I am I am sure Nick will let me know. AAT would be a better option if looking for employment with a company. If looking at AAT then Nick from Premier training will advise you your best options. I am not too sure about IAB and hope another forum user can fill you in on this. The point is though Helen you do have options and I would suggest calling up the professional bodies you have been looking at and having a chat with them, also call up a few of the Training Providers who should give you unbiased honest advice and should you have any conflicting information just check with the professional body that you have been informed correctly. The great thing about the BKN forum is that its members are from all bodies and will be give factual advice and then it is up to you to decide what is best for you.
Hi Helen, ICB is the best for going self-employed and if you put the work it you can get it done pretty quickly. You can do it all at home and it's not too expensive
To become a full member of ICB you will need to take these exams with the ICB:
You can sign up for a course with a training provider or to save money you can buy the textbooks yourself and buy mock exams from ICB to work from.
Either way you need to sign up as a student member of the ICB (£48.00 and lasts 1 year)
You can buy frank woods bookkeeping and accounts textbook (around £30.00 new) and use this for level 1 & 2 manual bookkeeping - you should work through the whole text book front to back, I would also suggest that you buy mock exam papers from the ICB (£5.00 each) to practice the exam questions.
For level 3 manual you should buy level 3 bookkeeping and level 3 bookkeeping revision kit (about £30.00 each) from the ICB, also some mock exam papers and this should be enough to pass the level 3 exam.
For the 2 computerised exams, unless you have any experience using accounts software it's probably best to go to a training provider for the course, these exams are much quicker to prepare for than the manual exams and the computerised exams are done at home. They are around £300 each or you could buy a second hand (ebay?) accounts software like 'sage' and buy somebody's old course books and work you way through with also buying mock exams from ICB. I think you may even be able to get a student version of sage.
When you have passed, to work self-employed you upgrade your student membership to member, get a practising certificate (both through ICB) and professional indemnity insurance (can get it for as low as £60 per year)
If you want to offer payroll and self-assessment tax returns you will need to also pass these exams:
Level 3 Diploma in Payroll Management
Level 3 Diploma Self-Assessment
Self-assessment diploma - you can get a textbook from ICB for around £50.00 and use info on the HMRC wesbite.
For the payroll - I have no idea how you can do this on the cheap? I couldn't get around this. You will probably have to sign up for a training provider like training link (£430.00) or again you could buy somebody's old training manuals and get some cheap payroll software.
If you did decide to go with a training provider training link sell the whole package of course for exams for £1250.00 the only thing this does not include is the self-assessment diploma. You can pay in instalments with training link too.
