I'm 26 year old, I'm a hungarian nationality girl, from Transylvania. I'm in Uk from three years, working as self-employed as child minder.Now i think my English is enough good to study .I would like to do bookkeeping but I'm confused a bit.After riding lots of things online about bookkeeping courses now I can't decide which course I should do?Which is the best?ICB, or AAT course?For de begining I would like to do the Level 1&2. I was reading like AAT is more valuable than ICB but ICB is more efficient.
Which training provider is recomended?
Regards!
-- Edited by Andrea on Saturday 13th of December 2014 11:44:36 AM
lots of choice which all depends on your final intent.
Are you looking for employment or self employment?
For employment
do not consider anything less than AAT (which is also good for self employment provided that you do not move your membership up to MAAT which can cause problems).
To clarify that simply look at the Reed website and look at what potential employers are looking for as a minimum. Invariably that will be either AAT qualified or PQ (PQ means part qualified with one of the CCAB bodies (such as ACCA, ICAEW, ICAS, etc) or CIMA).
For AAT consider Premier Training and Eagle education and also use the free Opentuition ACCA training materials to master AAT.
For self employment
as a bookkeeper there are two professional bodies which are both very similar. The ICB and IAB.
For ICB two good training providers are Training Link and Ideal Schools
For IAB try Eagle Education or Woodgrove Tutorials
Value proposition
Initially no matter which option you choose there should be very little different in what you are learning as the foundations of everything is bookkeeping. Doesn't matter whether your intent is to be an Accountant, Auditor, Insolvency Practicioner, Credit Controller or Bookkeeper. Whatever career that you build the foundations are bookkeeping.
And therein lies another issue. If your intent was to start with bookkeeping but move into accountancy then whilst there is no major difference between the knowledge bases required for ICB and IAB, IAB will give you exemptions from exams of other professional bodies where ICB will not.
That said, the knowledge base should be no different so no matter which you took (ICB or IAB) you should be able to pass the exams that IAB gives an exemption from but ICB does not.
Alternatives
The Open University have a short course called B190 which covers basic bookkeeping and is an introdiuction to accountancy. AAT have just released a similar bookkeeping course. Both are introductory level qualifications not intended as a replacement from ICB, IAB or AAT but rather a more gentle easing into the subject almost as a try before you invest hugely into the subject matter.
Another alternative would be to purchase Business Accounts by David Cox (#1) and work through it cover to cover before deciding whether this career path was for you as there is possibly a lot more to it than you are considering at the moment and to spend under £20 on a study text that you get a feel for the subject is much more cost effective than jumping straight into a commitment of many £100's (if not several £1000's).
Conclusion.
Whatever option that you go with I wish you the very best in your studies. There are other alternatives which I am sure that others will be along imminently to suggest.
kindest regards,
Shaun.
#1 Other alternatives might be the UK version of the dummies guide to bookkeeping by Jane Kelly or Book-keeping and Accounts by Frank Woods and Shiela Robinson.
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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.
As a Cloud Bookkeeper, you will be provided with extensive training and support to ensure that you feel confident and able to run your own successful bookkeeping business. You have the added assurance of workflow templates known as the Prism process that will guide you through every bookkeeping assignment, enabling you to deliver a premium service.
Not wishing to labour the point but £15k fee, 10% management fee, 1% marketing contibution... And worse than that Sage software as well...
I wish you the best of luck with your venture... Just not with the members of this site.
Shaun.
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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.
There's also - Frank Wood's Business Accounting 1 (which just about covers the ICB and IAB syllabus) and this can be downloaded for free as a pdf on the internet. Just google it. I have extensively used a paper version of the ninth edition and downloaded the tenth addition.
Personally I'm not a big fan of the Woods and Sangster book. but we've had chats on here before where Chartered Accountants measure how long ago they started by the version of that book that they have.
Back when I did the first two levels of ICB I used the BPP ACCA study text for the old paper 1.1 (now F3) which was more than enough for the entire syllabus.
Like yourself my edition of Woods & Sangster (both volumes) is the ninth. They are a lot less referenced than the David Cox book which may explain your "just about" comment as I do recollect a lot of specific scenarios that I wanted to see examples of were not covered where (perhaps by luck of the specific cases I was looking for) the scenario's were covered in the Cox book.
I think that the key is to build up a substantial library rather than depending on just one or two books (I've got seven full size floor to ceiling bookcases stuffed with accountancy books... I really should start slinging old tax books as they no use to anyone and just use a lot of space (A4 * 6cm each)).
I would never condone people acquiring illegal copies of books but rather for old versions look at Amazon resellers and pick up old books, often in almost new condition for pennies (plus £2.80 P&P).
kind regards,
Shaun.
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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 obviously, incorrectly thought it had been released into the public domain. I also know that Premier Training use the Frank Wood book and make it compulsory reading alongside course work - They even sell discounted new copies to their students.
But , as you say the best thing is to build up a collection of books you like. I have taken loads out, from my local library, some are ok, some good (almost considered buying) and some totally useless.
Would the Bookcert course offered by the owners of Bookkeepers Network be useful to Andrea? Could this be a way for newcomers to bookkeeping to get started without committing to a professional qualification straight away?
hypathetically yes but I've not actually seen one of the kits myself so one would really need input from someone who has used that approach.
Certainly £300 with support and a website (or £200 without the additions) and no ongoing fee's does seem a lot better VFM proposition than £15k on a franchise which I think is about the going fee for bookkeeping francises, the above one, Rosemary's, the Local Bookkeeper, etc. all seem similarly priced for standard packages.
It must be a mindset thing as people such as ourselves think why would anyone ever pay for a franchise where others have the minset that they are buying a job.
All horses for courses. I can't tell people what to think, I can only keep ensuring that people realise that :
There is more that one professional body for bookkeepers to be a member of
The word bookkeeper in a qualification does not make it more relevant to bookkeeping than qualification without that word.
A hyphen makes absolutely no difference to the quality of bookkeeper.
Sage is not the only software in the market.
Cloud based software is only the future if like turkeys voting for Christmas we all decide that the pay per client model is a good idea.
Never buy a franchise from a company that makes more from selling franchises than providing a service.
I've just realised that I've written a mission statement! lol.
Have a good day matey,
Talk later,
Shaun.
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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.
