I've deleted all of your repeated posts.

now, you've got a bit of a conundrum.

If you continue with AAT then as a student you can offer restricted services to the public (provided that you make no mention of the AAT) untill you move up to MAAT and then things become somewhat more restricted. I'll dig out an old post about services that AAT students can offer in a min.

I assume that the ACCA move is linked in with wanting to progress in your permanent role as well as wanting to improve your knowledge base and status.

And there you hit a problem if you want to offer services direct to the public in that ACCA membership (including student membership) takes precedence over all other memberships that you may have so even though AAT may allow you to file self assesments or prepare sole trader accounts, once you are with the ACCA the services that you may offer to the public in an unsupervised capacity (your supervisor would need to be an ACCA or ACA accountant) are restricted to :

- Bookkeeping to trial balance
- VAT
- Payroll

No advice, no accounts, no filing.

(see ACCA regulation 8)

now the smallest businesses which tends to be many bookkeepers bread and butter do not expect to go to one person for their bookkeeping and another for their accounts so you would pretty much be restricting yourself to limited companies or larger self employed.

Those are not the sort of requests that you have been getting from your freinds who it reads as though fit into the category of small self employed and limited wanting a one stop shop sollution cheaper than going to a high street accountant.

If you join the ACCA then you would be fined £1200, lose your membership and because you have been thrown out of one body you would need to report that to the other bodies that you are a member of who would also expel you putting an end to your accounting career.

Lucky you spoke to us first isn't it!

Back to your original question, does your existing employers contract allow you to go into competition against them?

Best plan is to tell your freinds to go find an accountant to look after them and you continue in employment working towards ACCA membership then do three years practice certificate supervision in order to get to where you want to be without shooting yourself in the foot for a few pounds on the side.

right, back to the the link that I promoised above about services that AAT students can provide :

http://www.book-keepers.org.uk/t47322386/starting-a-book-keeping-business/

Thats just one of dozens of similar warning threads on here. To find much more (which would be helpful to go through them to see if there is anything else that you can pick up) copy and paste this search into google :

site:www.book-keepers.org.uk "You may not advertise in connection with the AAT"

I remembered that one line and that found all of the links... There are a lot of links as that question gets asked a lot. If you do go down that path remember that you MUST be registered for MLR with HMRC (to not be carries possible two year prison term, expulsion from all professional bodies and unlimited fine).

Also for the ACCA regulation 8, here it is to save you looking for it :

(2) Permitted activities of ACCA students

(a) ACCA students of the Association may not claim to be members of the Association, nor may they be, or hold themselves out to be, in public practice, or a partner, director or controller of a firm or a member of a limited liability partnership which carries on public practice. ACCA students are, however, permitted to provide basic bookkeeping services for reward, either directly to the public or for an accountant, provided that they do not refer to their studentship or potential membership of the Association. Such service may be provided by the ACCA student acting in a self-employed capacity, or as an employee. Basic book-keeping services are defined as:

(i) The recording of basic accounting data up to and including the preparation of accounting records to trial balance stage

(aa) bank accounts
(bb) cash
(cc) sales ledger and purchase ledger

(ii) Payroll

(aa) wages
(bb) PAYE, National Insurance deductions

(iii) VAT or its equivalent.

(b) Any accountancy services, other than basic book-keeping services, can only be provided for reward by an ACCA student working for, and under the supervision of, a person who, in the opinion of Council, is suitably qualified and/or suitably experienced. The ACCA student may undertake such work either as an employee or as a self-employed person.

(c) The provision of basic book-keeping services directly to the public cannot constitute approved accountancy experience, for the purpose of regulation 3(a)(ii). However, basic book-keeping and other accountancy work undertaken under supervision may constitute approved accountancy experience.

(d) An ACCA student or affiliate who wishes to provide basic book-keeping services may obtain or seek such work by direct approaches to existing or prospective clients by mail or any other means unless prohibited by law in the country in which the student operates and subject to the requirements in paragraphs (e) and (f) below.

(e) An ACCA student may inform the public of his book-keeping services by means of advertising, or other forms of promotion, subject to the general requirement that the medium should not, in the opinion of Council, reflect adversely on the ACCA student, the Association or the accountancy profession, nor should the advertisement or promotion material, in the opinion of Council:

(i) as to content or presentation, bring the Association into disrepute or bring discredit to the ACCA student, firm or the accountancy profession;

(ii) discredit the services offered by others whether by claiming superiority for the ACCA students services or otherwise;

(iii) contain comparisons with the services offered by others;

(iv) be misleading, either directly or by implication;

(v) fall short of the requirements of the Advertising Standards Authority as to legality, decency, honesty and truthfulness.

(f) Advertisements and other promotional material may refer to the basis on which fees are calculated, or to hourly or other charging rates, provided that the information given is not misleading.

(g) Where ACCA students provide services pursuant to the above rules, they are subject to the same rules of professional conduct which apply to members who provide such services.

(h) Regulations 8(2)(a)(g) do not apply to ACCA students:

(i) who are members of one or more of the UK or Irish Institutes of Chartered Accountants, The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants or The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting and who hold practising certificates or the equivalent status from such bodies; or

(ii) who are authorised for appointment as company auditor under Section 25 of the Companies Act 1989; or

(iii) who are resident outside the United Kingdom, Jersey, Guernsey and Dependencies, the Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland, and hold a professional accountancy qualification which confers the right to practise in their country of residence.

ACCA students falling within these categories are permitted to engage in public practice (although, in respect of category (iii), in their country of residence only) provided that they describe themselves only as members of the professional bodies to which they belong (if any) and not as students of the Association.

(3) MSER students

The provisions of regulation 8(2) apply to MSER students in respect of their permitted activities.

hope that helps,

kindest regards,

Shaun.