Welcome to the site Seb.

What is your background pre AAT?

What are you going to do with regards to your licence - will you try to go MAAT MIP? Just wondering as you dont actually say whether or not you have experience so no idea if this will be a struggle or not. Or maybe just look at the AATQB for starters until you get some experience under your belt, although this is restrictive.

If you are doing the bookkeeping and self assessment, then Im assuming you also mean that you will prepare year end accounts for the said clients?

When you meet a client you will need to negotiate what it is you will do for them plus what date you will start the processing from.

Some clients may well have an existing bookkeeper or Accountant that you are taking over all aspects from - so you will need to work out the best date to start from bearing in mind you need to get all their existing records but dont want to leave a gap - give yourself a good 2-4 weeks to progress the professional courtesy letter that you need to send an incumbent and for them to respond with the necessary paperwork.

Some clients may well have a bookkeeper and so you will just be acting as Accountant. You will need to drill down everything to check what has been done, until perhaps you have been dealing with that same bookkeeper for a while and can trust their input. A GOOD bookkeeper will have prepared the accruals and prepayments but not all do, especially in house ones for small businesses.

Some clients will do their own bookkeeping and may just need you to do the accounts and tax return. Again you will need to drill down EVERYTHING to check it, do not take anything at face value!!!! Best way is to get as many source documents as possible for this. You will find that most will not actually do the accruals and prepayments as they dont understand enough to do so. In fact most do not understand much, so often a complete or partial bookkeeping re-work is required.

Some clients will have done none of the above and will come to you on 30th January for you to complete their tax returns in under one day, dropping a massive bag of cack on your doorstep - so manage them and the processes/dates and be firm.

What Im saying is - everyone is different. Best questions to ask when meeting newbie clients - tell me about your business and what is it you want me to do (whilst thinking of added value you can provide!)

Reckon with your target market you will be doing most of it!

Well done you on the exams, lots of people have problems getting into an accounts role, can take for ever and many hundreds of applications but keep going if that is what you really want! Sell your other skills as much as you can and it is do-able and now that the January rush is over things might be a bit easier in that regard. Other option is to sign up with a temp agency and get your stripes that way - loads do so and it gives them wider experiences for when they get that ideal role. Unless of course you are set on self employment - just dont let anyone kid you thats its an easy option!

Try IAB if you are going to use anyone other than the AAT. or go it alone and get your MLR via HMRC. Just do not state anywhere in your advertising (letter heads or website etc) that you are AAT, until you get the MAAT mip.

Oh boy if you tried to keep various brands of software you would be up to your eyes in debt for many many many years. Try VT transaction + Looks a bit old school, what is misses in looking pretty it makes up for in actually being able to do the job. Its actually used by many an Accounting practice as their go to Accounts production module (with the add on accounts suite) even those who dont use it for bookkeeping, but for bookkeeping it will be a great start and compared to most others its as cheap as chips for unlimited clients. Just get the accounts module later when and if you need it.

What you will not ever just get is a TB. You may from a departing Accountant and you pinch their business with no professional courtesy, but most are more forthcoming if you approach them correctly. With clients you need to get all the appropriate reports from their software to be able to drill down - a TB alone wouldnt cut it at all. You just need to learn to know what the terminology is to be able to ask for the relevant reports. EG Sage - ask for nominal activity excluding no transactions for starters. Most other software - you want a full activity list or audit trail, plus up to date debtor and creditor schedules. Plus a pile of other things (no time to go into that just now - have a wander round the site and Im sure you can fill in the gaps!)

Any other questions then Im sure you will ask (maybe start a new thread for anything specifically not covered by this one).

Dont relay on anything generally more than a year old with regards to tax on here, and always double check even if its within a year that its up to date. A lot has changed in the last year or so.

Good luck with it.

One last thing - whereabouts are you based?