Hi Sarah
Can you bob your first name under the line on your profile (via edit profile, signature) as it saves us looking up your name each time.

Most questions on here are serious, it's usually the answers that descend into sillyness.

You need to have the basics, ie the manual bookkeeping, to understand the rest of it.

Never used solar accounts, but most software at some point needs you to rely on understanding whether to debit or credit something when eg you need to sort out journals, prepayments, accruals and the often weird ways of doing things that clients trouble you with.

Plus, remember that even though the system will provide a P and L and balance sheet, that without that background and you knowing where to shove things in the first place then the output can be completely incorrect. The old adage rubbish in, rubbish out. Plus also remember that the reports you get from software are more often than not the finished article you will use for your final accounts and the ultimate tax returns. So careful not to be complacent, but yes the software makes the job a lot easier and a hell of a lot quicker.

 

edited for typos!!!!

-- Edited by Cheshire on Sunday 2nd of April 2017 08:57:29 PM

Are you looking to do the full AAT?

Also what do you propose when you have passed your exams? Is it being a self employed bookkeeper and if so to what level-just to Trial Balance? Or is the plan to work for a firm of accountants as bookkeeper, progressing your career that way. Or within a company's Accounts department?

Software choice would be geared to your plans, in part.

If you've not decided as to whether you hope to work in practice or in industry, I'd recommend learning Sage, which is found in both.

Are you typing this on a phone Sarah? Its just that its one big paragraph and makes for harder reading.

So you are looking to only go up to TB, with an Accountant then taking over to finish the Accounts and do the tax returns - have I got that right?

If so - no you dont NEED to do AAT, but certainly finishing it up to the end of level three will help you quite a lot. There is a new qualification out at the end of level three for bookkeepers - the AATQB. Plus being a member and having a licence will get you considerably more work from Accountants than if you dont have the licence.

Which training provider did you speak to? Try First Intuition if you havent already. Also before you do try them, try the skills check on the AAT website.

A lot of clients are not fussed about the bookkeeper doing the payroll, IF they have an Accountant, But if the bookkeeper is also acting as Accountant then yes they would want a one stop shop. Payroll is quite an invovled subject these days and what with Auto Enrolment can be quite tying so a lot of bookkeepers actually subbie it out to other folk ( a few on here subcontract it out to John (Leger and myself) as we both provide a white label offering (so your clients dont know!). If you are looking at payroll - look at the CIPP course.

Gaining work without experience is chicken and egg-like. Offering to work for free for other Accountants generally doesnt work Im afraid - they think they will spend an age training you up and knowing you will leave. But a lot of people do bookkeeping for charities for free so that might well be a place to start.

If you are looking at doing the AAT computerised accounts then check with the training company you do it with and most importantly where you will be taking the exam to find out what sage they use for the exams - some only use sage 50 and some only sage one. Some of the better training centres offer both. That obviously determines the one you will need to get - you can donwload both for free trails for a month (and there are ways to extend that month if you need to, although the course can easily be done in a couple of weeks!)

The mechanic who owns a garage - bit more detail required. Eg just a one man band, limited or sole trader, sells cars or just repairs them, an MOT station or not, VAT registered or not and if so what VAT scheme, how long in business, how and on what software does he do the books now, does he realise he will still need his Accountant to finish off the books?

What is your knowledge of VAT out of interest.

Sorry - I know you asked us questions and you have a few back, but its often the only way we can provide best practice advice.

P.s forgot to answer ? Yes he knows he needs an accountant , he's only really asking me to do the bookkeeping as a favour to our mutual friend , and to be honest I won't do it unless I feel I'm actually competent to do it,at the moment I don't.

I'm in the West Midlands Joanne .

Thanks Joanne for all the advice , I'll have a look at that software , I'm really starting to get the hang of solar accounts , I know exactly where to put everything , I keep checking the reports and everything's looking accurate . I'm going to get the free trial of vt trans+ later . Thanks again Joanne

Thanks Johnny , I now think taking a sage course is a must , I will have a much better understanding .

This may sound like a silly question Johnny but let's say the client uses quickbooks , they enter day to day transactions ,they want me to do the month end adjustments . Can the information in their quickbooks be sent to my sage software ,does the sage software then put all those figures into the correct accounts or do I have to manually re-enter all the transactions made by the client.

I hope this question makes sense I'm aware I could be looking really thick right now , I've never used or had any need to use any software before and I'm not great with technology, I bought myself a laptop 6 weeks ago just to get used to it again I've been using tablets and phones for that long.

I'm going onto sage later , they do sage 50 accounts training there are 1-4 stages it's £415 including vat , would this teach me most of what I need to know Johnny .

Thanks again Johnny.

Thank you Johnny you have been extremely helpful.its worth looking over the book first and downloading the trial version before putting out for the course I might just be able to pick it up that way .

Thanks Johnny

Thanks Joanne , I'm going to download it in a minute ( just get my Jim jams on and a cuppa tea ready).

Do you know where I could find some kind of made up case material , that I could enter into sage .

Thanks Joanne

Thanks Joanne good idea .
I don't do any books yet I'm waiting until I have a good understanding of computerised accounting first .
I'm going to go to library this week to find that book .

I'm tempted to say go for the standard, as then you know pro is better (rather than getting used to pro and being stuck with standard at a clients and wondering why you can't do something, if that makes sense!!)