Im hoping this is a good place to get some advice on starting out doing some bookkeeping for a couple of local sole traders most likely to be tradesmen (Who I have yet to approach). My 20 odd years of working experience is for banks & large companies mainly doing Credit Control, Treasury & Sales Ledger roles. I love this type of accounting/spreadsheet work and cant think of anything better that working my way towards becoming a self employed bookkeeper, but for the time being still holding down my 4 day a week job that pays the bills. This is really going to start out as a hobby/interest with a view to building it up over time.
The things Im hoping for guidance on are:
1. How do I advertise myself given that I dont currently have experience as a bookkeeper but Im very confident that I could pick up how someone currently does theirs and do it their way if thats what they require. Once I got stuck in I might even be able suggest better ways of doing things to help them?
2. Are there any rules/laws that limits of what kind of bookkeeping work I can do for someone without having some kind of qualification?
3. I expect to have to pay tax/NI on anything I earn, is there somewhere I can look online that tells me what the parameters are?
4. I would be happy to study and work towards a qualification before or during taking on a couple of clients if there is something appropriate to this level of bookkeeping, any suggestions welcome!
5. Regarding data protection and client confidentiality If I had my own laptop to work from, how would be the best and most secure way to store client data?
Any help with these questions and anything else you think might be helpful to me at this stage would be very much appreciated, I can see there is tons on information of this site and Ill certainly make a start on reading through posts that I may also find useful.
Hi Lisa
Welcome to the forum. Before we start - hows about a bit more on the background, such as do you belong to a prof body or plan to and if so which one, what bookkeeping or Accountancy qualifications do you hold, where up to in your studies-what exams passed/with what body/in midst of doing, where based. That so of thing.
Also - which Bank - thats out of noseyness as there are a few of us ex bankers around.
Helps get to know you but also how best to pitch answers, especially will help to answer some you have posed today.
Lot of questions for one post though so might do them in chunks based on your answers.
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Nice to meet you & thank you for replying to my post so soon.
Ok so at the moment I don't belong to any prof body or have any Bookkeeping or Accountancy qualifications, I'm finally in a good position time wise (kids grown up etc) to commit to this and I am willing to study towards exams & take up membership.
A bit about me, I worked for Barclays on leaving school (some 20 odd years ago) for 10 years, cashiering, and back office duties as it was then. Since then I've worked for 5 other large companies that supply everything from pharmaceuticals, fork lift trucks to DVD's, this has been mainly working in Credit Control and Sales Ledger looking after the supermarket accounts & high street retailers, I'm currently working 4 days p/wk in the distribution area of book publishing world. Whilst I really enjoy my job I'd like to start getting ready & qualified to do some work for myself in bookkeeping (I'm 45 now so am thinking of something to take me into and beyond retirement years).
Any replies in chunks as and when will be much appreciated.
sounds like you were one of mine rather than Joanne's (I'm Barclays, Natwest & RBS back office Branch Accounting (retail and corporate), Joanne is Natwest and RBS front office Corporate).
My suggestion would be to attempt to gain MAAT MIP status which is the defacto qualification for those looking to work with SME businesses.
That you needed to ask number (3) in your list tells me that you are not ready to offer your services yet.
When you do get to the stage of gaining clients the number one thing that you must have is MLR cover as to not have it carries a potential jail term. After that there is PII insurance, Software licences, etc.
To consider for the future, not now, on opening a practice a good settup to start with (then add / subtract software as you see fit) is VT Transaction+ (and / or Sage 50), Excel, VT Accounts, Taxfiler, 12pay (or Moneysoft Payroll), Wondershare PDF element with OCR add on. If you exclude Sage thats only around £500 a year in software for a full one person office. However, that aside you may find your software requirements dictated by your clients or by their accoutnants, for example they may use Xero or other cloudy stuff.
You will find that it helps to have multiple large screens (at least 21"). You will quickly find that one of them will always have Excel open on it as a scratchpad area.
Think that its a bit early to be thinking about things like advertising until you have at least done the two tax papers at AAT level IV.
Its worth noting that bookkeeping is a lot more complex than it may at first seem. People such as many of those you will meet here have been doing it for years. In my case there is still seldom a day goes by that I for one do not learn something knew or how to do something that I thought I knew better.
If you want to try study before buying into AAT, try ACCA-X which is free to study but you need to pay to take exams if you want evidence of level to transfer to another body (AAT).
kindest 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.
Hi again Agree with Shaun. Look to to the AAT and go for MAAT MIP. With your banking background (if you worked for them in the days of decent training or have done any of your banking exams) then you should find it fairly straightforward in many of the areas (although the debit /credit position is the 'wrong' way round).
I would suggest you get to at least level 3 (finished) before you take on clients and only then up to Trial Balance stage, as despite doing Sales Ledger roles there is quite a lot more to the bookkeeping side. Plus you cannot get a licence from the AAT until you have finished level 3, but could have that wrapped up pretty quickly. Also whilst its great in theory to do what clients before you have done, Ive found that doing so would just mean that you continue to do things wrong which Accountants then have to unravel, which wouldnt help your reputation. I always say, dont run before you can walk and this is meant as no disrepect to you, but there is (even beyond the AAT) a ton of learning that goes with the role, not least on the VAT side, but on the tax and ni side as alluded to. Plus there are a mountain of changes due to hit the industry which you would be well to allow time to have them ironed out and get your qualifications done in the meantime.
Try that ACCA -x course that Shaun mentions then have a go at the skills check on the AAT website and see what it comes back with. You may well find you can then miss out level 2, but ensure you do have the double entry part absolutely nailed in all areas!
You can do the AAT via DL and have it finished in a few months with complete dedication, slightly longer if holding down a full time role and dependent on how quick you learn.
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Thank you for all the information, I will read through it in detail and Im sure this will be helpful for me to start finding my way as it were.
I completely agree that Im not ready to offer my services yet and Im keen to get on a learning path towards that, enquiries are in motion! Im glad I posted on this site and I look forward to learning lots from it going forwards.
Thanks Joanne, that all makes perfect sense to me, I'm in no rush & I do want to do things properly so I'm getting a plan of action together based on yours & Shauns replies to my post. I'm so pleased I at least made the first move today by asking voices of experience for some advice
Hi
There is the option to offer exclusively bookkeeping services at lv 3 AAT with their bookkeeping licence, then hand over to an accountant to do the returns.
Thanks Lyndsey
Oops sorry I've just seen Joanne mentioned that! I'm on my phone.
I am currently studying for AAT (having previously studied ICB) I should be finished by now but life seems to get in the way sometimes. However I have learnt a lot from these guys on here over the years. It's a great group of helpful people.
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