Im currently on maternity leave and Ive been thinking of ways to earn money from self employment as I would love to stay at home and become self employed rather than go back to work!
This probably sounds a little silly but Ive been ACCA qualified for a number of years now but Ive only ever worked in large organisations so never in a practice so Ive got no experience of doing someones accounts or books. My question is where do I start and do I need to do a bookkeeping course to get up to speed?
Hi Kerry Can you add your first name so that it appears under the signature bar on your posts? Saves everyone looking it up!! (Edit profile --->signatures)
Before you look at courses the biggest issue is whether or not you can get a practise certificate from the ACCA. Without knowing more about what it is you have been doing in those large organisations its hard to say. Maybe if you could add some detail round that, our Mod man Shaun (Moderator, sorry) might be able to advise, or it might just be worth phoning the ACCA for some guidance and taking a punt with an application.
If you dont get a licence from them, then you MAY need to consider giving up your membership given you cannot go beyond TB under Regulation 8, which essentially means you cannot work for the self employed as you cannot produce their accounts/tax returns unless supervised by someone else of ACCA level or above, nor can you go past the TB stage for limiteds. Its do-able just working up to TB for Limiteds, but restrictive obviously. Im sure you wouldnt need telling that if you do go beyond the bounds of the regs that you can be fined/struck off the ACCA books.
So if they wont give you a certificate, do you wish to give up membership? In which case you can get a membership with another organisation eg AAT, ICB, IAB or go it alone.
Lots of other info you will need, but I think that decision/digging bit might help to start.
Oh and sorry I shouldve added - welcome to the forum.
-- Edited by Cheshire on Tuesday 17th of October 2017 06:35:47 PM
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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
Thank you - your advice has certainly has given me a starting point.
My main experience is management accounting, mainly budgets and very little on the balance sheet side of things. I might give ACCA a call and see what I need to get a practice certificate as I dont want to give up my letters considering it took a lot of hard work to earn them in the first place!
I need experience and need to fill in a form documenting the relevant experience. I have a friend who is a partner in a practice so Im going to ask him if I could possibly get some work experience to help me get the certificate. Not all experience needs to be in practice some industry experience can also be relevant, so hopefully I may be able to progress with this line of work!
well, that depends on which bit of experience that you are getting signed off.
to get your letters you need to have three years plus signed off under supervision but that may be in industry or practice and the person signing off the work does not need to be ACCA or ICEAW. Getting that doesn't mean that you can practice.
to be able to practice you must have three years experience (completely different set of forms with a lot more burning hoops to jump through) signed off by a qualified accountant that you work for and the practice must be approved and recognised as an ACCA approved practice certificate training provider.
Your friend would need to contact them and they will look at the practice to ensure that it is an ACCA (or ICAEW) practice and meets the criteria for being a training provider for supervision purposes.
You cannot start practice certificate supervision until you have your letters. However, once you have your letters if the practice that you worked with is ACCA practice certificate training approved up to one year from pre letters can count towards your post qualification practice certificate supervision meaning that you can get a practice certificate in some circumstances with as little as five years signed off practical experience.
hope that makes sense,
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.
