Bristol_al wrote:

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Hi everyone

I was retired a year ago at the grand age of 31 as I got too sick to work. I'm looking to the future now and would like to retrain in a field where I can be self-employed and work part-time flexibly to suit my health issues. I have zero experience of or qualifications in book keeping and was hoping to get some insight into the reality of life as a self-employed bookkeeper and some advice about how to go about training.

 

Because of my health I cannot take on a job so the avenue of being employed in an accountancy firm to get some experience is really not open to me.

 

My first thoughts were to get the qualifications (International Association of Book keepers levels 1-3 through self study). But theoretical knowledge is so far removed from something in practice that I don't know how ro bridge that gap.

 

Do you think it is possible to retrain completely and go straight into self-employment or is that wildly optimistic? Other than qualifications, what would you suggest I do in terms of getting a real feel for what the job would be like and getting some practical experience?

 

Is it acceptable to contact a book keeper and ask to do a work placement with them or shadow them for a couple of days?

 

Many thanks in advance - if there are already very similar threads then apologies and it would be great if you could point me in their direction.

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 Hi Alice

Time for a reality check and sorry if this sounds harsh.

You cannot learn the realities of the trade by shadowing someone for a couple of days.   Plus what exactly would be in it for the person you are shadowing?  Apart from the headache of having to take out extra insurance at the very least.

Even getting someone to take you on  for a 2 /3 year training contract is hard these days, because the market is completely saturated with bookkeepers and employers can afford to be choosy with the candidates on offer?  I could take on an Accountant to do a bookkeepers job as there are folk who are level 4 AAT trained who cannot get work.  Being a training practice these days  can and is a whole heap of trouble in this litigious world.  It takes at least twice as long to get anything done for the same fee/greater expense as you have to spend time answering questions and checking/re-doing the work.   BTW there are forward thinking practioners out there who see trainees for what advantages they can bring, but you have to ask yourself why would they spend time on folk who are just going to leave and set up in competition.

Plus, even with experience under your belt, you never know from one day to the next what is going to be thrown at you in terms of tax and compliance issues when you are doing the role.

You state on your profile page '' ibookkeeping as a flexible way to make some money part time and self employed''.    Realistically at the rates you will be charging you will be struggling to make any money with the costs of entry now being evidenced in this game, if you are only working part time. 

How would it work if you became sick? If you are struggling working for someone else, why would you consider working for yourself is going to ease that? Its hard to make an educated guess here because you do not describe the nature of your illness.  OK being self employed you will mostly, but not always,  save on the commute, but you will be working many many many more hours as a self employed person that you would as an employee.   Plus how would that work when you have pressing deadlines to meet for clients.   Let them down once and the best they will do is not pay your bill, the worst sue you, with many issues inbetween.

Being self employed is far harder than anyone who has only been employed will know. Im not saying its not rewarding when you finally make it, but few do make it to the point when they are coining it in in this game (most of those have higher qualifications, or have some real world experience behind them), or indeed making a half decent living from full time work.

There are lots of similar threads on this.  Best I can do to point them out is to suggest you spend a few hours searching for them (use google, with name of site, rather than the search option embedded, although the search option will bring some interesting reads in itself, with the correct search term). That will be good practice for searching out the info you need from the complete rot on HMRC website, rather than the dumbed down Gov.uk website for info if you decide to go ahead.

Try reading the VAT act in full and see if you are stil interested.  Then try reading it again versus the HMRC VAt guides and see if you can pick out the nonesense that HMRC tell folk is fact v what is actual law and see if you are still interested. If you pass those two challenges then go for it and good luck.

I do balance this with my usual saying of dont let someone say you cannot do something. I of course am not saying you cannot, just that some of your ideas are abit pie in the sky. 

 Apologies for all the typos, I cannot be bothered correcting them as Ive left my glasses somewhere!

Bristol_al wrote:

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Thank you Casu for your response. I do appreciate that the reality of the job is very different to the study books- hence the question here.

I should make it clear that the level of work/income I'd be looking to achieve are small (not a living) - more like a sideline (a few hours a week). Although I appreciate that you might almost think that is MORE unrealistic because of startup/running costs. I'm not trying to insult your profession - I can see that it can be highly complex - I'd be aiming for the most basic level of routine bookkeeping tasks.   What is basic bookkeeping?   How do you know when you take a client on whether they have basic bookkeeping needs or not?   I still occasionally get caught out by thinking something is simple and then find out they are far from it.   Ive not met one client that has 'basic' needs yet. Maybe I just attract the complex! At the moment I do have the luxury of time (my husband works and I have a small pension) so don't need to rush into anything, but I would like to be working towards something for when I feel well enough.

I can understand why you're both saying that self-employment is harder than being employed but frankly I have no choice other than continuing not to work forever (which I accept may turn out to be what I have to do). And while I respect you saying there are plenty of other things I could do I can assure you it doesn't seem like it.  What about remote PR work.   You can do no harm and folk are crying out for it and it needs no exams and can be interesting and varied?   Probably in a lot of cases pays more as well. I'm not throwing everything into becoming a bookkeeper simply exploring the option.

If I could pass some exams I would probably try to work on someones books on a voluntary basis (a friend or family member)  to gain some real world experience.No.  This would be in breach of professional ethics. You cannot work on family/friends files and anyone saying you can is in breach of ethics!   There are major risks in doing so.  Presumably I would still need insurance to do this, anti-money laundering stuff (I know it's a thing but not more than that). Would I need to be a member of a professional body as well? Would I be allowed to practice voluntarily in this way or could I get myself/my client in trouble?   

How does working for someone voluntarily get you the experience you need when you are not being supervised?  Do you know someone who can/is willing to supervise your work?

I've had a look through the forums and found the hundred other threads exactly like this so a massive sorry and thank you for your patience in replying.

Thanks

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Sorry Joanne. I haven't meant not to answer anything. You use a lot of (what I thought) were rhetorical questions to get me thinking so I'm sorry if you were expecting answers. Do you mean this one...

How does working for someone voluntarily get you the experience you need when you are not being supervised?  Do you know someone who can/is willing to supervise your work?

Unfortunately I don't know anyone who can supervise. I'm pretty sure I don't know anyone in accounting. I meant getting experience in as much as doing the job, seeing what comes up. From what Doug has said and what I've read I haven't seen any rule that says you need to be supervised (in the IAB anyway and I get the impression you are allowed to work as a bookkeeper without professional membership) except for money laundering anyway. From my reading of IAB there is no supervision required to be a member in practice - except for money laundering purposes and they take on that role.

Just to be clear (I'm worried I've caused offence). When I said I'm not getting the answers I wanted, what I meant was that they were not the answers I'd hoped for- (because of course I was hoping it would turn out to be an amazing idea and a solution to all my problems) but that I am really grateful that you have taken the time and effort to be so honest with me.

I'm going to bow out of this thread now because I've definitely had my answers. Many thanks again to you all.