Hi,I have been self employed in the past and enjoyed doing my own bookkeeping and I have been considering looking into doing it part time from home and wondered if anyone could give me any advice on the qualifications I would need to offer a service to sole traders or small businesses.
You don't need to have qualifications to offer bookkeeping services, especially if you are qualified by experience. Although it does help, especially if you want to appear more professional. If you are intending to offer bookkeeping services on a self-employed basis though you will definitely need to be covered under the anti-money laundering regulations. If you are a member of a governing body such as the ICB or IAB you will be covered for that, but otherwise you will need to register with HMRC directly.
If you do want to go down the road of obtaining some qualifications, for self-employment I would recommend either the ICB or the IAB. I can tell you about the ICB as I am a member, but the IAB will be similar. One of the advantages of belonging to an official body is that you will always have a backup for any technical queries or advice/support you may need. The ICB now require you to be proficient in both manual and computerised bookkeeping before you are able to apply for a practice licence, and must qualify to at least Level II and Associate Member level. If you go with the ICB or IAB you will also need to obtain Professional Indemnity insurance, which I know you can get at a reasonable rate through the ICB if you are a member. (This is probably a good idea anyway).
Well, here I was going to put a link to the IAB, but it doesn't seem to be working tonight! (www.iab.org.uk)
If you are only intending on doing a very small amount of work then membership of a professional body and all the cost that entails may not be the route for you. Also, as a student member of the ICB (don't know about the IAB) you will not be permitted to do any work until you have obtained your Practice Licence.
Hope this has given you something to start thinking about!
Thankyou for your advice it has helped me allot as I am only intending on doing a small amount, just enough to give me a part time wage, I am going to my local collage to do a sage course
Glad I could hlep. Don't forget though, even if you are only intending on doing a small amount you will have to register as self-employed and for Anti-Money Laundering supervision with HMRC.
going rate around here (South Staffs) for accountant to do self assessment returns is around £60 - £80 but it is normally considered a value added service where other work is also performed for the client such as company annual returns.
Accountants seem to look for volume of returns with one not very large practice that I know (not me) doing 400 in January. If they got £300 each I think that they would just work January and spend the rest of the year on the beach. lol.
Conversely to say "doing the books" and S/A is too low.
You are obviously aiming at micro businesses and looking to offer a full service arrangement.
You have overheads including software, MLR, PII, memberships, etc. to maintain and at £100 per client you will basically be working for nothing espechially at the start where you have few clients.
Doubling that is still cheap and I think that it would be unwise even for start up businesses to consider taking on any client that is going to return less the £200 per year.
Remember that the deals that you make now will be the clients that you will be stuck with when you are bringing in better returns.
You didn't go through all of that CIMA training to end up working for much less than the office cleaner which is how £100 per client would pan out... That's nothing against office cleaners. Just using them as a handy comparative.
Good luck with the business but a bit more thought on the pricing strategy first methinks.
kindest regards,
Shaun.
p.s. please don't misconstru the above as me saying that £200 is a good price for a full service arrangement. I would want almost double that for my time for even the smallest of clients. But conversely taking self assessment as a seperate service I would not expect more than £60. But then I wouldn't be interested in a client who only wanted self assessment as it's not worth my time.
Remember that if you win clients of being the lowest cost provider you will lose them on the same basis. You are CIMA, sell yourself on quality.
-- Edited by Shamus on Thursday 23rd of August 2012 01:05:13 PM
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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.
I also want to work part time as a bookkeeper. I am registered with CIMA as I am currently studying for Managerial level. I've had business cards printed up but am not sure what to charge. I believe accountants will charge £300 to do a self assessment return. I do my nephews FOC as he prepares the figures and I just submit it for him as he doesn't have access to a computer. Am I doing anything wrong in doing this? Because this is new to me and I am not experienced would i be wrong to charge £100 for doing books including SA's. Obviously the bigger the turnover probably means more work so would be looking to charge more.
A friend has sent me a spreadsheet that was used in an accountancy practice so I was going to use that to prepare the books/SA's.
My only worry is I don't even have any clients at the moment nor do I have much experience at doing these kind of things. I do my nephews SA and my mums SA for her pension but that still doesn't give me much experience. They are both very straight forward. I was trying to get my foot in the door by doing them at an introductory price. Once I get a bit more experience under my belt I was going to charge a bit more. I work full time so am just looking for a bit of supplementary earnings and also to get experience in other areas rather than just having industry experience. My current employer turns over approximately £30million a year and I do the Sales Analysis to look at contribution, then P & L and some of the balance sheet, and cash flow. I also do Monthly VAT returns as we are almost always in a repayment status. I think I lack confidence in myself but the confidence would grow once I got some clients and completed some work for them.
This is an area that I do not have a lot of experience in.
Elaine
-- Edited by Elaine R on Friday 24th of August 2012 12:46:35 PM
Difficulty is that your experience is industry and you are looking to get into practice.
The both are completely different.
Last year after working in practice for 15 years i decided to leap over to the other side and give industry a try. Was totally different to anything i had ever done and my skillset wasn't suited to it so quickly left and now back working in practice as well have having my own small portfolio of clients that i do bookkeeping, year end accounts, management accounts and tax returns for.
My only worry is I don't even have any clients at the moment nor do I have much experience at doing these kind of things. I do my nephews SA and my mums SA for her pension but that still doesn't give me much experience. They are both very straight forward. I was trying to get my foot in the door by doing them at an introductory price. Once I get a bit more experience under my belt I was going to charge a bit more. I work full time so am just looking for a bit of supplementary earnings and also to get experience in other areas rather than just having industry experience. My current employer turns over approximately £30million a year and I do the Sales Analysis to look at contribution, then P & L and some of the balance sheet, and cash flow. I also do Monthly VAT returns as we are almost always in a repayment status. I think I lack confidence in myself but the confidence would grow once I got some clients and completed some work for them.
This is an area that I do not have a lot of experience in.
Elaine
-- Edited by Elaine R on Friday 24th of August 2012 12:46:35 PM
Problem is if you take on clients and they know you are inexperienced you will always be working for them at the cheaper rate. You do need to build up that confidence and be prepared to charge the appropriate rate for the work you are doing. Get some additional training in wherever you can, even if it means going to an accountants practice and asking for some work experience.
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If so a mentor may be the way forward - feel free to get in touch and see how I can assist you.
As Mark said, completely different skill set. I started my practice 8 years ago after 10 years in industry and I did the CIoT exams to get my tax knowledge up to speed. I'd worked in practice before industry, but obviously things change.
