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Senior Member

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The next Step
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Hi folks.  I've been a bit quiet on here recently, work plus family commitments including a rather scary family emergency has meant a bit of a frazzled few weeks.

Anyway.  I've been thinking recently about my future.  Many of you know this but my background is that I used to be self employed as was my husband.  I did my own book keeping but we had an accountant and as I was part of a franchise they had a VAT advisor specialist so hopefully we did things by the book.  I used online software provided by and chosen by our accountant at that time (Xero, then IRIS)

I now work full time as an accounts assistant in the office of a construction company but I don't have any formal qualifications. My main responsibilities are to run payroll and deal with CIS but I do assist with some other stuff.  I've been thinking about furthering my knowledge in a more formal way.  A friend whose daughter is about to begin a portfolio career as a performer has asked questions about allowable expenses etc (she used to run a business and did her own book keeping for that) and to be honest my default answer was this is such a specialist area, get her an accountant.  But my daughter will (hopefully) be embarking on a similar career in 3 years time and I'd like to know more, both to help her and perhaps to be able to offer book keeping services elsewhere as I know from experience that presenting a decent set of accounts to an accountant helps to keep costs down and makes life a lot easier in terms of keeping track of what you are likely to owe in tax, what you can and cannot do etc.

So putting aside the specialist area of performers, how would you advise that I start studying and with whom.  My workplace have no objection and I'm hoping they may even be willing to contribute to costs although I can't rely on that.



-- Edited by pictures on Monday 25th of June 2018 10:00:32 AM



-- Edited by pictures on Monday 25th of June 2018 03:14:33 PM



-- Edited by pictures on Monday 25th of June 2018 03:34:55 PM

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Julie
Cheshire


Master Book-keeper

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Hi Julie
Quick one as mid chaos. Look at AAT. Takes you places and covers you for self employed! Do the Accounting course rather than the bookkeeping one. You could do level 2 (although I dont think you would need to #) and level 3 and be a qualified bookkeeper and still able to pass the books to an Accountant for finishing off. Or when youve done your level 3 you might find you wish to do the level 4 and do the Accounting element yourself.

# try the skills check on the AAT website.

__________________

 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
Cheshire


Master Book-keeper

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Hi Julie
Hope you have sorted your family emergency, I know how such things can take over from everything else!

Not sure what you have edited after I posted my quick response, but a couple of other thoughts:-

- Can your current employer give you some additional time working on areas you are not as familiar with?

- I would recommend you do a bit of light reading.....ok one which will cure insomnia once and for all. Read the VAT guides. All of them. Whilst I always say never rely on them, instead rely on the VAT act itself, they can provide a good grounding for such a subject (and yes Ive done it and would never suggest something Ive not done myself).

What is your learning style? If you want a one stop shop then Kaplan's new learning method is a great one - short snappy recorded lectures, a heft textbook and a workbook with plenty of examples to wade through (as well as Qs in the textbook), along with access to tutor support. Or First Intuition, although I think with them you would pass the exam easily but possible need to do some additional reading for more indepth knowledge, but then thats what CPD is for I guess. Ive used both and got on with both, although I wouldnt bother with the lectures style from First as I personally dont think it added anything to the party. So - this one comes in cheaper too. Avoid Avado like the plague despite it supposedly winning an AAT award, I hear nothing but serious complaints.

HTH

__________________

 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
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Senior Member

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Hi Joanne,

Thanks. I just edited a couple of sentences with poor grammar eg I had said many of you know this twice and had mis-spelt a couple of words! The family emergency was my husband being taken ill a couple of weeks ago right in the middle of our daughter's GCSE exams. He is recovering but it is something that could re-occur or be a warning to something bigger in the future so it has been worrying.

My learning style hmm, I think I prefer reading and working through examples, possibly interactive. I don't tend to watch recorded lecture type things much but thats probably more due to me often looking things up at times when having sound isn;t appropriate and I hate headphones.

The AAT website reccommended either Level 3 book keeping or Level 2 accounting although I did err on the side of caution.

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Julie
Cheshire


Master Book-keeper

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Hi Julie
Oh heck! I do hope your hubby will be ok.

I reckon you could easily start at level 3 Accounting. Level 2 appears to be pretty basic. Guess mostly it depends on your double entry knowledge. Might be worth working through the ACCA-x course (you can still get it free I believe) and then start at level 3 Accounting. Dont do the ACCA-X exam as then you will have to pay to join the ACCA as well as the AAT, but treat it as a bit of prep work for moving on to the AAT.

Both of those providers do courses in different ways - with or without lectures and of course you can always ask on here if you get stuck. Think we have helped a few stduents out over the years, but dont have on at the mo.

__________________

 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
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Senior Member

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Posts: 252
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Hi, been on holiday for a few days. Just to let you know I have signed up for the free ACCA course to start off with but have put it on hold for the moment due to uncertantly over my husband's health.

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Julie
pictures


Senior Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 252
Date:
Permalink  

Hi, been on holiday for a few days. Just to let you know I have signed up for the free ACCA course to start off with but have put it on hold for the moment due to uncertantly over my husband's health.

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Julie
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