Careers Advice Please

System
System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
edited 12:08PM in AAT member discussion
I am about to do AAT Technician, and I know this is premature, but having had a good look through most of these forums, I wonder is there is anyone out there practicing in a small business, doing the accounts for small limited companies / sole traders / partnerships with a CIMA qualification.I always understood this to be for 'big business' accounting , but it seems that this is not necessarily the case.

OR ... how important is it to go on from AAT to get further qualified? I always thought that I would end up doing ACCA , but am worried by their restrictions etc.

Comments

  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Careers Advice Please

    Hello

    I finished my AAT about 5 years ago and have since done the ATT qualification. I'm now self employed & not one client has even asked what qualifications I have! (ok, I lie, one did, but the blank look on his face indicated that I could have said I was PFBS qualified & he wouldn't have cared!!).
    I guess that if I was CIMA qualified I would have a different client base and probably be charging more, but there's plenty of work around that doesn't require that level of expertise, and (due to time restrictions) I have no plans to study in the future.

    Personally I think that AAT is a great place to start & after you've done it you will have the basic knowledge in a variety of areas of accounts & tax and will have a better idea of whether you need or want to carry on studying.

    As for which accounting qualifications to recommend i'm sorry but i can't help you there.

    jodie
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Careers Advice Please

    What do you mean by restrictions with the ACCA?

    Do you mean running your own business whilst studying for it or are there restrictions after qualifying?
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Careers Advice Please

    This is the problem with ACCA. After you qualify and gain membership, you can't do any more than you can with AAT i.e. you can only do bookeeping, VAT returns etc. To prepare something that a third party places reliance on i.e. accounts, tax returns etc you have to have a practicing certificate which can only be gained by 3 years work experience with an approved employer.

    Annette
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Careers Advice Please

    Thank you all so much - I am particularly interested in Jodie's reply - in that you could have said any old qualification and people would be happy. Also the fact that there i splenty of work around that doesn't require the heights of qualification that are so often mentioned in these forums.

    It is also very interesting that ACCA only allow you to do as much as AAT untill 3 years expeience etc. This is a second career for me and so I feel that an additional 3 years on top of the following 3 planned would be a bit silly.


    Once again - thanks for your help - I'm feeling a lot more positigve about the future now.

  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Careers Advice Please

    So what you're saying is that if you complete the ACCA qualification, you cannot sign off accounts until you have completed the work experience?

    When you say approved employer, do you mean approved by ACCA?

    Can the 3 years include pre-qualification experience (i.e. 2 years whilst you are studying)?

    I had no idea this was the case with ACCA and I'm intending to study it after AAT.

    Is this the same with CIMA?
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Careers Advice Please
    So what you're saying is that if you complete the ACCA qualification, you cannot sign off accounts until you have completed the work experience?

    Directors sign the accounts - not the accountant, but no you won't be able to prepare limited company or sole trader accounts as a third person would place reliance on them.
    When you say approved employer, do you mean approved by ACCA?

    Yes the employer has to be approved by ACCA and whereas QBE employers can sign off work experience (although ACCA don't encourage it), they won't be able to be approved employers.
    Can the 3 years include pre-qualification experience (i.e. 2 years whilst you are studying)?

    I believe that one year can be pre membership but definitely 2 years have to be post qualifying.
    Is this the same with CIMA?

    As far as I'm aware the CIMA practicing certificate rules are slightly less restrictive but NeilH can probably confirm that
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Careers Advice Please

    Talking about initials that no-one would understand, I was helping someone out recently with conflicting advice they had been given by two separate accountants - one with a tax bill of £7K and the other with a tax bill of £0 - one of them apparently had AFTA after their name - anyone heard of it?

    I typed it into google and all I could get was Australian Federation of Travel Agents :lol::lol::lol:

    Claudia
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Careers Advice Please


    never heard of it, but i did find this...

    http://www.fasb.org/intl/AFTA_Committee.shtml

    i don't think that that looks like a qualification though... i think the travel agents is a better guess!
    did 'AFTA man' get the tax bill right?!
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Careers Advice Please

    I have yet to find out who is right 'AFTAman' says there is the tax liability though - I have said that there is no point my getting involved until it has been sorted, or they will end up being charged a 3rd time for the same set of figures :shock: I think that somewhere someone's PII is going to take a hit!

    Claudia
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Careers Advice Please

    Hi
    Someone with the initials AFTA is a memebr of the federation of tax advisors, so hopefully he got the tax liability right!
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Careers Advice Please

    Thanks for that Julie - shocking though that it did not come up in google :?

    Claudia
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Careers Advice Please

    Thanks bluewednesday

    I had no idea of that. I want to qualify ACCA and then set up on my own doing accounts for sole traders, SME's etc.

    So I won't be able to do this unless I work for 3 years with an approved employer then and I won't be able to finalise any accounts?
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Careers Advice Please

    Annette is spot on with everything she has said re ACCA's restrictions.

    This is what puts a lot of people off studying ACCA because they assume that once they are qualified, they can set up on their own and run their own practice. Unfortunately, unless you fulfil the post-qualification work experience and then pass a further course (lasting approx one week)and do some other sort of "out of class" audit simulation then you can't do anymore than general bookkeeping as Annette has mentioned.

    it is worth mentioning that ACCA view infringement of this bye-law very seriously and it is one of the main reasons members/students get struck off and heavily fined - that and cheating in exams.

    Regards
    Steve

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