Pricing for bookkeeping

sassyduell

Hi all,
I have just got my first PAID bookkeeping job. I am nearly finished level 4 and dont have a great deal of experience so that is my main aim. Anyway I am doing the bookkeeping and end of years for my friends beautician business. Its a small business with about 8 transactions a day. I was thinking of charging £25 a month. I know it doesnt seem much but I am grateful to gain the experience and to dip my feet in the water this way. Does this price seem about right in the circumstances?
Thank you

PGM

That doesn't sound enough. 8 transactions a day would be 160 a month. I'd have thought a half day per month, @ £20 an hour. Which would be a lower end rate. So £80?

But theres many more experienced people at this type of thing on the site!

Lilyflower

My Brother in law has very kindly put some bookkeeping my way in aid to getting my 'feet wet' I am currently at Level 4 too, and we agreed to £15 per hour

Lily xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

sassyduell

Thank you Lily and PGM, I thought I was pricing a bit low but then again it is a bit of experience for me. Good luck with yours Lily

CrystalClear

I didn't realise I could charge...

Thanks for this Blog.

I thought I read on another blog that one could only charge for bookeeping services if they are an MIP? I'm a full member (+3 yrs). We have agreed on some compensation, such as doing my hair for free, or free meals from the cafe.

I'm also helping out a friend with a new small takeway cafe, doing their books for the first time.

The business is not VAT registered, so should be failry easy to help with setting up a system (albeit 3 months backlog) for TAX return purposes/records.

I'm using a Double cash book and Accounts Self Assessment book (weekly).

It's my first time, and would appreciate any tips.

Thank you

sassyduell

You can charge money as a student but as you are a full member you are ok charging for it anyway, best to look into money laundering regs and insurance that you can find out about on the aat website.
Might be easier on a spreadsheet or on a simple computerised package.

CrystalClear

Bookeeping Spreadsheets

Thanks for that.

Would I just need to model the spreadsheets myself or is there a website where I can find a good one?

I'm actually helping them set up a system and showing them how to keep their books going forward, but as she has no PC at the moment and no excel skills, I'm showing her the manual way (atleast for starters), but I did suggest in future once the business is establised, she may want to look into investing into a comp and basic excel training.

However, as I can tell she's finding the whole bookeeping experience quite daunting, I might be helping out on occassion. Should I end up doing it in the long run, it will definitely be on spreadsheets.

crybaby66

AAT & Bookkeeping

I have just qualifed for AAT and was thinking of doing bookeeping for a family member's decorating business, he is currently paying an accountant to do all his accounts.
I have no experience of bookeeping only what was covered in AAT. With no experience would I be able to take on his bookkeeping for him given a bit of training or should I undergo a bookkeeping course first. I just don't know where to start, but want to gain confidence in this field so I could start charging at a later date.
Does anyone have any advise
Thank you in advance
CB

Monsoon

What do you mean by a bookkeeping course? AAT more than qualifies you for bookkeeping, another course isn't going to help you get experience, which is what you need.

The only way to get experience is to get out there and do it. As long as your family member knows that he is getting someone qualified but inexperienced, and that's why he is getting it done cheap/free, and is happy with this, then it's an ideal way to learn. I began to get my experience looking after some friends' books who couldn't afford an accountant - I got some experience and they trusted me to get it right (and this was before I even started the AAT), and got their books done for free.

My advice? Get a software package like Solar Accounts, don't bother with Excel (too much scope for error, as an accountant in practice it's not something I like receiving books in) or Sage (too expensive). Solar has a free trial (yes I'm a reseller but I only resell it because I think it's great), is multi-company, is really intuitive and is just great. The customer support is excellent and lots of non-bookkeeping trained folk can use it. With your AAT knowledge it should be dead easy for you to get the hang of.

Good luck.