Advice please

izzy

Hi
I have passed all the AAT exams but not yet worked in Accounts, except for doing my own & my partner's self-employed accounts. I need to get my work experience somehow & a job has not yet come my way, so am contemplating taking on some book-keeping work.
Do I need to sign up as a MIP for this?
Can I be a MIP without being a MAAT?
Izzy

Hope

You have the exact same problem as me.
I was considering MIP too, but this is what I have found from my research:
You cannot be MIP if you are not MAAT, however you can still set up in practice by yourself. The conditions of this are that:
You still need to take out insurance
You must not mention AAT at all in order to advertise or get clients
You must not take on any work which you are not experienced to do
Your income from the service must not be over a certian amount ( but unsure what this amount is) - unsure on this one

Its the experience which is holding me back, as although ive not had any problems with exams and have sailed through the course, Ive had a look on the members forum and can see that setting up in practice does require extensive experience, so is more for people who have already done lots of work with accounts practices and now wish to set up on their own rather than recently qualified, underexperienced people. If something goes wrong, theres no-one to fall back on, and its so easy to slip up if you dont have experience.

So, this is what I plan to do:
Only do bookkeeping for people I know very well, and do the service for free, I wouldnt take on any clients who I didnt know as this could go very wrong.
Approach accounts practices for work experience.
If all else fails, just keep applying for jobs in anything finance related, and work my way up from there.

Its up to you, but I dont think its a good idea to set up professionally, you could be taking on more than youre capable of.

izzy

Advice please

Thanks Hope
It was good to hear from someone in the same position, though I have had a little bit of luck on the work front.
I've been taken on by a charity as admin. & finance officer. It's no great career move & it's only a 3 month contract for 16hrs a week of which about 12 hrs will count towards relevant work experience. BUT it means my work history when I apply for something more suitable will not just show me as someone who has been self-employed in a totally different career for the last 24yrs & should mean I'll be a seen as a more serious contendor when making applications.
Up until now, I got the impression that in a couple of interviews I got quite close, but was too much of a risk/unknown quantity.
I too have taken on book-keeping for an acquaintance.
Good-luck
Izzy

Blonde

HI Izzy

Congratulations on passing your AAT exams.

Do you have any useful advice with the journals, i do not seem to be able to grasp the concept of them, on the practise exam papers.

Can you help