Life after AAT

sunshine0127

Hi everyone,

I have just completed the AAT and have decided not to start the ACCA until next September. In the meantime however i am thinking of doing bookkeeping for sole traders ect, am i allowed to do this, plus i have already been approached to do someone's tax return for this October, just don't know where to start at the moment any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Monsoon

Once you are an ACCA student you aren't allowed to do anything past bookkeeping to trial balance, so no tax returns or final accounts.

If you are a MAAT, you need to register as a Member In Practice if you want to work for yourself. If you're not a full member then you don't have to register as a MIP but you can only do work you are competent to do, and can't mention the AAT.

That's the basics!

dantray

that's kind of where I am at the minute. I'm MAAT so currently in process of applying for licence for Bookkeeping, payroll, and VAT as permitted for ACCA students.

the end goal is to have my own practice but if i'm being honest i don't think i'll get the 3 years required experience in ACCA approved practice to obtain licence under ACCA so i'm wondering whats the point of taking the exams if i'll never get the licence.

part of me wants to sack ACCA off completely, obtain AAT licence for variety of services and maybe do CTA instead.

but then again i really want the CCAB qualification and status.

i'll give it few more weeks and maybe flip a coin... is it tails that never fails?

coojee

dantray wrote: »

that's kind of where I am at the minute. I'm MAAT so currently in process of applying for licence for Bookkeeping, payroll, and VAT as permitted for ACCA students.

the end goal is to have my own practice but if i'm being honest i don't think i'll get the 3 years required experience in ACCA approved practice to obtain licence under ACCA so i'm wondering whats the point of taking the exams if i'll never get the licence.

part of me wants to sack ACCA off completely, obtain AAT licence for variety of services and maybe do CTA instead.

but then again i really want the CCAB qualification and status.

i'll give it few more weeks and maybe flip a coin... is it tails that never fails?

If you're sure that you want your own practice then best not to do ACCA. There's not much more that they can do that an AAT can't, mainly audits and most clients you would come across wouldn't need an audit anyway.

I'm an FCCA and considered giving up my qual so that I could go into practice. The post qual experience wasn't a problem for me, what was a problem was the form filling they wanted you to do. The experience had to be broken down into minute detail. Just doing 6 months worth of it took me about a month. I don't know if things have changed recently but I've been out of practice for years now so I don't think I'd qualify anyway.

The thing that may hold you back is that you can only be licenced to do work that you're competent in. So if you've never done tax before then you can't be licenced to do tax etc.

dantray

i currently work in a firm of accountants so do have experience with tax (albeit limited to CT600, self assessment, and other basic tax), accounts prep etc. and don't mind the paperwork involved to become ACCA once the exams are passed.

what's going to stop me is the strict rules around gaining ACCA practicing cert, i.e. 3 years experience in ACCA approved practice i can't believe that it's the only way to gain licence.

sorry if i'm hi-jacking your thread, sunshine.. i have a habit of doing this!

Steve Collings

Hi Dantray,

Unfortunately the rules do stipulate a requirement to work for an ACCA approved practice in order to gain your practising certificate and (where required) the audit qualification.

It is a very long-winded process (having gone through it myself) but I believe they structure it this way because, unlike ICAEW, ACCA members don't have to have a training contract in order to undertake the ACCA qualification. The price to pay for not requiring a student member to have a training contract is the documentation of post-qualified experience to gain the ACCA practising certificate and (where required) the audit qualification.

Kind regards
Steve

dantray

Hi Steve,

So is there no way to document post qualification experience with an unapproved employer, or even any other way around the approved practice element of the experience to gain the certificate? For example having someone ACCA/FCCA to verify competence of applicant?

I completely understand why ACCA have these rules in place but it just seems silly that an organisation like ACCA do not have an alternate method to gaining practice certificates. People in my position who want the CCAB qualification to practice for themselves may take the CIMA method instead, which is very likely what i'll be doing.

Thanks
Dan

PGM

Why is it that CIMA has less strict rules regarding practising certificates?

Does seem to be the easier route compared to ACCA & ICAEW.

bumblebee

Monsoon wrote: »

Once you are an ACCA student you aren't allowed to do anything past bookkeeping to trial balance, so no tax returns or final accounts.

If you are a MAAT, you need to register as a Member In Practice if you want to work for yourself. If you're not a full member then you don't have to register as a MIP but you can only do work you are competent to do, and can't mention the AAT.

That's the basics!

Sorry to interfere, but as a MIP can you still study towards ACCA while working for yourself? are there still restrictions?

Monsoon

bumblebee wrote: »

Sorry to interfere, but as a MIP can you still study towards ACCA while working for yourself? are there still restrictions?

An AAT MIP is bound by the rules of ACCA while an ACCA student: no work beyond bookkeeping to trial balance so no tax returns or final accounts. The fact that you have a practicing licence from AAT is irrelevant in the eyes of the ACCA, student members can only work for themselves doing bookkeeping, full stop.

To those who have said they ultimately want to work for themselves, I would really think about not doing ACCA given the very, very strict restrictions and hoops to jump through to get your PC. The AAT is an excellent route to working for yourself and once you are out on your own, not being chartered matters very, very little indeed (less than one percent of clients give a fig about it). The only thing you can't do is audit (and who wants to do that anyway?! )

As I keep saying, the main thing that matters before going out on your own is EXPERIENCE!!!

bumblebee

Cheers for clarifying Monsoon. It was worth knowing!

Monsoon

bumblebee wrote: »

Cheers for clarifying Monsoon. It was worth knowing!

No probs BB, no matter how many times people say it, people still fall foul of the ACCA rules so I will just keep on saying it