AAT & ACCA Qualified - Setting up

AmyRichardson

Hi

I was looking for some general advice please...

I qualified ACCA in feb this year ( yay )

And I would like to set up my own practice...

Now, I know for ACCA you need a practising cert which i havent got due to qualifying in industry. so, would I be able to reactivate my AAT membership and apply for MIP? Just until I can sort my ACCA Practicing cert?

Other option, I could work via my own ltd co and provide "consultancy" advice re accounts?

Any help much appreciated.

Amy

Jawz

Hi Amy,

Well done on completing your ACCA

I think your best option is like you said -reactivate your membership (lapse membership fees may be payable) and apply for your MIP license, then take from there.

You may also find out with ACCA whether your AAT's MIP work will eventually allow you to gain ACCA's practicing certificate in the future. Many thanks.

Buhir_the_Bookkeeper

Hi.

I have been a member in practice for nearly five years and they have and still are invaluable in me running my accountancy practice / firm

The level of support you will get from the MIP team in the AAT will be invaluable.
I would not recommend just going it alone and offering consultancy services. The MIP team can help you with everything in supporting you to go out as a Practicing accountant including

Marketing
Licensing
Professional indemnity advice
Links to ICAEW & Specialist tax advisers for more complex queries
Letters of engagement between yourself and clients
How to bill clients.
Money laundering compliance
CPD training modules including how to complete and file tax returns and a lot more.

Not to mention being able to charge more realistic fees as you can show you are a licnced practitioner with the AAT and have a licensing certificate to act as an accountant and bookkeeper. You will find showing your practicing certificate in a client meeting when you are about ti take them on and tie up the contract goes a long way to winning the client.

Definitely give the AAT MIP team a call. Even if you do eventually go onto practicing with an ACCA license. This way you learn to run your practice correctly with amazing support.

Good luck.

AmyRichardson

Thanks both for your comments! I will be putting in a call to AAT soon, thanks again, Amy

Rozzi Rainbow

Hi Amy

I too became ACCA qualified this year - very well done!

I'm sorry to throw some spanners in the works here but I don't think things will be that simple for you I'm afraid. Firstly, ACCA have very strict rules about their members practising without their practising certificate - even if they hold one from another body - we can only do VAT and bookkeeping up to TB. See this link for further info: http://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/acca/global/PDF-members/2012/2012p/PC_factsheet.pdf

Secondly, if all your experience has been gained in industry you may struggle to obtain an AAT or ACCA practising certificate.

Sorry to put a downer on things here but thought I should mention these things if you haven't thought about them.

Good luck, and hope you get something sorted!

David Ballantyne

Hi Amy,

I know someone who is a qualified ACCA who has exactly the problem that Rozzi has described.

Possible options could be:

• Get a job in a practise to obtain the necessary experience for an ACCA practising certificate.
  
• Find out if ACCA would allow you to enter into a supervision arrangement with another appropriately qualified accountant in practise in order to eventually gain a practising certificate (this is what my ACCA friend is trying to do).
  
• Transition from ACCA to CIMA. CIMA does not expect you to have a practising certificate with them if you have one with another professional body, eg AAT.
  
• Accept that you can only do accounts up to TB.
  

In order to qualify with ACCA, you would have had to submit evidence of experience. I will make a guess that you will have experience of bookkeeping, management accounts and statutory accounts. I think it is very likely that the AAT would grant you a practising certificate in these areas at least.

AAT will allow you to do work for clients that is not included in your practising certificate as long as you don't charge for it. This will allow you to gain experience which you can then submit to AAT to have that practising area added to your certificate (this is done on trust, you do not have to provide any physical evidence of this or have anyone sign off the experience).

Good luck!

David.

burg

I had the same issues as Rozzi too. To cut a long story short for this reason I am no longer a member of ACCA and I can honestly say it doesn't affect my work or the work I get and only twice in 6 years has a client/potential client asked if I am 'chartered'.

AmyRichardson

Thank you every one for your replies! I was aware of this problem, and to be honest, like most accountants who are in industry, I couldn't really afford the pay drop to go back into practice, neither is my current employer ACCA approved, so I couldn't get a practising cert that way either! I think I may just go contracting for a while and do some book keeping on the side through my limited co! See what happens I guess.

Ps. I wasnt aware you could transfer from ACCA to CIMA - do you have to do any more exams?!

paulstafford

As far as I am aware you can obtain an ACCA practising certificate if all of the work experience you include on the application form is from an Industry role. Also your employer doesn't necessarily have to be an ACCA approved employer, if you can get your records 'signed off' by a member of one of the Chartered associations.

This is the route I followed when I obtained my practising certificate from them four years ago.

It is worth contacting ACCA to see if this is still possible as I suspect they may be more flexible than the rules on their website indicate.

NeilH

David Ballantyne said:

Transition from ACCA to CIMA. CIMA does not expect you to have a practising certificate with them if you have one with another professional body, eg AAT

I'm not a CIMA MIP but have considered it in the past, there is no provision for such an allowance in CIMA's rule book, it states all members in practice must hold a CIMA practising certificate.

AmyRichardson said:

I wasnt aware you could transfer from ACCA to CIMA - do you have to do any more exams?!

You can't transfer as such, you would be able to claim exemptions from the relevant CIMA exams, complete the remaining CIMA exams (this would be 5 individual exams and 3 integrated case study exams, depending on your ACCA options) and apply for membership with the practical experience requirements.

Neil

David Ballantyne

Hi Neil,

Regarding whether CIMA allow members to practice without a CIMA practising certificate if they hold one with another body. I have formed this impression from the text and video on this page: http://www.cimaglobal.com/Members/Members-handbook/Licencing-and-monitoring/Members-in-practice/Application-and-assessment/

Regarding transferring from ACCA to CIMA. Yes, I should have provided Amy with more information and stated that further exams would be required. Link here: http://www.cimaglobal.com/Study-with-us/Exemptions/Exemption-search/Association-of-Chartered-Certified-Accountants-ACCA/

Kind regards,

David.

NeilH

AmyRichardson said:

CIMA allow members to practice without a CIMA practising certificate if they hold one with another body.

With respect to the AAT, I wonder if CIMA require the body to be an IFAC or CCAB body (as ACCA used too before a change to their PC regs.) Also, since in terms of the other body it states "intend to practice under their regulations" I wonder if this may affect your ability to hold yourself out under CIMA's name.

David Ballantyne

Hi Neil,

Regarding whether the AAT would be accepted as a certificate issuing body by CIMA, I don't know for certain. This would have to be confirmed with CIMA.

The only evidence I can offer is anecdotal, at this link: http://www.cheapaccounting.co.uk/blog/index.php/cheapaccounting-co-uk-continues-to-grow-carleton-long-joins-us/

Kind regards,

David.