Advice please - I am 40 and I want to be a bookkeeper when I grow up!

Maria77
Maria77 Registered Posts: 2
Hi, first time posting. I have a degree in business administration and management, but this was 20 years ago. I feel I never specialised in any area and as such whenever my career progressed I felt out of my depth, panicked and changed jobs... I have approx 15 years experience in several areas such as admin/data entry, worked in several languages, did financial reporting for investment funds (putting financial reports together and checking the accountants information but I did not feel very comfortable with the accounts part), but mostly I had roles such as management information or performance analyst and my last role was of HR information systems manager (I love data, cleansing data, presenting data etc). 4 years ago I completely changed direction and worked with children, adopted two children recently and focused on my family. I also owned my own Ltd company a few years ago for which I helped prepare the accounts (but struggled somewhat) and I also separately do my own tax returns which I enjoy. When I did more admin roles I helped the finance teams and worked with SAP and although I don't remember much as it was many years ago I know I really enjoyed processing data, invoices, receipts, presenting data in reports, etc.

I would like to go back to work in about a year as I still need to look after my children full time at the moment. I think I would enjoy a bookeeping role, but not so much an accountancy role, if that makes sense, and as part of a team and in a large company ideally, probably starting out part-time. I understand I would start again from a lower salary. I had some analytical roles I enjoyed, but did not like being at manager level or working on my own and having all the responsibility on my shoulders.

I took the AAT skills test and although I got green lights for Personal / office skills, IT skills and Costing, I got red lights for Financial transactions and Double-entry bookkeeping.

I guess I'd like to know what you would do in my situation if you had a year before being able to look for work part-time. For instance with Premier Training I thought I could do:

1. AAT Level 2 Foundation Certificate in Accounting including Sage Accounts
2. AAT Level 3 Advanced Diploma in Accounting or AAT Level 3 Advanced Certificate in Bookkeeping
3. I probably would not go to the Level 4 Professional Diploma and a such may remain in limbo with no AAT qualification as such, or could I get the AATQB professional status?

OR

1. AAT Level 2 Foundation Certificate in Bookkeeping + AAT Level 2 Foundation Award in Accounting Software (as I have never used Sage)
2. AAT Level 3 Advanced Certificate in Bookkeeping
3. Gain AATQB professional status by the time I start applying for jobs next year
(this option would be slightly cheaper and maybe more in line with my aspirations, but would that put me at a disadvantage for employment compared to having the Level 3 Accounting Diploma?)

Also, on your CV do you write your training provider or just the level achieved with AAT? I ask because I worry that an employer may prefer to see my local college on my CV than Premier/ICS/Eagle, but I have no idea if I am right or not. I liked the demo of Premier Training, but most of their excellent reviews seem to be from a few years ago and I am not sure if something has changed since. ICS Skills on the other hand offers a cheaper fast-track training for accountancy foundation + advanced level (if I did those).

Sorry for such a long post, I hope to get some replies. Thank you.
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