Question about career in accounting?

[Careerhelpppp]

Currently thinking about retraining in order to return to work after being a SAHM.

I’m still fairly young (early 30s), and have a 2:1 degree in an academic subject from a good university. My previous career was in PR.

How realistic would it be to take the AAT exams privately and then set up a business doing the accounts for small businesses? I’d be looking to work approx 15 hours per week initially hence why self employment works best.

Or would I need to have experience working for an accountancy firm before going self employed?

Doing the exams at home would've fine. But I personally think you'd need experience in an accounts office. Unless you are supremely (over?) confident.

When you say doing the accounts, what do you mean? Just the bookkeeping? Annual accounts? Tax returns? Are you envisaging sole traders, partnerships or limited companies? VAT returns?

They are all included in the exams but I don't think there is sufficient depth on everything to equip you to just crack on without any oversight.

Probably all of what you’ve mentioned! Just the annual accounts, tax returns, VAT etc for small businesses and sole traders who don’t require a full time accountant. And book keeping too if they require that.

Perhaps financial planning for individuals too?

Thank you. Would you say this is true for the stuff I’ve mentioned above? I would guess the stuff I’d focus on would be relatively low level (small businesses and sole traders).

The exams would be easy enough to do independently but I wouldn't recommend starting off as self employed. There is a lot more to it than they teach in the exams and real life accounting sometimes bares little resemblance to the examples in the study materials. The things we encounter at our firm makes the mind boggle.

That's a lot of things to be competent at. No one in my firm does all of the above. Some do accounts, some do bookkeeping, some do tax returns, some do VAT. Some may have an awareness of the other areas but to have up to date knowledge and keep the CPD up to date for all of them is a lot of work.

Also for financial planning you would need to be very careful not to stray into giving advice without being properly regulated.

Thanks for the advice!

Do you primarily work for large corporations?

I can’t imagine a small business uses somebody different for each of these things? One of my friends works for a medium sized business (100 employees), and she says they have one full time accountant that does all of these things (plus an assistant who does payroll).

No we work for everything from one man band sole traders to companies with multi million pounds turnover.

I think you are confusing working in industry with working for an accountancy firm.

A sole trader will generally engage the services of an accountancy firm who will then use different specialists in different departments to complete the necessary work. They wouldn't go to a different person for each thing.

That's what you would be competing with for work and of course lots of sole traders etc do use small self employed accountants but increasingly with the complex nature of a lot of the requirements and constantly changing rules (think making VAT digital, making tax digital and all the issues Brexit bought re import and export) people like to use an accountancy firm so they have access to a range of very knowledgeable and specialist people in each area.

I'm absolutely not saying it's not possible but I think doing so without ever working within an accountancy firm could be tricky. As a previous poster said if you are supremely confident then go for it but I would want the support of an accountancy firm at least to begin with.

Also if you have a look for apprentice/training positions you wouldn't even need to pay for tuition and exams.

I've just reread your post and whilst it is perfectly possible your friend does have an accountant that does everything a lot of our clients think their accountant is "Dave" and he does everything.In reality a junior has done the majority, a senior has reviewed it, the tax department have dealt with tax matters and the VAT specialist has given advice then "Dave" has just had a quick meeting with the client and signed it all off.

Doing the exams should be easy enough but running your own business offering those services without any real world supported experience isn't realistic. As a pp said, the reality is a far cry from the version you will learn for the exams.
You might be able to get away with doing basic bookkeeping for very small businesses but to prepare full company accounts you need several year's practical experience with an employer willing to train you. The problem with having exams but no training is that there will be so much you don't know you don't know.
As for financial planning, it's a whole different arena with very strict rules to avoid straying into financial advice which is regulated separately.
Add to that the frighteningly fast takeover of AI for compliance accounting (I don't anticipate I'll be doing any bookkeeping or year end accounting within the next 18-24 months as AI will do it all for me) and I wouldn't advise it as a route to go. Sorry, that comes across as doom and gloom but you'd be doing yourself and any clients a disservice to go down that path.

If you do go alone you will need professional insurance. I would make sure to get one that comes with a helpline subscription. As I say we work in a firm with many different specialists but still probably ring ours for advice at least once a day as people never cease to surprise you with the things they have done, want to do or are thinking of doing that you've never heard of before and have no idea how to treat even with a building full of qualified staff.

I did the full AAT qualification through to level 4 whilst working in a linked industry. While it’s great qualification to have as a starting point in your accounting career, unless paired with significant on the job experience I wouldn’t recommend going straight into self employment.

My friend is the managing director! But what you’ve said is still a possibility, I would imagine!
There is no finance department, just an accountant and an accounts assistant.
Thanks for the advice ☺️.

Thanks for the advice!

Sounds like he works for the company i.e is on their payroll not a separate contractor this is 'working in industry' which works differently from what you are proposing to do.

Ahhh yes that’s right ☺️.

While you might get qualified, I would not not employ someone to carry out these services for my business with no demonstrable experience.

You don’t seem to understand the difference between working in an accountancy firm and working in industry. These are worlds apart and the very reason why you need experience and can’t just take exams.

I work in industry so things might be different than in practice but I find that whilst AAT is good to have you don’t get a look in without at least some study towards ACCA/CIMA. I see you want to start your own business but I think that would be for later down the line after some employment.

I think you would want to be chartered status if you were to go it alone?
AAT is definitely designed to be done alongside an associated career.

Anyone can call themselves an accountant, it is not a protected term. I'm AAT, ACMA and ATT, but work in industry at board level.

"Small" businesses are the most chaotic. They don't have proper business bank accounts and buy personal goods on every diesel receipt.

Bookkeeping is a year round task for slightly bigger businesses who could reliably require a few hours each month.

Maybe that's something to aim towards.

Important thing is to know what you don't know

To become a member in practice of the AAT you would need to have signed off work experience, I believe - although I haven't looked at it for a while.

It's not a case of just passing the exams and holding yourself out as an AAT qualified accountant.

If course, given that accountant isn't a protected term, there isn't any need for you to become a member of the AAT - although I think you then couldn't refer to the qualification etc.

I work in a firm with lots of smaller sole trade clients and we put our trainees through AAT (and often chartered status beyond that). Even with a couple of years of practical experience under their belt (which it sounds like you wont have...) I wouldn't think many of them would be in a position to go self employed without huge risk.

You could pass the exams, but noone will hire you unless you have extensive (years) experience. You would have to start off as an internal bookkeeper for example.

I think to get AAT you also need practical experience and someone to sign off.

You could become an accountant with no exams, but with many years practical experience, but I don't know how common that is now.

Look at the ICB. Its a bookkeeping qualification rather than an accounting qualification but their level 4 gives you the training for everything a small biz would need. There is also software called Hey Monika which is for people without experience to practice real world scenarios.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think it’s clear it’s not something that would be suitable for me right now.