From accountancy to book keeping

[Hulla]

I am currently working for an organisation as an accountant but am looking to work from home so that I can spend more time with DD (and future babies) until she goes to school.

Has anyone done this?

Do I need to study for book keeping qualifications?

I have no idea where to start or if this idea is really workable.

Any tips?

Are you already a qualified accountant? if so, you will already know all the stuff you would learn from a book keeping qualification.

What kind of work do you do at the moment? You need to think about how those skills are transferrable to freelance work.

However, I would not try to work from home while looking after a baby/ small child. You will NOT be able to get any work done! You would need to have some kind of childcare arranged for while you are working (possibly in your home but away from your working area) or you will simply not keep up with your workload.

Hi

I was looking into this. I am a Chartered Accountant, and was told that I needed a practicing certificate, and PI insurance.

Not sure about other accountancy qualifications though?

Old, you don't need a practising certificate to do book-keeping work.

You don't need a qualification, anyone can do book-keeping, however, the quality of the book-keeping depends on experience and qualifications.

If you are signing off accounts you may need a qualification, depending on the nature of the accounts.

You can't audit a set of accounts without being a practising auditor (AFAIK).

Second that you don't need any qualifications to do book-keeping. I used to do some from home but I didn't enjoy doing it. I personally wanted home to be home and not to have to tell DC to leave me to work there. Also you always have books in the house, OK if you have a separate office.

I would check out some new legislation. I was told by my ex employers (accountancy practise) that you had to register with a money laundering body to be able to be a self employed book-keeper. I was only doing a small amount and this put me off so I am only an employee now. Not sure if this is still the case, in fact, I should look it up myself in case I want to do freelance again.

Abouteve - had a look at the regulations - if you provide bookkeeping services you have to register your business with HM Customs & Revenue unless you are a member of one of the main accountancy bodies who supervise their members. There is a form to download to register, it looks pretty straightforward. You just have to certify you have not been convicted of terrorism or fraud charges.

Google money laundering regulations and it all comes up on the HMRC website.

I wouldn't let registering put you off doing freelance bookkeeping, it does not appear to be a big deal.

Hi

When I spoke to ICAEW (twice) about it, they told me that as a member I did need certificate etc for book keeping! I think that they want to keep a track on what their CAs are doing!

Agree that you don't need any specific qualifications otherwise though!

Thanks for this, sorry only just spotted the replies. Yes, I'm qualified (Chartered) but in the public sector now.

That's a good point about childcare, I suppose it might end up being as tricky to juggle as my current job. I worked from home yesterday but it was so difficult once DD came home from the childminders.

I'm now considering a total career change whilst DD is small. As long as I keep up with my subs and CPD I should be ok to go back to accountancy I think?

Old - you would need a prctising cert if you were advertising yourself as "Old ACA" and certifying accounts, acting as a tax agent for clients etc. as you would then be engaged in public practice. If you are simply carrying out routine bookkeeping work which does not need a qualification and are not officially describing yourself as "ACA" (even if clients may know you have the qualification) you don't need the cert.

I think the ICAEW may be deliberately misunderstanding you because they want the cert fee, or perhaps they are erring on the side of caution in case you do end up acting for clients in a public practice role.

Yes I had a look at HMRC re money laudering. They charge a fee and for the little I do it wasn't worth paying so I went on the payroll. Would be worth it if I decide to do some more.

I could be a member of AAT but never kept up with the subs.

To work as a freelance bookkeeper you need to register for Money Laundering Regulations and the Information Commissioners Office for Date protection. I think one charges £95 per annum and the other £35

Op if you are an ACA you DO need a practicing certificate and PII for any type of self employed accountancy work. OLD is absolutely right. This is to protect the ACA "brand" I think.

I am a self employed accountant and do mainly financial modelling work - is this something you could do as it pays far better than bookkeeping.

As an ACA regulated by ICAEW you will not need to register for money laundering regs as this is covered by memebership of ACA but you do need to register for data protection.

annieshaf, would be really interested in getting into financial modelling...what type of work and how much work do you do, also what do you charge?

Do you think I could get away with minimum childcare and work evenings/weekends?

I have started doing some bits and pieces of non-accountancy work, but I know I'd be much better paid if I got back into some number crunching!!

The work I do is mainly for medium to large sized corporates and comes from old work contacts.

I do integrated P&L/BS/Cash flow forecasting which would normally link in with some type of business planning process. Apart from one contract I have been able to manage mostly from home but do have childcare during the day for three days a week. I use this time to do paid work but also stuff around the house so I do still end up working in the evenings particularly if im working to a deadline or for more than one client at a time.

I charge up to £60 per hour but this can depend on the size of the client and the urgency of the project.

I like the fact that I can choose what I take on and only take on as much as I can cope with in the hours that I want to work.

I have built this up slowly as my 2 DS's have increased their time in childcare with the intention of doing it more or less full time (school hours) by the time DS2 goes to school in 2012.

Any questions just ask away.

annie you're doing exactly what I'm hoping to do. I am currently working in practice in corporate finance and want to start to work on a consultancy basis, doing some business plans/forecasting. I'm planning to leave after Christmas but am currently terrified that I won't get any work! I'm hoping my existing practice will send some work my way and I'm trying to reestablish my contacts from pre-DS. Do you have any tips for getting the work in?

annie thanks for your reply.

May I ask how long you have been doing this for and how many hours/week you work? Also, do you think it will fit in around school hols?

I haven't worked (Apart from a few bits of book keeping work for friends) in nearly 5 years, since DD1 arrived! Am beginning to think that if I don't get back to it soon I never will!

My old job involved alot of business case work and investment appraisal - I was hoping that maybe I could pick something similar up. As Marion asked - do you have any tips re gaining work?

Hi Marion - i also worked in practice in CF. All my work has come directly or indirectly from my ex-boss who comes across work which the practice are not interested in (ie potential fees are too low). However I have recently been working with someone who is set up as a self employed consultant and registers with agency's to get new work. He tends to work more full time though and on clients sites rather than at home. I think your best source of work will be ex colleagues although you will need to think about how you will differentiate yourself from them so that you are not in competition with them. Some practices CF charge out rates are so high now that it is impossible to write a good business plan for a reasonable amount (eg for finance raising) so this is one thing which I have seen "contracted out" even if the practice retains an advisory role.

Old - I have been doing this now for 2 years although I have only built it up slowly. I'm not sure my average hours are meaningful but to give you a rough idea in my 1st 5 months I averaged 20 hrs a mth (only 1 client). The following year was not much more but this was spread over 2 clients. In the last 5 months I have done an ave of nearly 80 hrs a month but I now have a bigger contract.
I have managed to fit around hols because I tell my clients in advance when I wont be available so they can take account of it. As I am self employed I am not limited to a set number of days of a year so subject to deadlines I can be very flexible although remember you only get paid for the hours you work and get no holiday pay.

I originally left practice before I got pregnant with DS1 and did not work in accountancy again until he was 10 months old which was a gap of 4 years (doing other things) I then went back to the firm I had previously worked for part time for a year before leaving on maternity leave from which I never returned. My point being that in a period of 6 years I had only 1 yrs part time accountancy work experience before I set up on my own but that period did give me some confidence back.

To do finanical projections/business plans you would need to be confident in setting up integrated finanical models, if this is not something which you have done before it might be worth doing a course to ensure you understand the excel modelling techniques aswell as the accounting principles.
Hope this helps

Thanks annie, that's a very useful insight. Cost has to be the differentiator as clearly I will be able to do the work a lot cheaper than a bigger practice. My current practice is only a small town firm though so they are unlikely to generate enough leads for me, I will have to re-acquaint myself with all my pre-DS contacts. I am also thinking about registering with agencies for interim work, do you know who your colleague is registered with?

I am FCCA
I keep my hours under 16.5 per week averaged over the year - read the CPD rules of ICAEW ACCA or ICAS and you will see why.
I pay my subs. I have PII. I'm MLR reg through HMRC - as ACCA wanted to gold plate.
I should technically have practicing cert
BUT
I asked about child care for the CERT courses and on being told it was "not relevant" quoted sex discrimination and they went quiet.
I am very, very careful. And if they give me gip I'll tear up my card.
My main income is from Parish Councils which the ACCA does not recognise.
IMHO, be professional, be circumspect and stuff the stuffed shirts.