Setting up as an Accountant

[emma123456]

Hello

Im looking for any advice really. I was made redundant in Nov and thinking about going solo. I haven't worked for a while in practice but my basic accounting skills are good and I could brush up on tax pretty quickly. Im a Chartered accountant with 10 yrs PQE, 8 of which have been in industry.

I havent costed out PII but the Practising Cert alone will cost me just under £500. Im a bit concerned that I could spent quite a lot if cash and then find it incredibly difficult to find clients...Where do you start?

I'd love to hear others experiences, good and bad and any advice you have to offer.

there are regular threads bout this on the UKBF
www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=fe597ff8bcaa8fb17efa0412da4588db&f=55

Hi,

I'm sure that you can get a reduced fee or exemption for the practising cert if you are just starting out - be worth calling ICAEW and checking? (I am in same position and rang up and had a moan about how much it costs!).

Good luck!

Just to be clear I meant exemption from fees not from PC!

One of the delegates on a course I'm doing owns an accountancy practice. He offers a free business advice clinic once a week and has converted many of these customers into paying clients.

My accountant does a tax clinic, with similar effect.

We run an actuarial consultancy and our PII is around £600pa per consultant.

Thanks for your replies. I need to brush up on tax and was thinking of doing the ATT qualification. Does anyone know if this would be worth the time, effort and expense? Is it well regarded?

Emma

It's doable. When you set yourself up you're unlikely to have a high turnover so you could take advantage of the low income schemes for PII and the ICAEW won't charge you for your Practising Certificate.

Decide what services you can offer and to whom. So will you do bookkeeping, year end accounts, VAT returns, tax returns? For sole traders, partnerships, small co's or large co's?

Work out a pricing structure - so perhaps fixed fees for specified jobs, with additional non-standard work being charged by the hour.

You could start advertising locally, get youself some business cards and set up a website all for a very minimal cost. PM me if you would like some pointers on these.