Book Keeping/Accountancy - Where to start?

[RattieofCatan]

I'd like to learn about bookkeeping so that I can keep my own accounts, but it's also something that I think I'd enjoy doing so if I'm doing the training anyway, I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by doing a course that isn't suited to me or by doing a course that won't enable me to continue training should I enjoy it, IYSWIM.

There are so many groups who offer bookkeeping and accountancy qualifications, to me it seems that ICB, IAB and AAT are the most well known? And from what I understand, if you definitely want to progress then AAT would be a better option? I'm just worried about the actual working element of it as with work I wouldn't be able to get a formal job as a bookkeeper for at least a few years (I love my job, but do want to train in an area I can do when I have children) so if I were to do any bookkeeping it'd have to be on a self-employed basis.

Would AAT take qualifications from other bodies as evidence of being able enough to move forward with them if I decided to at a later date or would I have to repeat any studies? Are there any other good bodies to get a qualification through?

AAT is the best known bookkeeping qualification of that lot. None of those are really 'accountancy' qualifications though to be honest.

AAT could lead to further studies in accountancy should you wish in the future though where it is rare the others do.

I would definitely choose AAT for the reasons above.

I know, I worded that badly really I meant really to do book keeping now, and have something that can lead onto accountancy or be used as evidence for me to move into accountancy training if I choose to do so a few years from now, IYSWIM?

AAT is the one I keep coming back to, but it seems to be less tailored to those who want to be self-employed, at least according to other people asking a similar question, it seems to be the way. Would the bookkeeping parts be enough to enable me to be able to do bookkeeping alone? Would I need to move to a practice to take it further?

What I don't understand is that something people have mentioned on other forums is that AAT requires you to have experience in an employed position before practicing alone, but on their site it advertises setting up by yourself as a benefit of doing their bookkeeping course, so either that's changed or there is something I'm not seeing? Or that relates to the accountancy components of their courses rather than book keeping?

I am not sure how their 'member in practice' scheme works as I am an ICAEW chartered accountant.

As an accountant though, I would think more of AAT than the others.

Practising certificates do usually require some experience in practice though, which makes sense really. Otherwise how can you be sure you know what you're doing if you haven't actually had any experience doing it for real?

I totally get that, and if I were to go further with it later on in life I'd be happy to as my career will come to its natural end in a few years. I'd happily find a part time accountancy position to do a good accountancy course properly. But the bookkeeping, at the moment, is really for me to learn how to do my own bookkeeping and possibly take on a few clients so that I can do it part time on top of my (part-time) career, so I can't really pack in my current career to get a trainee bookkeeping or accounting course that includes full on working practice. Otherwise I'd just be better off going down the route of going back to university full time to get a degree and going down the accountancy training route later on.

Im currently studying AAT Accountancy level 2, right now Id have a vague idea how to do my own books, but Im only 5 months into the course (every Monday)

I really enjoy doing it, and find it interesting so from a personal point of view I would recommend it.

I'm studying ICB bookkeeping, I chose this because of the similar reasons to yours. I used to keep my own records when running our business many years ago and I wanted to learn bookkeeping in details so that it might help me get into jobs like finance assistant or running my own practice in the future. I wouldn't think of myself becoming an accountant as I wouldn't what to go too far but bookkepers seem to be always in demand and i looked into it and decided to go ahead with ICB, I have completed level I and II now preparing for my exam for level III. I must say it's very thorough and detailed course and it really gives you all the grounds that you need. Other reason I chose ICB is because it's more like preparing you if you want to run your own practice. Hope this helps and good luck