Any accountants?

[FancyFrances]

Hello I have a PGCE and a BA degree, I want to retrain as an accountant but I've not had any experience. I'm smart, great with budgets, quick learner, very studious. Should I do a level 1 book keeping course or go in to level 1 accountancy course? I want to change careers and create a business which enables me to be home more for my young family. Thanks

Which examining bodies are those?

If you've got a degree behind you and specifically want to be in accountancy (or it's tangents), then either look for a trainee role (there might be some grad schemes still floating around or may start to open soon for January 2025 starts) or perhaps self-study some of the preliminary units of ACA (or ACCA, but larger firms tend to use ACA for their grads) to show your dedication to a career change.

I wouldn't bother with AAT.

I agree with this. Don't waste time doing AAT, given your background.

Absolutely not level 1 with your academic experience.

You mentioned starting a family business, what about accountancy intrigues you? I would say to also look at opening (eventually) your own bookkeeping business instead of accountancy, it's definitely a family friendly option and you have the option to supplement income while building everything up by contracting as a bookkeeper for other businesses. This can be easier than finding part time or contract work as an accountant so have a think about that initial period where you're trying to build your business. For this route I'd recommend doing the ICB qualification, it's very tailored to real world experience and teaches you about the practicalities of being a bookkeeping business owner.

If you're set on accounting you need to have a think about what kind of accounting you're looking for. Some sides lend themselves to self employment or owning your own practice much better than others. Things like finance business partnering, management accounting, budgeting, cost accounting tend to lend themselves better to being an employee within industry, particularly of a bigger business. A common route for this is eventually completing CIMA.

If you want to own your own accountancy practice doing the financial accounts and tax for self employed or ltd companies I'd steer towards eventually doing ACCA.

The pain point is the following: while you're potentially able to start with ACCA or CIMA straight off the bat you cannot qualify with either within having certifiable accounting work experience. There's a write up you have to do, get it signed off by old managers etc, prove your experience and then ACCA or CIMA will approve it before you're able to call yourself chartered. If you've never worked in accountancy you potentially don't want to do all those exams without being able to get the final result.

My preferred route when talking to people interested in accountancy is to do AAT. Start at level 2 (although you can start at level 3 I think 2 provides a brilliant foundation knowledge on double entry), then level 3 and 4. All the while finding work experience and working your way up to get the necessary experience required to qualify with ACCA or CIMA which you can then complete after you finish AAT.

There is always the option of a grad scheme but I find these aren't family friendly options and rely heavily on you being near major cities a lot of the time. Long hours and the pay off is the CV and the qualification funding but it can be a slog to get there.

To summarise my ridiculously long post (sorry) I would do the following for accounting:

-Look for an entry level accounts job, ideally one that will find AAT
-Complete level 2, 3 and 4 while building your CV.
-Find an employer to fund ACCA.
-Open your own practice (you can't be a self employed accountant while studying ACCA, hence it's the last step).

If you want to open your own bookkeeping practice instead then I'd crack straight on with completing the ICB qualification!

Just for clarity, you'll need professional qualifications AND supervised/approved work experience before you're allowed to practice as an accountant under the main chartered accountancy bodies (ACA, ACCA, CIMA etc). Just doing the exams won't be enough and the professional body wouldn't give you a practising certificate.

So you need to be looking for a training/apprentice job within an accountancy practice, managed by an ACA/ACCA/CIMA qualified accountant if you're planning on running your own practice in the future (which is what it sounds like according to your opening post).

Sadly, a fair amount of people don't understand this and take the professional exams, pass them all, become a qualified accountant, but then realise that the professional body rules won't let them prepare tax returns and accounts as they don't have the practising certificate, and clients wouldn't be to have their mortgage/rental applications signed off by you which for a lot of clients is the whole point of using an accountant!

If you're only planning on book-keeping, payroll, VAT returns and management accounts, then you probably won't need a practising certificate!

I was actually looking at AAT so thank you for letting me know. A bit of background I am recently single with a baby and I can't do a full time role. Most of the trainee and grad schemes or apprenticeships are full time which financially won't work right now.

Typo sorry.. should have said:

You cannot qualify with either ACCA or CIMA WITHOUT having that certifiable accounting work experience.

Wow this is so helpful, thank you!

I see a lot of people saying not to bother with AAT but going straight into ACCA/CIMA requires money and time in my opinion which is harder with a young family. This is also why I disregarded grad schemes in my first post. Of course it's possible but you're choosing a harder route when it comes to it as a single parent.

Also if you're only able to work part time the requirements with CIMA go from needing 3 years work experience to needing 6 years, prolonging it all. I assume ACCA is similar.

My first post still stands in my opinion. Find an entry level job, get AAT or ICB completed and then go from there.

I don't know why people are saying not to do AAT.

ACCA is full on and if you are a single parent with a young child it is going to be very tough.

I would start off with AAT and then try and get some work experience even if you just volunteer.

Once you have some practical bookkeeping experience, you can find a firm of bookkeepers that you could work for from home.

But you do need practical experience. That is the most important thing.

@FancyFrances What sort of accounting work will you want to do once qualified? In an accountancy practice filing statutory accounts and doing tax returns for commercial and individual clients, or working in the finance department of a business or public body? The jobs are very different indeed, and require different skill sets.

Level 3 AAT is about the equivalent of A-level which would be fine for you, but it will assume prior knowledge covered in level 2. If any of your local colleges are offering AAT courses, maybe pop along and discuss which level would be better for you.

ACCA and CIMA are much more full-on qualifications, so it might be better to start with AAT and see where that takes you.

Do you have any other limitations, requirements, things you need. What sort of work do you intend to do? How do you plan to get your experience? What do you hope to get to, and how quickly?

I'm a bit concerned re how this is going to work for you. An ACA or ACCA training contract would mostly be full time, as you said, and are very competitive to get.
You don't have re experience yet to take an industry accounts position that would quickly lead to CIMA qualification. You can't set yourself up as a self employed person (ie book keeper type) who does vat, payroll, management accounts, tax returns for sole traders, because you don't yet have those skills.

I'm wondering what the next best step for you is?

I think that you are taking a sensible step as an accounting qualification is a pretty portable one and I know quite a few people who have managed to balance bringing up children with running their own small business/personal tax company or freelancing as a book keeper. Whilst DC is small I would look at studying for AAT level 2 &3 at a local FE college as it is likely to be relatively inexpensive or doing it online. Once you have those then you could look at applying for a training contract for a chartered qualification with a local practice (ACA or ACCA) or business (CIMA) or go down the public authority route with civil service or local authority which might be more family friendlyy and do CIPFA. Any of them would offer you a portable qualification with book keeping to fall back on. As an ex accountancy partner I'd look pretty favourably on someone who had self started and studied AAT with a small child as it would demonstrate motivation organisational skills and determination.

I'd counsel you against the Big 4 unless you were looking to do ACCA in a back office admin role as their training contract regime is brutal and really won't mix with family life.