Recommendations for bookkeeping/accountancy/payroll course(s).

[Christie*]

Good evening,

May I please ask what free/paid bookkeeping/accountancy/payroll course(s) would you recommend to support understanding of the above?

The objective is to get a deeper understanding of the differences between being an employee/sole trader/director of the limited company & aid informed decisions when consulting with the accountant.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Mr D]

Open university often have taster courses / future learn courses. For free.

You may find later this year your local chamber of commerce or federation of small business branch running some evening courses. Not necessarily free, but not expensive either. Lots of new business people since first lockdown started.

Just be warned, not everyone who publishes a video or site is out to help you. Some seek to make money out of you.

 

[Deleted member 335660]

Good evening,

May I please ask what free/paid bookkeeping/accountancy/payroll course(s) would you recommend to support understanding of the above?

The objective is to get a deeper understanding of the differences between being an employee/sole trader/director of the limited company & aid informed decisions when consulting with the accountant.

Thank you in advance.

I taught A level Accounting for many years and that will give you the financial knowledge. As for differences between roles it depends how deep you want to go but very few courses will cover just this.

I assume you know the basic differences between employee/sole trader and Director but in a limited company there is also a shareholder.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Good evening,

May I please ask what free/paid bookkeeping/accountancy/payroll course(s) would you recommend to support understanding of the above?

The objective is to get a deeper understanding of the differences between being an employee/sole trader/director of the limited company & aid informed decisions when consulting with the accountant.

Thank you in advance.

Hi Christie

I think the problem you will find is that most courses will cover a broad range of accounting and tax topics rather than just those specific areas.

If you just want to read up on those topics and get a general overview the HMRC website may help. Here for example - https://www.gov.uk/set-up-business. HMRC do also run free webinars on various topics which you may find helpful.

If you want to take it further and study these and other topics I'd take a look at the ATT.

 

[Spur Support Services]

It may also be that you need to consider finding an accountant that you can effectively communicate with. You really shouldn't feel that you have to train to be an accountant, in order to be able to understand them.

However, generally if you are using Online Accounting software such as Xero or Quickbooks, there will also be a wealth of training videos etc, available on their website. It may be that those are generally available.

 

[eteb3]

Mason's books have been great for me:
https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/mason+accounting

 

[Christie*]

Good evening all,

Thank you very much for your informative and practical advice from various perspectives. I agree with all of your observations about the benefits and the limitations.

At this stage, I think that I can assume that I know the basic differences. I watched HMRC webinars and read their online resources including manuals so thank you for re-assuring that it was a good starting point. I will check the links that all of you kindly shared and the open university offers.

I agree that the effective communication is vital; at this moment I think that I could help it up to certain point by getting more background knowledge. I believe that, beyond that point, there will be indicators for a change of the accountant. At first, I want to see what I can reasonably do myself.

Many thanks again for your advice. I found all replies very useful.

Best regards