Advice On Starting An Accountancy Practice Firm

[mosesdanyo]

I have completed PgDip in Practical Accountancy (with Practice Attachment), MBA in Finance. I am well experienced in Bookkeeping and Accountancy, Management Accounts, VAT, Corporation Tax, Payroll, Statutory Auditing and Internal Auditing. I therefore want to start an accountancy firm which will provide the above mentioned services. I would be grateful if any body could please give me advice as to whether I can legally practice without being an ACA/ACCA/CIMA qualified or an ICAEW registered member. Any other advice regarding how to set up this company would be much appreciated. Many thanks.
Kind regards,
Moses.

 

[Scalloway]

There are no restrictions on anyone calling themeselves an accountant. You will not ba able to do statutory audits without qualifications.

 

[mosesdanyo]

Please should the qualification required to do statutory auditing be a professional qualification, or academic qualification, or a membership of a professional body like ICAEW?

 

[Scalloway]

You must be a member of either:

The Association of Authorised Public Accountants
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland

Plus have appropriate post qualification experience etc.

 

[mosesdanyo]

Many many thanks, Sir. Please does the above restriction apply to statutory accounts as well?
Kind regards.

 

[Scalloway]

You can prepare accounts for Companies House as long as they do not need audit.

 

[Mitchells Bristol]

Anyone can prepare and submit statutory accounts, but as Scalloway points out you need to hold the relevant qualifications and obtain an audit practising certificate in order to perform audits.

You do not need qualifications to do book-keeping or unaudited accounts.

You so however need to be slighly careful about the terminology you use to refer to your business - I believe you cannot refer to the business as a "practice" without appropriate qualifications. No doubt someone will correct me if I am wrong on this point.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

....Any other advice regarding how to set up this company would be much appreciated. Many thanks.
Kind regards,
Moses.

Moses as one who spent many years studying for professional exams and many years training in practice my advice is that you at least get some practical experience so you have some grasp of the type of work you are going to do. Unless you spend some time working in a practice it is all going to be trial and error on paying clients which is so wrong in my book.

As has been said ANYONE can call themselves an accountant

 

[teddys]

I think people are slowly getting tired of this 'anybody accountant' concept! Two developments I'm aware of:

1. HMRC - through the agent strategy they're basically creating two tiers; one for the qualified lots and the other for others. At least that's the impression I'm getting at the institute(s)-level which keep interacting with HMRC (through working together groups or otherwise)

2. There were at least two occasions in the recent past when the FTT insisted on engaging (specifically!!) an ACCA or ACA accountant as a pre-condition before penalities for careless inaccuracies could be suspended!!

 

[Bob]

2. There were at least two occasions in the recent past when the FTT insisted on engaging (specifically!!) an ACCA or ACA accountant as a pre-condition before penalities for careless inaccuracies could be suspended!!

Do you have the file number references for these cases as they should make interesting reading

 

[teddys]

Do you have the file number references for these cases as they should make interesting reading

Yes indeed; this case and this one

 

[Bob]

Thanks. Both are remarkable decisions. Who would wish to be the accountant to certify the returns And the first decision omitted CTA and misdescribed ACCA