How to become a bookkeeper with no experience?

[GK007]

Hello, I work in a creative field with a fairly good income but struggle sometimes with the design aspects, and do worry about my future in this industry now that the firm is employing young whizz kids (I'm burnt out at 32!). Have always enjoyed working on my own finances and feel perhaps I would be more suited to a profession that is analytical, confident that end results can be calculated and are not open to intepretation.

I have no formal training in accounting so my questions are; to become a part time bookkeeper - where would I start, what is involved, how much would it cost, how long would it take?

Would others recommend this profession, is it a well paid job, and what type of individual becomes a bookkeeper (is it highly skilled)?

Is it a business that be completely run from the home, and can training all be done at home, including gaining qualifications?

I apologise for the amount of questions, but I think this may be the career for me (or at least an option to earn extra money on top of my current income) - providing I get some positive answers ;-)

Many thanks for reading.

 

[Alison Jones]

Hi

I would say to become a self employed bookkeeper both experience and qualifications are important.

If you have no experience maybe better getting a trainee accounts/bookkeeper job to gain some experience as small companies who want self employed bookkeeper normally want to know about experience and qualifications - would say that 50% happy with just experience, I first started my business with just experience and I gained 50% of potential new clients, once got qualifications got larger client base because of the qualification.

There are various courses Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB), Institute of Associate Bookkeepers (IAB) and AAT.

Not sure if the IAB and AAT are home based but know the ICB is mainly homebased, can get college courses through various providers eg Home Learning or Ideal School but know there are many more, or alternatively there are text books and past papers. Most of the ones are home based exams, except level 2 manual and level 3 manual.

Alison

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

AAT can be a home based course and would allow you to move into both bookkeeping and accounts. Jenni on here is the AAT guru - I have a friend doing it at the moment and think it is a good course to do. Having said all of that it is essential to get practical experience.

Consider doing 'unpaid' work (to start) for an accountant / bookkeeper to gain experience. Finding a mentor would be great - hard to do but worth the effort if you can pull it off.

 

[Interconnect IT]

I'm a developer/designer/hacker who does his own bookkeeping. And sometimes it drives me mental, but I'm getting better at it!

But... I reckon if you did it all the time it could become a reasonable way to make a decent living. Once you get used to the double-think logic of it it's quite straightforward - especially if you're the only one on a company's accounts. It's finding mistakes and problems that drives me nuts, mostly.

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

Once you get used to the double-think logic

Would you mean double entry?

 

[spencergate]

Hmm, well, I think in your shoes I'd look for an AAT course at your local further education college. You can do these full time, or part time while you work.

Then you would do well to find work with an accountancy or bookkeeping practice, (they may pay you while you study for the higher levels of AAT).

After a few years of practical experience, you would be ready to operate as a freelance bookkeeper, then maybe you could work from home.

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

you have 2 threads running on this - I suggest you ask the mods to merge

 

[GK007]

Oops, thought my first post didn't come through so posted a new one. Sorry about that.

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

no problem - it just gets a bit confusing. Just asks the mods to merge. That will work.

 

[GK007]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll look into the AAT home courses and see if there's anything out there that is reasonably priced.

Cheers.

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

my local college runs a course - have a look at the local one in your area.

I shouldn't think it would be massively costly in relation to the set up costs for a business e.g. PII etc

 

[recruit1]

There are various book keeping courses which can be taken i.e IAB Levels 1, 2, 3 in bookeeping or ICB levels 1 and 2 in Book keeping. AAT is also a great option. IAB also offers computerised bookkeeping (Sage line 50).

I am looking to become a qualified bookkeeper and I will be choosing Quickbooks as my computersed software, due to sage software being too expensive.

 

[recruit1]

It happened to me as well when I posted 2 threads. The threads doesn't show up straighht after posting, you have to wait a while.

About the Book keeping, you have many options which include: A book keeping coures IAB levels 1, 2, 3 or ICB levels 1 and 2. Then you can take up a computerised coures in Quickbooks or Sage. AAT is also a good option but it may be more suited to accountants. I think you can make a decent living from book keeping from what I've read. Some book keepers even end up having too many clients. Its all about how you market your self.

 

[Paula Barrett]

you have 2 threads running on this - I suggest you ask the mods to merge

Done - thanks Elaine.

It happened to me as well when I posted 2 threads. The threads doesn't show up straighht after posting, you have to wait a while.

This happens if you haven't activated your account through the confirmation email you should have received from us when you joined. I've manually activated your account now so you should be able to post freely.

Paula

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

I would start by approaching a small firm of accountants. They could give you a great deal of practical training and experience which is really the key to this type of work.

If you are a well organised, efficient, person you should be reasonably able to do quite a bit of work within just a few weeks. It's not difficult work if you have someone teaching you in an environment such as this.

My husband retrained for me doing bookkeeping in my accountancy practice so I speak from experience!

I'd also have a look at doing AAT studies at a later date if you enjoy the work.

The trouble with the AAT is that it includes a lot of accounting and taxation work which is aimed at people wanting to become qualifed accountants. It is a very good qualification but way above what a bookkeeper really needs.

I know some will hate me for saying this but I wouldnt bother with the other bookkkeeping qualifications - no one in the real world recognises them - experience and competance is the key for a good bookkeeper.

A bookkeepers work isnt in all honestly highly paid, but that's relative.

It can once your competant be done at home but long term I struggle to see if their is too much of a market for bookkeepers in the future. So many bookkeeping/accounting packages enable a small business owner to do the job themselves and if they need assistance once the business grows its often done in-house by an employed bookkeeper. In the past it was a very easy career to fit in at home, I think the markets changing.

Learning one of the major packages used eg Sage is (sadly) very useful. Depsite it being a package you love or hate, it is extensively used and often a requirement of small employers. You will see so many bookkeepers jobs advertised asking for Sage experience.

Hope I've not put you off!

Good luck.

 

[AlanR]

Hi,

Sorry to hijack this thread but it touches on a subject my wife and i were discussing only a couple of days ago.

My wife does the 'back-office' work - invoicing, payroll, PAYE and VAT returns etc and whilst she has picked it up fairly quickly and seems to be doing everthing correctly (well so it seems to me), we both felt that she would benefit from doing some formal training.

So with that in mind, we started looking at what is offered locally. Initially, it will purely be for our own company but, if it is something that she enjoys then who knows, she may want to look to make it more of a business, but that is some time away. Anyway, a local college runs 'Pitmans Bookkeeping & Accounts' Level 1 and 2 courses and some questions if i may:

- Anybody have any experience / knowledge of this course? Bearing in mind that it is for own company at this stage.
- Since it is for own company could i put it through as a Company expense? Not essential but if i can then why not.
- The college web site then suggests that the next stage would be 'Accounting Technician Course; employment' . Is employment a realistic next step after completing Levels 1 & 2?

Any advice / information welcome.

Regards

Alan

 

[spencergate]

No experience of this course so can't help there.

If your wife is an employee of your company, there is absolutely no reason why the company shouldn't pay for her career development. You may even find that your company can get a grant towards some training expenses. I'm not an expert on that, but maybe phone your local business link to get some advice about that.

 

[recruit1]

I disagree with Nicola, regarding there not being too much of a market for book keepers. The reason why a small business would choose a book keeper is because they don't have the time to do it themselves. Surely they can buy the accounts package and run the accounts themselves, but that doesn't leave them much time to concentrate on their business. Regarding the Sage software that most businesses use, I think this will change in the future as there are many other softwares on the market who are now expanding and being offered to businesses.

 

[recruit1]

I totally disagree with Nicola HJ regarding her view on not seeing a market for bookkeepers in the future. I think bookkeepers will always be around. The reason why a small business would hire a self-employed bookkeeper is because they simply don't have the time to keep the book in addition to running the business.

When the business grows they may or may not choose to hire an inhouse bookkeeper because it still costs cheaper to pay a self-employed bookkeeper rather than a member of staff which will have to be payed a salary, holiday, sick pay etc.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Accountancy and book keeping is changing and I truly do think bookkeepers will have a much more competitive marketplace in future, and will struggle to get work as easily as they have.

The market is flooded with bookkeepers - take a look at other websites where bookkeepers are trying to get work, and speak with those struggling to get work.

Many people see it as an easy option if you have a bit of bookkeeping knowledge. It isnt.

Book keepers arent needed to the extent they were 10 to 15 years ago and I do see this pattern continuing.

What used to take a bookkeeper many hours can now be done so much quicker with software packages getting better and better, and the small business owners who would have never of dreamt of 'doing their books' are doing so because so much of the bookkeeping can be done so much easier with a good software package.

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

I think Nicola has a point about the software making some firms have no need for bookkeepers.

I think this is a challenge for those bookkeepers out there to offer value added services to organisations e.g. management accounts services etc

Times move on and things change - working with change and playing to its advantages IMO is the best way forward.

 

[scottaustin]

Thanks for reading this and giving any sugestions....

Recently completed studies with Pitman Training for manual bookkeeping to year end and also Sage 50, however I find that this education doesn't seem to be helping me get my foot through the door as all jobs in bookkeeping or Ledger Clerk land want EXPERIENCE...HOW? I thought by learning the double-entry and sage i could at least get a bottom feeder job, I come from 10+ years of financial experience but just cant break down the job barriers.....

PLEASE ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD HELP..

sincerely,
scott

 

[rigaconnect]

I think if business is very small and business owner has free time and no enough money to pay to bookkeeper, then the owner may do bookkeeping by himself.
But in other cases if business owner can earn much more money doing business, then it is not beneficial for him to do bookkeeping. For example, doing business he can earn 100 £ per hour. And work of bookkeeper costs, for example 20 £ per hour. So what happens - business owner will save 20 instead of earning 100?