I want to do a bookkeeping course!!

What's the charging structure for book keeping: do you charge by number of tranactions of a monthly fee depending on Business size?

I am just wondering what kind of money one could generate with a decent client base.

Hi There

You would find it better to charge by the 1/4 hour, that way phone calls, minor advice and assistance would also be easier to be calculated.

The big accountants do charge by 5 minute blocks so you can imagine how difficult it is to work out one person's work for the week.

One word of warning about computerised book-keeping - you have to understand what is happening if you want to just use a computer because should the worst happen and your computer fails, I don't think HMRC would wait patiently until you got it fixed, restored your data, found out at what point you were last at.

I use a basic analysed cash book along side a spreadsheet for the accounts I run for my local church. It easy then to transfer these figures to T accounts which form the basis of your trial balance, profit and loss and balance sheet. Also, you have to be aware that your can't just run an accoutning sytem with one package, you must have other data to hand as well - fixed asset registers, accruals & prepayments - which can be mishandled by the best of systems if you're not careful. Also each firm may use different computer packages - are you going to buy them all to tidy things up? You should also know that should you want to run a few businesses' books on a system like SAGE, you would need an expensive multi company version which can run into thousands of pounds if you're not careful and setting up each company takes a lot of time.

For your own benefit (and potential clients) you should seriously consider learning about manual accounts before you try to take on someones bookwork.

HTH

mikewebs is right about learning manual accounts.

I learn't manual accounts from a Chartered Accountant 25 years ago. He suggested I set up on my own and used to give me book-keeping work to do. As time went on, he showed me how to do tax computations, full accounts and how to fill in tax returns. He passed the smaller clients, he didn't want to me and I picked up additional clients by word of mouth. When I moved from Kent to Hampshire, I thought I would lose most of my clients. Becuase of my experience I had no problems in finding very well paid "accountants" jobs with manufacturing companies (I am now the Financial Controller). The odd thing is I did not lose any of my clients so I also ended up with an accountancy practice as well, and use others to do my book-keeping!

About 5 years ago, I decided to get "qualified" and studied through distance learning, for both the IAB and IFA qualifications. I found it extremely easy as I had a very good grounding. I am now studing to become a "Fellow" of both institutes. What is great, is I can do my own Accountants certificates for my clients which is accepted by Lenders.

The qualifications aren't essential, but useful. What is important is knowing where to go for help when you don't know know or are unsure about how to do things. Confidence is good - I have seen very good book-keepers who have identified major errors, but been to scared to do anything about them.