Accountancy jobs - what's yours?

jessicamb

geek84 wrote: »

I also want to change career and go into accountancy. I am doing a book keeping course via distance learning and then I have been adviced to do the AAT, since I have limited accounting knowledge, except for work experience in credit control. I to wanted to go into FE teaching like Suja1983, but have been adviced not to, since the new government wil be making cuts. Please see forums on tes.co.uk.
Finally,I know this forum is for accountancy and I do not want to be accussed of highjacking the forum, but one or two of you have suggested going into FE teaching. If you look at tes.co.uk then it will give you more information about the current status of the FE sector.

Thanks

If you wanted to teach business there are a lot of private tuition providers - places like BPP or FTC Kaplan have teachers for the professional accounting exams. They wont be any more exposed to government cuts than any other company.

jessicamb

skintsaver wrote: »

evening everyone, i would like to study to be an accountant or work in some type of accountancy but at the moment i can not attend college or university so have applied to the open university and am starting an introdution to bookeeping and accountants which is apparently equivelent to IAB level 4. I can then go on to do further coureses with the OU but this is the one they recommened i start with. Will this lead me down the right road into the job i would love
Any advice greatly appreciated
Thanks

If you have no experience then starting with the basics is a good thing - you can see if you like it for a start. The OU do a further course which gets you some exemptions from CIMA/ACCA so you can do OU instead of AAT. I strongly recommend you get a job in finance as soon as possible though as you will need experience. A good way in can be through accounts admin/credit control/purchase ledger type jobs from which you can move on to pure accounting roles.

chewmylegoff

I'm ACA qualified - went from uni into top 20 practice (it was ranked 20th at the time!), 3 years in audit, 1 year in the forensics dept, then into law enforcement, where i've been messing around ever since in various anti-fraud and financial crime roles.

ACAs get it easy if training at a decent sized firm - cushy training contract, weeks off to go to college and revise for exams, all your fees paid, work experience on tap. it's the best way to go if you can get it, in my view as you get the best support and have the most options open to you when you qualify. seems harder to get into these days though - my firm had difficulty filling all of its graduate vacancies in 2000, certainly not a problem now!

AAT/ACA in a training contract in practice seemed a pretty good route as well - there were a fair few school leavers at my firm taking that route and it seemed to do pretty well for them, as they'd be on the same salary within 5 years of leaving school as the graduates were within 6 years.

geek84

Hi Folks

As you may know, I have been lurking around this 'accountancy' forum for a while. I have decided to do the ICB level 1 and 2, of this course. ICB stands for Institute Of Certified Book Keepers. After doing these 2 levels, I have been told that I can go straight on to the AAT intermediate stage (which I am intending to do).

My situation is as follows -

I am on level 1 of the ICB course and have gone through the allocated work book. I have done all the exercises in the book and checked against the answer book - I got them all correct!

I then contacted the learning provider - 'Training Link', to tell them this, and they said I now need to take a mock exam, on the computer, (in preparation for the real exam) for this level (level 1). However, they have said that I am at a stage where they cannot offer me any help with any of the questions. I have gone through this whole mock exam paper and cannot get the trial balance to balance. I have been told that they are not willing to check my answers until I get to balance the trial balance. I have been racking my brains over this for the last few days.

I have gone through the assignment a few times to make sure that I have posted the original entries to the right ledgers. I have got a feeling that some of these entires are in the wrong place, but as stated above, my allocated tutor at the learning centre is not prepared to give me any tips/hints as to what errors I have made.
I now feel that I am at a stage where I cannot progress further with this course since the tutor is not prepared to mark the assignment unless I get the trial balance to balance.

What do you suggest I do? Do you think I should get a professional book keeper to give me one to one tuition and explain to me where I am going wrong in posting my entries? Are you aware of any websites that may be able to provide me with assistance with this?

Thanks in advance for any advice

katebl

geek84 wrote: »

Hi Folks

As you may know, I have been lurking around this 'accountancy' forum for a while. I have decided to do the ICB level 1 and 2, of this course. ICB stands for Institute Of Certified Book Keepers. After doing these 2 levels, I have been told that I can go straight on to the AAT intermediate stage (which I am intending to do).

My situation is as follows -

I am on level 1 of the ICB course and have gone through the allocated work book. I have done all the exercises in the book and checked against the answer book - I got them all correct!

I then contacted the learning provider - 'Training Link', to tell them this, and they said I now need to take a mock exam, on the computer, (in preparation for the real exam) for this level (level 1). However, they have said that I am at a stage where they cannot offer me any help with any of the questions. I have gone through this whole mock exam paper and cannot get the trial balance to balance. I have been told that they are not willing to check my answers until I get to balance the trial balance. I have been racking my brains over this for the last few days.

I have gone through the assignment a few times to make sure that I have posted the original entries to the right ledgers. I have got a feeling that some of these entires are in the wrong place, but as stated above, my allocated tutor at the learning centre is not prepared to give me any tips/hints as to what errors I have made.
I now feel that I am at a stage where I cannot progress further with this course since the tutor is not prepared to mark the assignment unless I get the trial balance to balance.

What do you suggest I do? Do you think I should get a professional book keeper to give me one to one tuition and explain to me where I am going wrong in posting my entries? Are you aware of any websites that may be able to provide me with assistance with this?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Hi geek84, I have recently learned trial balances, I hope I'm not barking up the wrong tree here but if you're not sure what should go onto which side (DR or CR), they should be listed as follows -

Debits
Expenses
Assets

Credits
Income
Liabilities


If it is literally assigning them to the correct column, feel free to PM me and I'll see if I can help - I am studying AAT and have some previous bookkeeping knowledge, so might be able to help!

Any

geek84 wrote: »

Hi Folks

As you may know, I have been lurking around this 'accountancy' forum for a while. I have decided to do the ICB level 1 and 2, of this course. ICB stands for Institute Of Certified Book Keepers. After doing these 2 levels, I have been told that I can go straight on to the AAT intermediate stage (which I am intending to do).

My situation is as follows -

I am on level 1 of the ICB course and have gone through the allocated work book. I have done all the exercises in the book and checked against the answer book - I got them all correct!

I then contacted the learning provider - 'Training Link', to tell them this, and they said I now need to take a mock exam, on the computer, (in preparation for the real exam) for this level (level 1). However, they have said that I am at a stage where they cannot offer me any help with any of the questions. I have gone through this whole mock exam paper and cannot get the trial balance to balance. I have been told that they are not willing to check my answers until I get to balance the trial balance. I have been racking my brains over this for the last few days.

I have gone through the assignment a few times to make sure that I have posted the original entries to the right ledgers. I have got a feeling that some of these entires are in the wrong place, but as stated above, my allocated tutor at the learning centre is not prepared to give me any tips/hints as to what errors I have made.
I now feel that I am at a stage where I cannot progress further with this course since the tutor is not prepared to mark the assignment unless I get the trial balance to balance.

What do you suggest I do? Do you think I should get a professional book keeper to give me one to one tuition and explain to me where I am going wrong in posting my entries? Are you aware of any websites that may be able to provide me with assistance with this?

Thanks in advance for any advice

I suggest 2 things...
Post your problem up here and we will check it over
Kick your provider in the bum and change to proper provider. Who are you doing this with? What do they think they are there for?

I am completely shocked that they sold you program they are not willing to help you out with! They are there to mark all papers, not just passing papers. How are you supposed to learn when you don't know what are you doing wrong?

Most providers base their marketing on the % of people that passed. It seems to me that for your provider this seems to be the priority rather then to actually educate people.

sf123

geek84 wrote: »

Hi Folks

I then contacted the learning provider - 'Training Link', to tell them this, and they said I now need to take a mock exam, on the computer, (in preparation for the real exam) for this level (level 1). However, they have said that I am at a stage where they cannot offer me any help with any of the questions. I have gone through this whole mock exam paper and cannot get the trial balance to balance. I have been told that they are not willing to check my answers until I get to balance the trial balance. I have been racking my brains over this for the last few days.

I have gone through the assignment a few times to make sure that I have posted the original entries to the right ledgers. I have got a feeling that some of these entires are in the wrong place, but as stated above, my allocated tutor at the learning centre is not prepared to give me any tips/hints as to what errors I have made.
I now feel that I am at a stage where I cannot progress further with this course since the tutor is not prepared to mark the assignment unless I get the trial balance to balance.

What do you suggest I do? Do you think I should get a professional book keeper to give me one to one tuition and explain to me where I am going wrong in posting my entries? Are you aware of any websites that may be able to provide me with assistance with this?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Well first of all I would suggest you find a new training provider... If you're struggling with the mock then obviously you're not prepared enough for the actual exam - and surely it is your tutor's job to prepare you for it! How can you be expected to progress if they won't show you where you're going wrong?

Feel free to post your problem here and I'm sure we can try to help... but seriously, find a new training provider!!

geek84

Hi Any

Thanks for your reply.

My training provider is 'Training Link', and they give the following reason for not providing any help with my book keeping course-

They say that I have passed all the assignments in the allocated work book and have got them correct. the next stage is now the mock exam (which I do at home on the computer). After passing the mock exam, I would be given a date when I can sit the proper exam.

It is the mock exam that I am stuck on. They are saying that because it is an 'exam', they cannot give me any assistance. The thing that most upsets me is that they are only willing to go through the mock exam with me if I get the trial balance to balance. Obvioiusly, if I did get the trial balance to balance then I would most likely get the correct answer, and there would be no need for my training provider to go through the exam paper with me!

Another thing that I have been silly in doing is that - This book keeping course is in 3 levels. I am on the first level - however, I have paid for all the 3 levels upfront. However, the total amount of money hasn't exactly left my account, I am paying in instalments. If they don't change their behaviour, I have a good mind to cancel the future direct debits and change my course &provider - I am thinking of doing the AAT.

Would I be breaking any laws if I cancelled my direct debits and chose not to continue with the course?

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Any

Hi Geek,

I don't agree with what they are doing at all. What purpose exactly is the Mock exam serving if you are not allowed to hand it in unless it is correct??

Have a read through your contract with the college, whether you can pull out.

In the meantime post up where you think you went wrong - if your TB doesn't balance that means that you most likely didn't follow double entry... ie you most likely posted just one side of some transaction without finding a place for the other side..

MoneySavingUser

katebl wrote: »

Hi geek84, I have recently learned trial balances, I hope I'm not barking up the wrong tree here but if you're not sure what should go onto which side (DR or CR), they should be listed as follows -

Debits
Expenses
Assets

Credits
Income
Liabilities


If it is literally assigning them to the correct column, feel free to PM me and I'll see if I can help - I am studying AAT and have some previous bookkeeping knowledge, so might be able to help!

http://www.dwmbeancounter.com/tutorial/DrCrTChart.html

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3451625/Asset-Accounts-with-Normal-Balances