setting up an accountancy business

dannoel-johnson

Hi guys,

I have been using this website for a long time. I have been working in a bank for the last year after finishing an accounting and finance degree at uni. I am currently stydying for the acca exams, and hope to complete these within the next year.

In the meantime, I have decided I will work in my spare time which will be evenings and weekends as a self employed accountant for £10 an hour. I will be doing anything from tax returns, payroll to full annual year end accounts.

Has anyone had any experience doing anything similar or does it seem like a good idea to you?

thanks

Dan

lincroft1710

Have a look at this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3613111

heretolearn_2

1) If you only charge £10 per hour you will end up working for less than minimum wage. If you have no concept of turnover compared to profit you really shouldn't be advising other business owners - and people do expect advice from their accountant. And you are seriously undervaluing what is supposed to be a professional service, if you are charging at this level you can only provide second-rate services. Is this how you want to start your accounting career?
2) If the ACCA find out you are screwed as you cannot do all these types of work for the public until you get your practising certificate, for which you need to have qualified PLUS have genuine work experience of 3 years minimum with an ACCA Approved Employer. You are not allowed, as an ACCA student, to provide much directly to your own clients - as a novice accountant you need to complete the practical part of your training first, the exams are just the start of it.

There are strict limits on what you are allowed to do as a part-qualified, and final accounts and tax returns are definitely out. You need to do some research into ACCA membership and practising certificate requirements.

zipady_do

All I know about this is my girlfriend just finished her ACA and year 2 & 3 she didn't have any time around exam periods, my advice would be to make sure you're flexible and don't commit to too much as when the exams come you're going to have to get stuck in to revision. But hey, best of luck!

InsideInsurance

Are you really talking about providing accountancy, which you aren't qualified to do, or book keeping? The later you can do as it is an unqualified job.

I follow to some degree what others have said about your rate of pay. You say you will charge your clients £10 an hour, what are you therefore calculating your £/hr will be for the amount of work you have to put in? What overheads have you allowed for?

dazza.mk

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Are you really talking about providing accountancy, which you aren't qualified to do, or book keeping? The later you can do as it is an unqualified job.

Not totally correct, he doesn't have to be qualified to provide accountancy, he just needs to be an ACCA Associate/Fellow with practising certificate before he could advertise himself as ACCA qualified, if he tries to setup his Accountancy Business without making reference to a CCAB body there would be no issue.

(Although he may have no customers)

InsideInsurance

My bad, I thought claiming to be an accountant was a protected term/ title

dazza.mk

InsideInsurance wrote: »

My bad, I thought claiming to be an accountant was a protected term/ title

There was some talk about it a couple of years ago, but current situation is that it is only the individual 'Institute/Association' terms that are protected.

heretolearn_2

"Not tohe just needs to be an ACCA Associate/Fellow with practising certificate before he could advertise himself as ACCA qualified, if he tries to setup his Accountancy Business without making reference to a CCAB body there would be no issue."

I don't believe that is true for ACCA. I think that even if he doesn't mention ACCA to his clients, he is still not permitted to do a lot of the work he wants to. He could put his ACCA membership and future career at risk. He needs to check with them for sure.

dazza.mk

heretolearn wrote: »

Not tohe just needs to be an ACCA Associate/Fellow with practising certificate before he could advertise himself as ACCA qualified, if he tries to setup his Accountancy Business without making reference to a CCAB body there would be no issue.

I don't believe that is true for ACCA. I think that even if he doesn't mention ACCA to his clients, he is still not permitted to do a lot of the work he wants to. He could put his ACCA membership and future career at risk. He needs to check with them for sure.

OK, agreed Tax Returns are probably dodgy ground and Stats are a no no.

http://www.acca.co.uk/students/acca/info/affiliate

heretolearn_2

not that the OP is bothered enough to come back to the thread :-(