Finance Courses

golum81

Hi Sweet Daisy,

Is there anyway that you can do a short course - like 6 weeks bookkeeping? I had the same problem - was looking into starting at start of year but couldn't start until September and found that the short course got my brain going.

When I mentioned about working in industry or private, I meant either finance departments or accountancy firms.

They offer different types of accounts experience and different exposure.

If you work in a big company with a finance department then you deal with month ends, journals and sales ledgers/credit control and purchase ledger etc. but you don't get much exposure to tax (except VAT). In bigger companies, tax is generally dealt at head office level and there is no requirement of personal tax calcs.

If you work in an accountancy practice, then your main focus is on personal and corporation tax. You will also deal with VAT and Capital Gains Tax. But you see lots of different types of businesses - small one man bands up to limited companies.

Obviously, if you work in a small company's finance dept, then you would be involved in more likewise if you work in a big accountancy practice then you could get less exposure to different businesses and potentially pigeon holed.

I knew I always wanted to do tax calcs. So went down the ACCA route because even though I worked in industry (and everyone assumed I would do CIMA), I had dreams of doing personal accounts at least on the side but I have been very lucky to move from industry to practice full time.

At mid 30's you are not too old. There were many people on my course who were mid/late 40's and my business partner was 50 when he started!!

But don't under estimate it. It can be hard going and draining at times and even more so if you have a family to raise too but I think it is well worth it and love my job. If you have support around you then that will help too - I had a mother in law who would cook my tea on one of my college nights which was a god send!!

AP007

golum81 wrote: »

When I mentioned about working in industry or private, I meant either finance departments or accountancy firms.

They offer different types of accounts experience and different exposure.

If you work in a big company with a finance department then you deal with month ends, journals and sales ledgers/credit control and purchase ledger etc. but you don't get much exposure to tax (except VAT). In bigger companies, tax is generally dealt at head office level and there is no requirement of personal tax calcs.

If you work in an accountancy practice, then your main focus is on personal and corporation tax. You will also deal with VAT and Capital Gains Tax. But you see lots of different types of businesses - small one man bands up to limited companies.

There are also finance teams within Accountancy Practices who deal with PL/SL, payment runs, VAT returns, payroll etc, so depends totally on what the OP sees themself doing.

Kayalana99

I'm doing the AAT, I buy the books for £20 directly (or sometimes cheaper on eBay) and then just take the exams at £50 a pop ...can't afford all the courses.

Kaplan do the exams all over the country so worth looking into if your on a budget?

I'm not sure if I will carry on doing it this way into level 3 / 4 but for level 2 I think a book should be ok to get me though (it's only a 70% pass rate just passed my first 2/5 exams anyway for AAT level 2)

sweetdaisy

golum81 wrote: »

Is there anyway that you can do a short course - like 6 weeks bookkeeping? I had the same problem - was looking into starting at start of year but couldn't start until September and found that the short course got my brain going.

Hi, apologies for all the questions . Can you recommend a good online provider for this short course or steer me in the right direction, as I have done an online search but not sure which are genuine or not?

AP007

Like this

http://www.pitman-training.com/Courses/foundation-in-book-keeping

http://www.pitman-training.com/training/bookkeeping-and-accounts-training?campaign=google_ppc&gclid=CL2Flu7_270CFernwgodUFcAbA

sweetdaisy

AP007 wrote: »

Like this

http://www.pitman-training.com/Courses/foundation-in-book-keeping

http://www.pitman-training.com/training/bookkeeping-and-accounts-training?campaign=google_ppc&gclid=CL2Flu7_270CFernwgodUFcAbA

Thank you for the above information.

Just had a look through the site and I like the look of the 'Basic bookkeeping course', plus there is a centre 15 miles from where I live. The course can take 120 hours of study, which I can do in the evenings when the children go to bed, so I can fit it around my work and home life. I will give them a ring tomorrow and feel really excited now.

sweetdaisy

Me again, sorry (need some more advice)

I contacted Pitman Training and their Bookkeeping course has 3 modules and each costs £375, plus an additional £375 fee for the Sage 50 and Microsoft Excel courses - all in all it costs £1,875 :eek:. On completion of the modules you get a 'Foundation in Book-keeping Diploma with AAT Qualifications'. This seems quite expensive to me, but as I have never done any distance learning I am not sure if this is the normal price to pay.

I have had a look at 'ICS' and they offer a distance learning 'ICS Booking and Accounts Diploma' which runs over 12 months and costs £271.

In terms of getting a recognised qualification (as a starting point) before I hopefully get onto the AAT Level 2 course at college, would the Pitman training have more value than the ICS course?

Kayalana99

Daisy why do you want to do a course before doing your AAT? AAT doesn't start 'in the middle' it starts from basic double entry book keeping.

Thing is with ICS it's swings and round abouts if you can book the exam ~ you might find one round the corner it might be down in London ~ with Kaplan they do have a lot of centres.

If I was you, if you really want to go to college ~ but want to do the AAT, buy an AAT book and get started.

That said ~ you find that courses generally run a year at a time but get harder ~ so whilst you wouldn't need to spend a year on AAT level two that's how long they will run the course for.

Personally if I had the option to go to college I would still of done the AAT level two *at home, it's more then possible if you get your head down now till Sept that you could complete the AAT level 2 and then go to college for AAT level 3, but that depends on how committed you are to it and how fast you want to get it done, if you had the motivation you could cut your three years at college right down but home studying isn't that easy if you havn't got the will.

What kept me pushed to pass my exams was simply booking them before I had even started, I booked my two April exams in mid march and passed them, I will book the next one for the start of May.

sweetdaisy

I was thinking (maybe wrongly) that I would be better off doing a short course so that at least I can get to grips with all the terminology before the AAT course started, so that I am not left behind.

I've just done a Live Chat with ICS and all tests are done online, so there's no need to go to a centre.

In terms of books, could you recommend any books as a starting point? I've had a look at all the 'Books for Dummies' but there are so many to choose from.

Kayalana99

Ah okey, well I can't speak for all (makes of the AAT*)books but it really does speak to you as if your an idiot.

Their are some parts that are a bit complicated in the BA2 (no ones favourite I gather) but book 1 gives you not only a definition of the terminology but also tells you what other people might call it so you don't get confused, it really is the basic of the basic.

You might find if you go do a book keeping course they will advise you go straight to level 3 anyway x