Accountancy Advice Please

james_Roberts

Hi,

I currently out of work, and have just bought an online course to do Accountancy,

Has anyone got any good tips or advice on what to concentrate on first,

I have started on Bookkeeping currently,

Many thanks

James

xapprenticex

Accountancy is very broad.



If its not a recognised body, the certificate you get will be worthless. You are better off doing AAT.



Also experience is probably more important initially.

phildixon1

It might be worth contacting the ICAEW for advice

james_Roberts

I am booked on the AAT Foundation Certificate in Accounting.

Tammykitty

Start with the basics of double entry book keeping.


Although is the courses not structured in a way which tells you which modules to do first?

james_Roberts

It says Bookkeeping Transactions First.

Berkshire_Beancounter

Bookkeeping is the basic stuff that is the foundation for recording transactions. I did Accounting to O level (that dates me, huh?) and spent two years learning double entry book-keeping. I'd suggest you work your way through that, and any associated aspects like missing transactions, bank reconciliations, etc.

Accounting controls is also vital in my view - when you see reported accounting 'scandals' or problems, I tend to think these were down to lack of controls. Can't remember the companies involved now, but I do recall seeing reports that companies were in financial trouble because of simple things like errors in spreadsheets that no-one picked up, or cash flow problems because of a tax payment due that came as a complete surprise.

A lot of financial issues I saw over my career were caused because people didn't understand the detail and / or the basics and made decisions based on poor information - so spending time really understanding the fundamentals of double entry book-keeping and control systems are vital in my view, before you go onto such exciting topics as costing, budgeting, and taxation!

xapprenticex

Not putting a downer on you but dont expect to do an AAT course and walk into a finance role. Doesnt work like that, LOTS of people are doing the AAT as they all think its easy to get into.

If you want it then you more likely will have to side-step. Once upon a time I had a role unrelated to finance, did such a good job that it was requested that i assist the finance dept which i jumped at, the rests is history.

Before that, every attempt at getting in to finance directly failed miserably.

Also, i have interviewed a fair few people for entry level finance roles, have too many finance qualifications with no experience does you no favours at all. And if you have a degree or more, i would advise you remove it from the CV and say nothing about it.

If you want finance, get into it using the method mentioned above.