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By Tim Vane
13th Jul 2015 00:24

You will need to check with the AAT but if it has similar rules to other bodies then you may well find that your terms of membership prohibit you from doing this. In order to offer practice services you are likely to need a member in practice certificate, and in order to get that you will need to demonstrate relevant qualifications and experience. From what you have said it does not sound as though you will have the relevant experience and it is unlikely you will be granted a certificate. Offering the services you wish to provide without the certificate is likely to result in losing your AAT membership.

So you may need to resign your AAT membership in order to proceed, which may have an impact on your day job.

In any case, without any relevant practical experience it is likely that you will find your foray into such a venture fraught with difficulties and very stressful.

As an alternative, as you say you have the marketing and network skills to recruit clients, why not speak to a local practice and offer to provide leads on commission. Many smaller firms will be competent to do the practice work but don't have the time or the skill to recruit new clients. There could be a source of income for you in generating business for a local firm that may open doors for you in the future.

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By cheekychappy
13th Jul 2015 07:18

AAT isn't the problem here.

The fact you will be a student member of CIMA is.
This is probably a no go I'm afraid.

You also seem to underestimate the time needed to study for a chartered qualification. Working full time, juggling a family and trying to run a part-time business is almost going to guarantee failure when you come to take you CIMA exams.

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By NHGlos
13th Jul 2015 09:02

CIMA will allow students to carry self employed accounting services, so long as they do not refer to there relationship with CIMA/hold themselves out as holding any part of the CIMA qualification.

As for the AAT, their practice certificates (what they refer to as Licences under their MIP Scheme) only approve a member to carryout specific and specified areas of work. These areas must be specified on application and the AAT will only grant a license that covers those areas that the applicant/member can demonstrate suitable experience in. Your book-keeping, management accounting and payroll experience may grant you a license in these and related areas. There are some other hoops to jump through such as professional cover and insurance.

Following on from Tim's post, have you considered the option of pursuing some freelance work from practices, assuming this wouldn't be against your employment contract?

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By oscardoyle
13th Jul 2015 10:19

All very valid points

All very valid and useful points, thank you.

 

Thank you @NHGlos - I'm aware of the AAT's MIP scheme and that as things stand I can only hope to offer bookkeeping, payroll, management accounts, etc as these are the areas I have plenty of work experience in. I've no final accounts prep or tax experience so yes I accept it would be unwise to try and offer those services. Perhaps I should be looking to approach practices in my area and offer to outsource some of this work.

 

Thank you @TimVane - that is a good suggestion and I will take it on board, I imagine there may be accountants in my area whose technical skills far outweigh their selling and marketing skills so perhaps I could look to fill a gap there. And although I could resign my AAT membership, as I'm sure you appreciate it's never going to be an option for, I worked too hard for the qualification and I'm proud to be AAT :)

 

Thanks also to @cheekychappy - yes, I accept that sometimes I bite off more than I can comfortably chew, but I do like to be stretched! Idle hands are my worst enemy and I tend to do better under a bit of pressure :)

 

Has anyone got any experience of approaching accountancy practices to outsource bookkeeping and payroll? What success rate could I expect?

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

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By cheekychappy
13th Jul 2015 11:31

In another thread you mention that your turnover will be less than £1000pa.

Have you considered putting all your time and effort into getting through CIMA. Passing the first level should see your salary increase by more than £1000.

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By thatsnumberwang
13th Jul 2015 12:30

Cheekychappy makes a good point

Driven accountants in industry, whether they are ACA, ACCA or ACMA, have considerably higher salaries than those in practice. If you're primary goal is to achieve a higher salary then I would focus on completing CIMA and moving into a role in industry. If you really push yourself you could get through the exams in a couple of years. That should keep you occupied in the evenings!

If you are looking for a career with more flexibility to fit in around your young family, then setting up in practice may be a better solution long term. However, don't be fooled into thinking it will be an easy option, especially if you are starting out from scratch.

The problem with running a small practice alongside employment is that it doesn't matter if you have 1 client or 100, you still need to have the depth of knowledge to offer compliance and tax services, not too mention the experience. If you are keen to pursue this route, I would stick to bookkeeping and payroll services, the areas that you are familiar with.

I should expect the hardest part for you would be providing support during the daytime to your clients while at your day job. Many of your clients will want to be able to get hold of you when you may be at work, probably on the phone, to discuss any issues that crop up. How would you handle that? And how would your employer react? You may have it written into your contract that you should make your employer aware if you undertake work elsewhere. Speaking as an employer, I would be dubious about my member of staffs commitment to the day job if they were setting up by themselves.

Hope that helps!

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By oscardoyle
13th Jul 2015 12:38

Yes but why not both
I agree with the time and effort required to be successful with CIMA exams, but I think I could manage with a half dozen or so hours of subcontracting per week. Even just 6 billable hours per week @ £15/hour would generate over £4,000 of turnover.

What is the market like for payrollers subcontracting for accountants? I would imagine they are in greater demand given the inpending rush of small employers approaching ae staging dates?

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By oscardoyle
13th Jul 2015 12:46

Thank you @thatsnumberwang and may I say how fantastic your username is!!

I am certainly driven to achieve a well paid and enjoyable long term future in industry.

I am envisioning offering a few hours a week of subcontracting payroll services to a sole accountant practitioner who may only have a few payroll clients, is this a common set up and is it a practicle proposal? I can very easily bash out several payrolls a week/month. I would definately check with my employer that they are happy for me to be doing this but I guess a big barrier would be tht I couldn't answer phone calls and queries in normal working hours...

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By mrme89
13th Jul 2015 13:08

Some good advice given above.

If you do proceed to take on part-time work and subsequently fail your exams, you are going to face scrutiny at work? Is that something you are prepared for?
If I was an employer and I found out that one of my employees had failed their exams because they had stretched themselves by starting a business, I wouldn't be too pleased.

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By thecreativeaccountant
13th Jul 2015 13:15

,

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By oscardoyle
13th Jul 2015 13:16

Quite right @mrme89
Yes quite right mrme89.

My loyalty has to lay with my employer. Given the advice so far, i'm rethinking the whole idea...

Thank you all ever so much for taking the time to give me your advice!!

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