Needing to understand the core financials behind the business side of his operations, Paul learned to be a Bookkeeper first qualifying through the ICS in the 70’s before moving to qualify with the ICB in more recent years.
Today he tutors Bookkeeping for ADL and also Project Management for which he is a Professional Project Manager as certified by the Project Management Institute of America
A Bookkeeper is the link between a client and an accountant. Traditionally your bookkeeper would prepare the trial balance for the accountant however the new thresholds allow Bookkeepers to do the final accounts for businesses with a turnover of up to five million pounds. So many of the things that accountants used to do can now be done by Bookkeepers. And nowadays Bookkeepers can be so mobile – you have computers, USB sticks and so on. You can just turn up and a business, do the books then go on to the next one.
ADL: What are the Prospects of a BookKeeper
Huge. The scope for a living, a good living is enormous because you can imagine how many small businesses there are. The things you can do as a bookkeeper are fairly wide. One idea is if a Bookkeeper just did self-assessment for self employed people they could earn a living doing that although it would mean working only during one part of the year. You could do small business VAT, or payroll. Book Keepers can also buy franchises which will set up a fully functioning business for you, train you to run it and help you get business.
ADL: What sort of person makes a good Bookkeeper?
The trouble I think today is that people sit back and think “Now what can I do, I’ve lost my job. I know I’ll be a bookkeeper”. It doesn’t work like that. You need a certain mindset to sit down and handle figured methodically – you’ve got to do it correctly religiously and really pay attention to detail.
People say anyone can do it and they can but whether they’re suited to it is a different matter because to sit in front of a screen all day long and make sure you’re doing the correct work for your client is a responsibility. You can’t just leave things to the end of the month – it’s great when all the things you need are together in one place – invoices, receipts and so on. But it doesn’t really work that way. The receipts will be missing, the cheques will have bounced and it all has to be checked and followed up on.
ADL: So you’ve got to be able to work methodically while accommodating the fact your client might not?
Exactly, and each client works differently. Too many clients don’t put enough value on their bookkeeper. For them it’s just something they have to pay for. I think it’s the fault of the system – clients simply aren’t educated as to how important a bookkeeper is to their business because it is the bookkeeper who can tell them what is going wrong with the company. They can help their employer make erudite decisions to say look: why are you spending this money? Why are you not moving it where it is needed? Why are you buying a bike instead of advertising space?
ADL: As I understand it – this used to be the prerogative of the Accountant?
Yes but now it’s the Bookkeeper. What does the Accountant know about the business? He just gets the trial balance at the end of the year and that’s that. The Bookkeeper’s the one there on a day to day basis. They have a feel for the business. They understand who pays well and who doesn’t. Which suppliers will give a bit of leeway and which won’t? The Accountant won’t be able to tell them that. The bookkeeper can and that’s why I think this is a fundamental part of the value to being a bookkeeper today.
ADL: What do you think about distance learning as a method of education?
It’s terrific, absolutely terrific. There was a little joke about distance learning where what happens with someone is they get their course and they go out and spend loads of money on pads of paper and pens and rulers and so on and then they open the first lesson and decide it’s too hard. So they go to see if they can do the first assignment yet. Then they give up.
Nowadays though because of the costs people seem more committed and willing to get their money’s worth out of their courses. Now what we do to help is we never let them off the hook . We encourage them all the time. If we haven’t heard from them we call them. I personally call them and ask if they’re okay, if they need any help.
Now when I get an assignment I don’t mark it straight away and send it back. I look at the assignment and if there’s anything wrong I’ll contact the student and say “this is wrong – change it. Study lesson three paragraph ten again”. Do the answer again. So I don’t tend to mark an assignment per-se and send it back with a mark.
I believe the assignment is a milestone in the course and the milestone needs to be achieved. Just getting there doesn’t mean the student has understood all of it. So if I see some answers to some questions are wrong I ask “why are they wrong”? The course material’s there for them. So I say, “It’s wrong – fix it”. And that’s why our exam pass rate is so high – we don’t just mark an assignment we judge it. And we only mark it once we are convinced the student has understood and corrected the area where they are making mistakes.
ADL: What’s the most common question you get from students?
Well it’s “I want to be a Bookkeeper – where do I start?” The starting point is always difficult. So we say you start with manual bookkeeping. You don’t even look at a computer accounting package. You learn how to write it out by hand if necessary and how transactions work. Only once you have a full understanding of manual bookkeeping can your progress to computerized.
Now it’s true that very few people use manual accounting systems for business. However what ICB found was happening was that people were going directly into the computer bookkeeping courses and then, when they started to have problems they didn’t know how to fix it because they didn’t understand the underlying systems of double entry bookkeeping done learnt through the manual system. And that’s why it’s mandatory to learn manual book keeping at the start of a course.
ADL: What’s in the future for Bookkeeping at ADL?
There’s a new format that ICB will be moving to that I think it absolutely terrific. When we started it was done by levels , so levels 1, 2 and 3. And level 3 was horrendous. There was so much to learn in the exam that it frightened people a lot. We had a lot of students who started but never finished.
Now ICB realizes this is an issue after we talked to them and they’ve split it all into modules. So if someone wants to do non-profit accounts or partnership accounts these are now in separate modules assessed separately. In the old level 3 they were all together and this was a lot to cope with. Now that that’s resolved I expect we’ll see resurgence in applications and that ICB will propel themselves right to the top of the tree.
