How to start an accountancy business
Wondering how to start an accounting business but don’t know where to start? We’ve got you covered. Whether you’re starting from scratch or you have experience working for someone else under your belt, this guide covers the basics – from qualifications to how to market your business.
Know your day-to-day job
The National Careers Service says that private practice accountants usually have the following day-to-day duties:
preparing financial statements, business plans, and budget reports
producing accounts
auditing
managing clients’ spending and costs
filing tax returns and giving tax advice
forecasting profits and performance
helping businesses that may be in financial difficulty
investigating fraud (forensic accounting)
How much can you earn running an accountancy business?
It depends on factors like whether you’re working on your own or taking on staff, your qualifications and experience, the region you’re working in, the hours you work, and how much time and energy you’ve put into building up a client base.
Get the right qualifications
If you’re starting from scratch, you don’t need a degree to become an accountant, although it can give you useful theoretical knowledge. There’s a range of vocational qualifications you can take, and in fact people who have studied at university often need to take these too
The professional bodies to consider for your qualifications include:
AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians): these qualifications are the minimum you need to start a general career in accountancy
ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants): these qualifications let you become a qualified accountant, meaning you can give the full range of accountancy services
How To Study Accounting
While there are several rules for studying accounting effectively, learning accounting starts with desire and hard work. If your heart isn’t in it, studying accounting can be pure tedium. Once you’re heart is in it, and you’re ready to give it your all, it’s time to learn how to make maximize your study time and learn how to learn accounting more efficiently.
Studying accounting from a textbook is different than studying other subjects such as history, economics or biology
When reading a history textbook you can get by if you’re able to understand 90 percent of the information or if you come away with a general idea of what’s going on. Not the case with accounting. Read your textbook for understanding. And if you don’t understand it, read it again. If you understand a concept being introduced, then it’s okay to skim the text or skip ahead. But make sure you understand the concept(s).
Similar to math, accounting concepts build upon one another. What you learn in chapter 2 builds on what you learned in chapter 1. What you learn in chapter 3 builds on what you learned in chapters 2 and 1. If you didn’t really grasp the concepts taught in chapter 1, you’re going to have a difficult time learning the concepts in chapter 2 – and you’ll most likely be lost by chapter 3. It’s imperative that you thoroughly understand the concepts being taught in each chapter before moving on to the next chapter.
Scanning text for main points doesn’t work in accounting. Accounting textbooks are meant to be read. Almost everything that is included in your accounting book is important. So when you read… read everything.
Read your accounting textbook to understand “WHY.”
Accounting doesn’t require you to memorize as much information as other subjects do. It does however require you to understand “WHY.” Accounting is all about “WHY.” As you read your textbook discover the “WHY” in what you’re reading. Try to understand the logic behind what is being taught.
When you finish studying a new topic from your textbook, try to put it in your own words. Explain the new concept to yourself or someone else. Putting concepts in your own words and explaining them aloud is far more effective than reading a text over and over again.
Discover the “HOW.”
Once you understand the “why”, it’s important to discover the “how”. It’s not enough to understand why an accounting principle or concept works, if you can’t apply it. You must understand how accounting concepts work and be able to apply them.
In order to discover how accounting principles work and how they are applied, work the problems included in your accounting textbook. Most chapter problems are designed specifically to help you discover how to apply the principles or concepts being taught in that section. Work each problem before checking your answer.
Review as you go.
Any subject is easier to understand and remember if you thoroughly learn it the first time through. But if you’re unable to remember everything you’ve learned, you’ll just start reviewing a few days before finals, right? This may be an acceptable strategy if you’re studying history or sociology, but not when you’re studying accounting. The most effective way to learn accounting, and retain what you’ve learned, is to “REVIEW AS YOU GO”.
If it’s a bad idea to cram for a history exam the night before a test, it’s a very bad idea to cram for an accounting test. Never postpone reviewing your accounting until examination time.
As you review, visit previous chapters in your textbook and rework problems you struggled with. Find other accounting problems similar to those that were difficult for you and work those problems too.
At the end of each week take some time to review your notes (1) to refresh your memory and (2) to make sure you understand everything you studied during the week. Remember, information that is forgotten must be relearned. The time required to relearn information is often the same as learning it for the first time. It’s far more efficient to review as you go than to attempt to relearn forgotten information at the end of the term or semester.
Ask questions and get answers to your questions throughout the semester. Your professor, or teacher’s aid, isn’t going to be anxious to sit down with you for several hours at the end or the term to answer all your questions and re-teach you concepts you should have learned along the way. AND when your professor asks you what you don’t understand, don’t say “everything.” Statements like this suggest you’ve made very little effort on your own to try and understand. Before asking questions, pinpoint exactly what you don’t understand. Make sure your questions are specific.
Accounting basics
Whenever you make a business decision, you should always have figures to back it up. On this page you’ll find accounting basics to keep your business on track and encourage investors.
Improving your financial position
Review your business finances with your financial advisor or accountant. Look at whether you met your targets last financial year and what you can do differently this year to help your business grow.
Checking your registrations and licences
Your business operations may have changed during the year. Review the current licences, permits and registrations your business holds.
Reviewing your bookkeeping system
Keeping good records:
makes running your business much easier
may be needed to comply, depending on your industry
helps you to keep track of how your business is going financially
Updating your business and marketing plans
Take time to set yourself up for the year ahead. Updating your business and marketing plan can:
help you review your goals and priorities
assess whether your business strategies are working
Career in finance
here to help.
Whether you’re new to finance or want to develop your existing skills, you’ll find everything you want to know about job roles, salaries, progression opportunities and things to think about before taking that next step
Starting your career
Deciding what career to set off on is such an exciting time. But it can also be a little overwhelming. We’ll help you understand what it really means to be an accountant or bookkeeper so you get an idea of whether it interests you, and if it will take you where you want your career to go.
Growing your career
If you’re already working in finance you’ll have an idea of the opportunities available to you. But what’s the best way to gain the skills and confidence to take the next step up? Grasp these opportunities and you could soon be climbing the career ladder.
Changing your career
If you’ve got a passion for numbers and have been thinking about changing to a career in finance, what’s stopping you? We’ll take you through the things to think about, and how to get where you want to be. Whether that’s working in a finance team or running your own bookkeeping business, the possibilities are endless.
Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Financial Accounting
Master the technical skills needed to analyze financial statements and disclosures for use in financial analysis, and learn how accounting standards and managerial incentives affect the financial reporting process. By the end of this course, you’ll be able to read the three most common financial statements: the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows
Accounting is sometimes counterintuitive and this course does not alleviate that. Expect to spend twice the recommended weekly time on the course, especially if you have no background in accounting. Expect to have to retake the quizzes multiple times to get a pass. (The scoring approach for quizzes means that getting 2 of 3 selections correct in a 5 selection question will still result in a zero score for that question.)
The lecturer tries to add humor with cartoon characters, puns and songs. This takes up valuable time that would be better spent explaining the reasons behind some of the counterintuitive aspects (e.g. a debit will increase a cash account); or offering some approaches to assist in memorizing the key equations and relationships.
Suggest you print out the quizzes before you watch the videos (Note: the questions will change each time you submit an attempt, so be ready for new questions!). The printout will let you try to identify the answers as you go. Also, make notes of equations and do your best to relate them to the entries in the spreadsheets to try and identify the impact of low level alterations on high level entries.
Stick to the fundamentals and get rid of the animations—they distract from the material. Stress the importance of learning the “grammar”—the types of accounts. Lessen the amount of “curve ball equations” and test at the introduction level to make sure we really learn the basics.