Any employed accountants that do work on the side?
Discussion
I’m a fully qualified chartered accountant and earning a reasonable if unspectacular wage in full time employment.
I’ve long thought that I should be using my skills to earn some additional cash on the side but working in industry, I’m completely out of touch about the sort of services that small businesses or private individuals are wanting, especially in this day and age of do-it-all apps / software aimed at small business owners.
Are there any others here that do a similar thing and can advise potential routes in. I’m only looking to supplement my employment income on a small scale and would be delighted if I could make £500-1000 per month doing private work.
I’ve long thought that I should be using my skills to earn some additional cash on the side but working in industry, I’m completely out of touch about the sort of services that small businesses or private individuals are wanting, especially in this day and age of do-it-all apps / software aimed at small business owners.
Are there any others here that do a similar thing and can advise potential routes in. I’m only looking to supplement my employment income on a small scale and would be delighted if I could make £500-1000 per month doing private work.
I’m a qualified accountant and have had the thoughts you’ve had several times before.
Running your own side show will involve the added indemnity insurance mentioned above. It will also require you to use skill sets you won’t in your normal work- I.e. marketing yourself and also selling your services to a member of the public. You’ll also have to start doing your own tax too.
It comes down to how much you value your free time. My spouse argued that losing your weekend doing someone else’s tax returns isn’t worth your free time that your main job pays you well to enjoy. I ended up agreeing.
Running your own side show will involve the added indemnity insurance mentioned above. It will also require you to use skill sets you won’t in your normal work- I.e. marketing yourself and also selling your services to a member of the public. You’ll also have to start doing your own tax too.
It comes down to how much you value your free time. My spouse argued that losing your weekend doing someone else’s tax returns isn’t worth your free time that your main job pays you well to enjoy. I ended up agreeing.
Eric Mc said:
Do you have a Practising Certificate?
Have you got Professional Indemnity Insurance?
If the answer to these questions is "No", then your governing body would be keen to talk to you.
At present, no, as I have no requirement for either in my employment. Have you got Professional Indemnity Insurance?
If the answer to these questions is "No", then your governing body would be keen to talk to you.
Obtaining a practicing certificate shouldn’t be an issue if I needed one - certain basic activities ie personal bookkeeping are exempt, so it would depend whether I thought there was enough demand for the type of work that would require one before I obtained it (bearing in mind that this would be in addition to full time employment so the services I provided - if there is even a market for it - would be basic.
pb8g09 said:
I’m a qualified accountant and have had the thoughts you’ve had several times before.
Running your own side show will involve the added indemnity insurance mentioned above. It will also require you to use skill sets you won’t in your normal work- I.e. marketing yourself and also selling your services to a member of the public. You’ll also have to start doing your own tax too.
It comes down to how much you value your free time. My spouse argued that losing your weekend doing someone else’s tax returns isn’t worth your free time that your main job pays you well to enjoy. I ended up agreeing.
Pretty much the conclusion I drew myself whilst pondering this at times over the years. Was more out of curiosity to hear of anyone that did manage to juggle the two and was interested to hear what sort of work they did. Running your own side show will involve the added indemnity insurance mentioned above. It will also require you to use skill sets you won’t in your normal work- I.e. marketing yourself and also selling your services to a member of the public. You’ll also have to start doing your own tax too.
It comes down to how much you value your free time. My spouse argued that losing your weekend doing someone else’s tax returns isn’t worth your free time that your main job pays you well to enjoy. I ended up agreeing.
OriginalFDM said:
Pretty much the conclusion I drew myself whilst pondering this at times over the years. Was more out of curiosity to hear of anyone that did manage to juggle the two and was interested to hear what sort of work they did.
I’ve always wanted to set up my own consultancy based on profit improvement and restructuring based on my current employed work but never had the bottle. Wouldn’t know where to begin on advertising it as a product or how to go about getting it going.When I was contracting my accountant was one that did work on the side. He was friends or acquaintances with all his clients, only had about a dozen.
I'd supply him a spreadsheet with all ins and outs, and bank statements. He'd check my VAT returns and sort out my tax return, but on the understanding that I supplied him with all the info by the end of June so he wasn't trying to do everyone's accounts in the last month.
I'd supply him a spreadsheet with all ins and outs, and bank statements. He'd check my VAT returns and sort out my tax return, but on the understanding that I supplied him with all the info by the end of June so he wasn't trying to do everyone's accounts in the last month.
Eric Mc said:
Do you have a Practising Certificate?
Have you got Professional Indemnity Insurance?
If the answer to these questions is "No", then your governing body would be keen to talk to you.
If you don’t portray yourself as a member of ICAEW/ACCA/ICAS etc (eg on adverts, letterheads) and were simply trading as Joe Bloggs Accountant there isn’t much that they could do.Have you got Professional Indemnity Insurance?
If the answer to these questions is "No", then your governing body would be keen to talk to you.
Countdown said:
Eric Mc said:
Do you have a Practising Certificate?
Have you got Professional Indemnity Insurance?
If the answer to these questions is "No", then your governing body would be keen to talk to you.
If you don’t portray yourself as a member of ICAEW/ACCA/ICAS etc (eg on adverts, letterheads) and were simply trading as Joe Bloggs Accountant there isn’t much that they could do.Have you got Professional Indemnity Insurance?
If the answer to these questions is "No", then your governing body would be keen to talk to you.
OP also needs to consider he must be regulated by someone (either his institute of HMRC) for money laundering and apply the rules and safeguards of this.
Bottom line is it’s expensive just to play at it. If you will only earn a couple of k on the side I doubt it’s worth the effort.
pb8g09 said:
I’ve always wanted to set up my own consultancy based on profit improvement and restructuring based on my current employed work but never had the bottle. Wouldn’t know where to begin on advertising it as a product or how to go about getting it going.
This is exactly what I've been doing for the last decade - it's all about relationships. Won my 1st project within 24 hours of starting up and never looked back - all my projects are through recommendations, never advertised, my LinkedIn profile must be 7 years old, no website and I generally have to turn down work as I already have too much on my plate.This may seem a dumb question but this has sparked a thought...at what point does a Book Keeper become (or needs to become) and Accountant?
We have a brilliant book keeper who does a few days for us and a couple for other businesses. She's brilliant and looks after both ledgers, sorts payroll, Ni, VAT and stuff. The only thing she doesn't do it audit and file accounts - though she has the capability to do so. I'm fairly certain her qualifications are limited to O'Levels and an evening class in the 80s.
We have a brilliant book keeper who does a few days for us and a couple for other businesses. She's brilliant and looks after both ledgers, sorts payroll, Ni, VAT and stuff. The only thing she doesn't do it audit and file accounts - though she has the capability to do so. I'm fairly certain her qualifications are limited to O'Levels and an evening class in the 80s.
Countdown said:
If you don’t portray yourself as a member of ICAEW/ACCA/ICAS etc (eg on adverts, letterheads) and were simply trading as Joe Bloggs Accountant there isn’t much that they could do.
#If you are a member of a recognised accounting body and you you want to run an accounting practise, how you portray yourself may not avoid them being curious as to what you are up to.
StevieBee said:
This may seem a dumb question but this has sparked a thought...at what point does a Book Keeper become (or needs to become) and Accountant?
We have a brilliant book keeper who does a few days for us and a couple for other businesses. She's brilliant and looks after both ledgers, sorts payroll, Ni, VAT and stuff. The only thing she doesn't do it audit and file accounts - though she has the capability to do so. I'm fairly certain her qualifications are limited to O'Levels and an evening class in the 80s.
Who is she regulated for in respect of her money laundering compliance?We have a brilliant book keeper who does a few days for us and a couple for other businesses. She's brilliant and looks after both ledgers, sorts payroll, Ni, VAT and stuff. The only thing she doesn't do it audit and file accounts - though she has the capability to do so. I'm fairly certain her qualifications are limited to O'Levels and an evening class in the 80s.
sleepezy said:
This is exactly what I've been doing for the last decade - it's all about relationships. Won my 1st project within 24 hours of starting up and never looked back - all my projects are through recommendations, never advertised, my LinkedIn profile must be 7 years old, no website and I generally have to turn down work as I already have too much on my plate.
Got any jobs going?! 
I've been a practising in accounts preparation, payroll, vat, taxation etc since 1996. I left my full time accounting day job a few years ago to work in other areas of finance. With that, I took the clients I wanted to work with, ditched the rest and looked after them part time during evenings and weekends.
Compared to 20 years ago, it's so complex nowadays I'd suggest that unless you're actively looking to build a practice from scratch, leave well alone. The time I soak up now to my remaining clients doesn't come close to what I'd expect my hourly rate to be.
As Eric referred to, the amount of learning you need to involve yourself in to stay on top of not only tax law and regulation, but Companies House regulation, accounting disclosures and even working out how HMRC want things to operate nowadays takes a huge amount of time and resource. Especially as a one man band. You'll find most clients want a full service, so you have to have knowledge of payroll (RTI), vat (MDT), Self Assessment Corporation Tax and so on.
For example, the list above is not a problem for me. RTI wasn't too bad to implement in the end, but I've spent hours and hours setting up MTD for VAT. My software simply wouldn't work properly. On top of that, I spent 5 hours last night updating myself on capital gains, as a client has just sold a house that he's both lived in and rented out. It's years since I've had a client in a similar position, so I had to start from scratch. I won't get paid for those hours, as I'm expected to know it already. Then what happens if one of your clients gets hit with a full HMRC inspection. You can't manage that part time if you want to give your clients the service they're paying for.
Upshot for me is I've finally had enough. The accounts work has always looked after me, but my career is moving in a different direction now, which in turn will make it harder for me to keep up to date with everything necessary to do the job properly. With that, I've told clients I'll look after them to their next year end and wrap up from there... Not worth the hassle now unless you want a career of it in my opinion.
I'm looking forward to spending more time with my daughter, rather than searching for differences in a TB...
Compared to 20 years ago, it's so complex nowadays I'd suggest that unless you're actively looking to build a practice from scratch, leave well alone. The time I soak up now to my remaining clients doesn't come close to what I'd expect my hourly rate to be.
As Eric referred to, the amount of learning you need to involve yourself in to stay on top of not only tax law and regulation, but Companies House regulation, accounting disclosures and even working out how HMRC want things to operate nowadays takes a huge amount of time and resource. Especially as a one man band. You'll find most clients want a full service, so you have to have knowledge of payroll (RTI), vat (MDT), Self Assessment Corporation Tax and so on.
For example, the list above is not a problem for me. RTI wasn't too bad to implement in the end, but I've spent hours and hours setting up MTD for VAT. My software simply wouldn't work properly. On top of that, I spent 5 hours last night updating myself on capital gains, as a client has just sold a house that he's both lived in and rented out. It's years since I've had a client in a similar position, so I had to start from scratch. I won't get paid for those hours, as I'm expected to know it already. Then what happens if one of your clients gets hit with a full HMRC inspection. You can't manage that part time if you want to give your clients the service they're paying for.
Upshot for me is I've finally had enough. The accounts work has always looked after me, but my career is moving in a different direction now, which in turn will make it harder for me to keep up to date with everything necessary to do the job properly. With that, I've told clients I'll look after them to their next year end and wrap up from there... Not worth the hassle now unless you want a career of it in my opinion.
I'm looking forward to spending more time with my daughter, rather than searching for differences in a TB...
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