3 years in business!!

Can you actually believe it.
I've now ran my little business for 3 years and so much has changed.
I have been shortlisted in the last 2 years for 2 awards , sadly was pipped to the post but i'm taking it #finalist
Last October i finally left my day job, and now i only work for myself :)
I've now moved my business into offices in Liverpool, and have hugely increased in size.
I know i've slacked awfully with my blog- but i have been putting a lot of effort into business growth, i have also started a new blog attached to my website so hop over and check it out.
As ever, if you need any advice, please don't hesitate to contact me , by commenting on my blog, or email

my web address is www.mendaccounting.co.uk

Almost a year in business

Its been a good 6 months since I update my blog but it has been such a whirl wind of a year. In 2015 I  moved home, job, and started a business!

I'm now a finance business partner for a national charity. This means I travel a lot with work, which can be tiring and can make my home life hectic but I love it.

Also my own business MEND Accounting is almost 10 months old!! I cant believe how fast this year has flown. I have gone from having One client based in Scotland, to having several international clients as well as local.

I have a good range of clientele, from a Quantity surveyor (Ltd co), a Chartered accountant (Ltd co), a Business consultant (Sole trader), a Graphic designer (Sole trader) and several partnerships based in other country's around 11 in total.

My day to day duties of MEND Accounting can range anything from processing invoices, payroll and vat etc to drawing up year end accounts and calculating Corporation tax for Limited companies. Every day is varied and so different from my day job , everything I knew working for myself would be.

One thing I have learned about myself though is that I'm shy!! I went to my first networking event in the summer and I didn't realise how shy I was until I tried Networking. I felt so uncomfortable and out of my depth I have never tried again. This is something I will have to get over though as this is the best way to gain new clients, and build business relationships.

MEND is now coming up to its 1st birthday and we have been nominated and made a finalist in the ''Liverpool Lifestyle awards'' In the Best New Business category. I'm really shocked, and excited to attend the award ceremony.

I've still got so much to learn, and I'm constantly on the look out for CPD tax courses, and seminars to ensure I bring my skills up to date as the rules are constantly changing.  I've had to take a break from CIMA as I was so busy at work and home I couldn't find time to concentrate and study.  I have promised myself ill try and sit 2 exams a year starting in May 2016.

On my to do list for 2016 is:

• Find a partner to attend Networking events with, would be great to find someone like myself to give each other morale support.
• Find some office space to operate from (My kitchen has been great up to now, but would be good to get something more professional )
• Decide whether MEND Accounting should go Limited! (I'm in two minds)
• Have a holiday :)

Thanks for reading, and if you are a MIP, who needs some morale support to attend Networking events, get in touch.

Nicola
MAAT, MIP, Cima Dip MA
www.mendaccounting.co.uk
Liverpool

What you need to do to setup your bookkeeping business.

So lately I've been so busy with my day job (management accountant for pharma company ) and at home setting up my home office and refresher courses in Level 3 CPD course in Tax and a Level 3 CPD course in Payroll to write my blog , I do apologise.

Below I'll run through the steps I'm currently taking to set up , this will help you if you decide to set up too !

I've registered with HMRC as an agent , creating a user number for VAT and PAYE. If you are setting up, do this as soon as you decide as this takes a few weeks to come through.

I've set up my home office ready for clients.  There isn't much of a startup cost where capital is concerned. Just a desk, laptop , printer , lots of stationery and printing paper, envelopes and business cards.

I'm currently still waiting on my MAAT and MIP to come through which will cost me £250 or so but I'm expecting it Monday after chasing them up, and included in this is my money laundering supervision.

I then need to register with the ICO £35.00 before i store any of my clients paperwork. As my first client will be starting begining of May I aim to apply for this on 28th April.

I still need a filing cabinet which can be locked with a key , but will get this also this week before I accept the paperwork from client.

I went with AXA for my professional indemnity insurance , £79 per year but I will be paying £8 per month again this is a bargain. 

So in total startup costs will be in the region of £1000 . If you already have a laptop and printer you could startup for around £300! 

I wouldn't advise taking on any sort of work that you aren't qualified to do or sure you can do. 

At first I don't intend on taking on tax returns until I've had plenty of practice doing my own and family's. 

Instead I am going to concentrate on bookkeeping , management accounts , payroll and vat. I do these on a daily basis in my job so am very confident I will not struggle , or make any costly errors.

Download from HMRC website all your deadlines that incur fines , for example VAT , PAYE and CIS taxation.

And once you've advertised you are ready to start looking for clients, they won't just come to you ! 

Up to now the one client I have got I found from his own advertisement so keep and eye on local job boards etc 

I have placed my advert on online business forums and local newspapers as well as Mumsnet etc I also had a magnetic car sign created but up to now none of these have generated clients . 

I also turned down work for tax returns from friend of friends. Looking back I wish I'd of accepted the work , I'm qualified to do it , but as I don't do it in work , I was concerned I wouldn't be giving my client the best service , and that wouldn't be good for him or me.

To combat this concern of mine I have purchased both personal tax and business tax books to retrain my self in current rules and refresh any knowledge gaps , that way next time I'm asked I can say yes.

So if you are starting up like me , get in touch , maybe we can swap stories and worries and help each other .

Goodluck nicola :) 

How to handle a career block!

So you've taken on an accountancy qualification and passed your exams, have asked your boss about career progression and he looks at you ............... blank.


This is when he drops that bombshell, He doesn't plan on ever developing your role. He needs you to post invoices day in day out, He has the Management Accountants to do everything else!


This is the position a lot of students find themselves in. During my research I have spoken to a lot of students and employers and have heard both sides of this argument and I still cant understand why employers do not want to ever develop their staff. It makes their life easier if their staff are better trained, and motivates the staff more as they feel they aren't just in a dead end job but have a fulfilling career.


I know I have a plan of progressing my career until I eventually become an Finance Director. This is a long way off, but I have a career plan and plan on following it any which way I can !
If your employer does not want to develop you or your role further, you need to consider what you will do next , my advice would be create your career plan , and discuss this when meeting with potential employers and recruiters alike. This will stop you wasting potentially 6-12 Months in a company then finding out they don't plan on developing you further.


It is all about finding the right Company/Employee fit.


Its very demotivating having a manager who expects you to just do a job knowing they will never train or develop you further. There are a lot of excellent recruitment consultants out there who will find you the right fit. So dust of the CV and update your LinkedIn Profile regularly and I assure you the positions are there you just have to get out there and find them


Good Luck


Nicola

Cima &AAT book swap shop

I've been thinking what we can do to help each other out . Books and resources are so expensive.

I had a bit of a eureka moment last night and thought of a fab idea . 

A Cima and AAT book swap shop .

No money changing hands , literally once you have passed and exam /module , advertise your old books on my facebook Page (So you wanna be an accountant ? )  and the facebook group Cima book Swap Shop or send me an email via my website www.wannabeanaccountant.co.uk

And I'll advertise for you the book you have finished with for the book you require.

This will save us all a lot of money , as well as knowing your unused books are going to someone who needs them!

I for one have a stack of books in my loft which are out of date and for the old syllabus.

Please contact me if you would like to swap 

Thanks again people

Nicola xx

Exciting news !

Today I have had some exciting news , not only has one of the colleges I've approached regarding part time tutoring contacted me.

I am also about to embark on a journey of mentoring AAT students !

Today I spoke to a lady on LinkedIn who works as an AAT tutor. I was asking her general advice about what I'd need to do to consider teaching AAT in the future .

She advised me that she is currently looking for mentors for the colleges level 2 & 3 students and wandered if I would be interested . 

I didn't even think about it , I jumped at the chance , you see this is exactly what I want . I want the chance to help students who may be struggling , I want to do this as I know how alone you can feel when you are a student . 

When I studied my AAT I had my tutor , and about 40 other students to contend with , my college was brilliant , I attended Knowsley community college Kirkby campus and met some amazing people. We studied the levels 2-4 for 3 years of an evening.

I'm not naturally academic , so concepts that to some can seem simple , I'd sit there for half an hour just trying to decipher what it meant ! You see I'm more a doer than a thinker .

Back when I was learning my level 2 I had not long been hired in my first full financial position and used sage for everything ! I thought I new it all , but far from it ! I could Post invoices , pay suppliers etc but I didn't know my debits from my credits hence the baffled look on my confused face when we had to draw up the T accounts ! 

I wasn't as confident back then , I was more the suffer in silence type , well at least in my first year anyway!

So I struggled through my first year but as I gained confidence and applied for positions with more responsibility I realised that if I worked harder by studying smarter I not only could rewrite the concepts into easier to understand language , I could also understand why I was doing each adjustment and what it meant ! 

This is why I want to mentor , I've been in the students position , I understand how hard it is to struggle the work /life/ study/ family balance . 

I also like to keep busy , it's very important to me to push not only myself but others into fulfilling there potential . 

So tonight I'm really excited , not only am I working in a role that I love as Assistant Management Accountant, I will also be mentoring students of an evening along side my studying for my cima managerial exams! 

My goals for 2015 are that I can mentor students to help them pass their exams , progress to the position of management accountant and pass Managerial Level

What are your goals ? 

Good luck with all your career aspirations in 2015 and remember:

Tommorow is to late ,Yesterday is over and Todat is exactly the right time to start !!! 

Nicola Donnelly Cima Dip MA

lesson 3 Depreciation

Lesson 3 Depreciation

 

Depreciation is really easy when you are comfortable with it, but when it’s new to you like a lot of these adjustments are at first, it can seem over whelming.

Try not to think of it as an accounting transaction and think of it as how much your asset is worth. We know when we buy a car that every year it is worth much less than it was when we purchased it. Well this is what the depreciation is.

It’s an accounting term for reducing the balance of an asset.

The most common ways of calculating depreciation are reducing balance and straight line.

 

Straight Line

With straight line depreciation the invoice is reduced by a set amount every year.

For example £1000 invoice at 20% Depreciation over 5 years with a ZERO residual value.

(e.g)

01/01/15 Car   £1000   20% Dep £200   /12 = £16.67 per Month.

Value of car 01/01/15    £1000

Jan-Dec 15                  (£200)

Jan-Dec 16                    (£200)

Jan –Dec 17                   (£200)

Year ended balance       £400

If a question asked what the balance of the asset was at year ending Dec 17 it would be £400 because there has been 3 years depreciation at £200 per year =£600.

 

Reducing  balance

Using the same example as above I will show you the depreciation using reducing balance.

A reducing balance depreciation is similar except every year the number changes as the depreciation is deducted before the next years depreciation is calculated.

(e.g)

01/01/15 Car   £1000   20% Dep reducing balance method.

Value of car 01/01/15    £1000                   (1000-200=800)

Jan-Dec 15                  (£200) 

Value of car 01/01/16   £800                      (800-160=640)

Jan-Dec 16                    (£160)

Value of car 01/01/17   £640                      (640-128=512)

Jan –Dec 17                   (£128)

Year ended balance       £512

 

If a question asked what the balance of the asset was at year ending Dec 17 it would be £512 because there has been 3 years depreciation at reducing the balance each year (200-160-128)  = £512

 

I hope this helps with any depreciation issues, Please let me know if there are any other in a nutshell lessons required

Nicola

Lesson 2 accruals and prepayments

So you’re learning accruals and prepayments, and the tables in the book mean absolutely nothing to you!

I’ve been there, and I know when we were taught AAT Level 3 most of the students in my class just couldn’t get there head around the reason for an accrual and why they had to do it to pass AP2!

So this is my in a nut shell blog on how to think of them and how to work them out.

Accruals

 An accrual is an expense transaction for a service we have not received an invoice for.

For example Electricity, Gas, Insurance, telephone bills are mostly invoiced quarterly. Therefore we may be using a service and be billed for it at a future date. To save us being hit for a lump sum cost, and as accounts are usually updated on an accruals basis we will work out the expected costs per month and recognise that by posting an accrual

The transaction is an expense, and as in my previous blog all expenses are debits. Therefore we would debit the expenses code in the P and L, and credit the accruals code in the balance sheet. That completes our double entry.

In this example I will use an electric bill for 3 months £300.00, £100 Per Month.

DR                                 Expenses £100

CR                                 Accruals   £100

In the example above I have accrued for 1 month, but if next month we have still not received an invoice I would release this accrual and accrue for two months, and so on, until I receive an invoice. Once the invoice is received you need to release your accrual by posting the opposite journal

DR.                                  Accruals £10
CR.                                 Expenses £100

Prepayments

Prepayments however are expenses we have already received an invoice for, but the invoice has a future period on it. Using the same example above if today’s date was 31.03.15 and I had received an electric bill dated 01.03.15 to the 30.06.15 I would divide the bill by 3 months (this can also be split by days depending on your company policy) and post 1 months’ worth to the expense code and 2 months’ worth to prepayments

DR Expenses          £100

DR Prepayments     £200

CR Trade Creditors £300

It really is as simple as that. If you can remember that all expenses are debits then to accrue is to DEBIT and to Prepay is to push that debit to a future period so CREDIT.

Hope this helps with any accrual and prepayments issues

If there are any other examples you need let me know

Nicola Cima Dip MA
Facebook: So you wanna be an accountant?
https://twitter.com/AccountantLive
www,wannabeanaccountant.co.uk
Email: donnellynicola7@gmail.com

So you wanna learn double entry ?

Lesson 1 Double Entry Bookkeeping:

When I first began to study AAT I found the trickiest thing for most of the students was remembering the Double entry. It doesn't matter which position you have in finance, if you don't know your debits and credits you will struggle! 

Most accountancy packages post Invoices for you so this can be done without basic knowledge, but as soon as you begin to post journals or reconcile balance sheets you need to understand the basics.

The following acronyms really helped me whilst studying for my first few exams:

PALED & CLIPS

Debit	Credit
P-Purchases	C-Capital
A-Assets	L-Liability’s
L-Losses	I-Income
E-Expenses	P-Profit
D-Drawings	S-Sales

If you imagine your trial balance as the table above Debits to the left, credits to the right. For every debit there must be a credit, a balancing figure.

Remember that Purchases for example are a Debit, the VAT relating to the purchase is also a debit therefore the credit, and the balancing figure is the Purchase ledger Control.  A good way to remember this is:

The Whole amount goes to the control account!

Another thing that helped me to remember was the mantra:

“If in doubt T account”

Debit:                                        Purchase Ledger Control                             Credit:

Purchases £100

Debit:                                                  Purchase                                             Credit:

Purchases  £80

Debit:                                                       VAT                                               Credit:

Purchases  £20

Even whilst I have been studying CIMA I use this mantra, last year when I studied F1 and currently when studying F2. I would not be able to work out the balances for my cash flow statements without a T Account

I hope this blog helps with any Double Entry issues, If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contant myself

Thanks again for reading

Nicola Cima Dip MA
Facebook: So you wanna be an accountant?
https://twitter.com/AccountantLive
www,wannabeanaccountant.co.uk

Email: donnellynicola7@gmail.com

273 views on day 1 of my first blog !

273 views on day 1 of my first ever blog , I'd say that was pretty successful :)

However although I'm glad it's reaching a lot of people , it's missing something . 

Currently it's just  my story people are reading , and it's missing yours ! 

I know it's hard to share such personal journeys and although I've wanted to do this for a long time , I didn't want people to know about things that had happend in my past ! 

I'm not saying I was ashamed , i have just hidden that time in my life well so it's like it happened to someone else .

Anyway I feel it's time to share , to help someone else , maybe you are a young mum struggling with what to do with your life , or you too have had to leave your home because of domestic violence , whatever your story share it . If it helps just 1 person then we'd of achieved what we have set out to do 

Once again thanks for reading 

I'll update again soon 

Nic x
Facebook: So you wanna be an accountant?
https://twitter.com/AccountantLive
www,wannabeanaccountant.co.uk
Email: donnellynicola7@gmail.com

Do you wanna be an accountant?

Let me start by introducing myself, My Name is Nicola and I'm a 33 year old single mum of 2 teenagers from Liverpool. I am currently employed as an Assistant Management Accountant of a Pharmaceutical company. 

I have worked in Finance for around 10 years slowly working my way up by studying and gaining experience.

But i haven't always been in this rewarding career. 

10 years ago I had nothing! 

I was in a women s refuge after leaving my ex-partner with two children in tow, and had no qualifications.

I began applying for positions, but without qualifications the positions where offering minimum wage at £3.90 per hour.

I had 2 young children and rent and childcare to pay.

I knew I couldn't survive on that salary and wanted better for my children, 

So I started temping, Reception work, Admin work, anything which required no qualifications! 

I then began looking into college courses, anything I could fit around my kids to somehow drag myself out of the hole I felt I was in.

There was a course running in my Local Unemployed Centre for Sage Line 50, it ran 1 day a week for 6 months I began the course in the September and I loved it!

I gained an NVQ Level 2 in Sage Line 50 and decided there and then that this was what I wanted to do. 

After completing my Level 2 in Sage Line 50, I found a 2 year contract working as an Accounts Clerk of a Window Manufacturer near where i lived. I would never have gained this employment without Sage Line 50 course.

This allowed me actual hands on experience in all areas of accounts.

I then started my next course 2 evenings a week at Knowsley Community College Associate of Accounting Technicians (AAT). 

AAT is a route to becoming a Qualified Accountant without attending university and taking out a student loan. 

Don't get me wrong the course is hard! You have to do a lot of home study and sit several exams per year. When you are working full time, and studying most evenings it is hard! Especially when you are a single mother you have the added guilt that you should be spending all that time on your children.

I qualified October 2012 and graduated in January 2013 with newly gained letters after my name! (MAAT)

After AAT I decided I wanted to take on my professional exams, this would allow me to become a Fully Qualified Chartered Management Accountant!

As I am fully qualified AAT ,I was exempt from all the certificate Level CIMA exams (5 exams in total) so I began Operational Level October 2013 and in May 2014 i passed my final Operational Level exam and gained more letters after my name (CimaDipMA)

Now I work for a Pharma company, and I am still studying towards Managerial Level CIMA exams! 

I have 6 exams in total to undertake and 2 case studies before I will be a Fully Qualified Chartered Accountant. It'll take me a long time, and I’ll probably fail a few exams along the way! The exams are hard, and with the recent change in syllabus it is unknown territory.

But I’ll do it, and believe me if I can do it anyone can.

So good Luck! Thanks for reading my blog, please could you comment on why you began studying accountancy and which hurdles you have encountered along the way to get you to where you are today?

I hope this inspires young people and young mums out there who are struggling and with the recent changes in Tax credits and benefits it is near on impossible to live without a decent job.

I am currently working on my website www.wannabeanaccountant.co.uk whereby i am to discuss routes into accountancy and other Financial qualifications to Unemployed people who need advice and help with funding.

Feel free to use the contact form below if you wish to speak to me in private.

Thanks again

Nicola xx
Facebook: So you wanna be an accountant?
https://twitter.com/AccountantLive
www,wannabeanaccountant.co.uk
Email: donnellynicola7@gmail.com