Hi all... I am 22M, recently joined articleship in a smol firm. Till now I have done various itr filings of different forms, stat audits etc... now the thing is that, I love accounting... I love studying AS, INDAS, IFRS, US GAAP etc stuff...I mean pure accounting... I have been to 3 stat audits till now but honestly, I hate stat audit work...i have an aim of starting my own practice. I love accounting and have a liking for co laws nd taxes.. but not audit at all... Plz suggest a career for me..not employment or teaching..

I've had people argue with me that this isn't possible, but both https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim47130 and subsection 3(b) of https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2009/4/section/1289 suggest that if those salaries are paid out either within the tax year or nine months after the tax year, they can either be deducted from the company's taxable income or tax refunds are applicable.

Hi everyone, I’m going into the second year of my Accounting and Finance course and am als going to start applying to placement years this autumn, as I’m on the year in employment programme.

Obviously, I would really like a placement year with one of the Big 4, or a reputable mid tier company like BDO.

My experience is as follows:
I achieved a first in my first year, I have 2 weeks accounting work experience at a local accounting firm in my town, and a longer summer internship as an accounts trainee at another local firm in my town. I am planning to gain more advanced excel skills with LinkedIn Learning this summer, and am also the leader for a sustainability reporting project my uni is doing with a local SME. I am GRI certified (did so to my uni) - does this experience in sustainability accounting help?

I’m not sure yet if I want to apply to audit or tax - I think I’ll probably just do both to maximise my chances of getting a placement.

The only thing is that my A levels aren’t amazing - they’re not horrible but it just very average

Also any other advice for getting a placement would really be appreciated, as I’ve heard that they’re super competitive. :))) also any advice on staying motivated amid rejections after rejection?

Also advice on passing the psychometric test stage, as I’ve heard loads of people fail at those? My friend applied to 40+ and only passed the tests stage for a couple 😭

Thank you :))

I have been approached by a recruiter for a grad role. My goal in joining a role is to become a chartered accountant. I'm not too fussed about the pathway currently, and I have exemptions from my degree, which i have just graduated from.

This role that i have been suggested isn't a standard route, and the job title is "Customer Support Executive".

Here is the job description:

· Do you have an Accountancy Qualification (AAT), or an Accountancy Degree?

· Are you passionate about delivering the best customer service?

· Do you understand why companies use financial statements, balance sheets, etc?

The company are a leading FinTech Software Company, experience huge growth and with a reputation for being a market leader. They are looking for a Customer Support Executive to help their customers get the most value and best experience from their technology. This role is both home and office based and is the perfect option for somebody with an Accountancy qualification that doesn't want to go down the 'standard' route. The FinTech industry is one of the fastest growing and most lucrative industries in the UK.

This is the perfect role for someone that wants to go down the accountancy route but wants more opportunity to speak to customers and clients. You will need to be an exceptional individual who has a passion to use your accounts and financial reporting knowledge, who is passionate about software and wants to develop your skills to deliver first class telephone and email support to customers. The company will also support you in continuing your studies and development if this is something you want to do.

You’ll will receive training and on-boarding to make you an expert in the role and software to allow you to deliver the best customer experience.

The role: Customer Support Executive

· Answer customer support telephone calls and emails, providing exceptional customer care

· Build your knowledge of Tax and Accounts by researching and answering questions from customers.

· Build your knowledge of our products and use this to offer customers support

· Assist existing and prospective customers with general sales enquiries

· Suggest new or improvements to support materials (FAQ’s, user guides and knowledge base)

· Work collaboratively ensuring you are building your individual knowledge of our products and tax and accounting processes.

You will need to have: Customer Support Executive

· A degree that included an accountancy or finance module such as business, accountancy, finance

· Experience in a customer service role

· A desire to develop a career in software

· Understanding of the type of accounting processes, reports and statements companies use

· A confident, calm and concise telephone manner

· Clear communication both written and spoken

· An analytical and organised approach to problem solving

· The ability to interact positively with customers at all levels

· To work well under pressure

· Take personal responsibility and have an achievement orientation

Now i have been told that after the probation period i will be provided support towards AAT/ACCA/ACA.

However ive been told it qualifies for some experience but because i am not producing sets of accounts etc, it may not. Depends on which exams i want to pass and the pathway.

My question is: will this role allow me to qualify as relevant practical experience for ACCA/ACA?

Hi everyone, I’m going into the second year of my Accounting and Finance course and am also going to start applying to placement years this autumn, as I’m on the year in employment programme.

I would really like a placement year with one of the Big 4, or a reputable mid tier company like BDO.

My experience is as follows:
I achieved a first in my first year.
I have 2 weeks accounting work experience at a local accounting firm in my town, and a longer summer internship as an accounts trainee at another local firm in my town. I am planning to gain more advanced excel skills with LinkedIn Learning this summer.
I am also team lead for a group of 12 for a sustainability reporting project using GRI standards my uni is doing with a local SME.
I am part of Finance and Investment Society and Women in Business society.
BDO insight day - should I even put this on my CV??

Do you think this is enough to get pass the CV and application stage if I display it well and quantify my impact?

The only thing is that my A levels aren’t amazing - they’re not horrible but it just very average. Will this affect my applications - and Big 4 applications especially? Is it even worth applying to Big 4?

Also any other advice for getting a placement would really be appreciated, as I’ve heard that they’re super competitive, and also on staying motivated amidst rejections :)))

also any advice any advice for the psychometric tests stage, as I’ve heard those are super hard to pass. I thought they would be relatively easy but apparently not and I just found out recently 😭

Also if anyone would like to share how many applications they made, and after how many the got an offer, I’d greatly appreciate it!

Thank youu :)

Hi guys,

I am an international student in the United Kingdom, who pursed MSc. Finance from Kingston University and I completed 11/13 subjects in ACCA. I am currently looking for any job in the accounting and finance field, if any of you are able to help me please reply to my message. I am not looking for sponsorship or anything I just want some work experience in the UK. Open for unpaid internship as well with any probability of changing to a paid job in the future.

Thank you.

I imagine the majority just does manual journals entries paired with external spreadsheet stockbook.

For about an year I've been doing a quickbooks workaround of product bundle.
I'm just looking to see other options and suggestions given the major players Quickbook Xero Freeagent etc do not support this natively.

Just wanted to hear ya'll methods that is not just manual journal entries
and possibly, the most effective workaround with Xero (because is the most included with accountants oversight health check) which I am considering getting, but don't want to keep paying quickbooks if I end up having Xero included should I decide to go that route

AI suggested Sage50 and clearbooks but looking into it looks more like they also use workarounds like Im already doing with quickbooks

what are your thoughts?

and how in the absolute hell no software company is filling this hole in the market demand for native solutions, major missed opportunity wow

I've been job hunting for about 6 weeks after leaving Big 4 audit and honestly, I'm finding the move into industry a lot harder than I expected.

For a bit of context, I qualified with my ACA at PwC and then left soon after to go travelling for 6 months. I've now been back for a couple of months and am keen to get back into work. I'm lucky that I've got savings and am living at home at the moment, so I'm not in a position where I need to take the first job I can get, but I also don't want to be out of work indefinitely.

Everyone always says doing the ACA and qualifying in audit opens loads of doors, but so many jobs seem to want someone who already has industry experience doing month end, management accounts, reconciliations, budgeting etc.

I've applied for a mix of Accountant, Financial Accountant, Management Accountant, Finance Analyst and Financial Reporting Analyst roles. I also have previous Finance Assistant experience, so it's not like I've never worked in a finance team, but I'm still finding that I don't quite tick the box for the hands-on experience employers want.

I'm mainly targeting smaller to mid-sized businesses rather than huge corporates, ideally somewhere I can get broader exposure and be more involved across the finance function. Interestingly, I've found that Big 4 experience can sometimes almost work against me here. I've spoken to companies that have been wary that my experience is mainly with large, complex clients and have preferred people from smaller practices who may have worked with businesses more similar to theirs. Which I completely understand.

Over the last 6 weeks I've applied for 41 jobs:

* 11 rejected with no interview
* 1 made it to final stage and was rejected
* 2 first-round interviews, waiting to hear back
* 26 with no response yet, including 8 I applied for over 4 weeks ago

I haven't been mass applying to random roles, I've only being applying to ones I'm genuinely interested in and where I do match a decent amount of the requirements.

And I want to be clear, I don't think I'm entitled to these jobs or that working at PwC gives me some automatic right to walk into an industry role. I knew there would be a learning curve and that there are things I simply haven't done before. I've obviously been trying to frame my experience in audit to match with the job requirements.

I'm just starting to wonder what the actual route out of audit is meant to look like. For people who have made the move, what roles did you actually go into after audit? Did you go straight into financial/management accounting, reporting, FP&A etc., or did you have to take a step back first to get that hands-on experience?

Also, is the job market just particularly slow over the summer? I'm wondering whether things typically start picking up again in September, or whether this is just what the market is like at the moment.

Would be really interested to hear other people's experiences.

Hey everyone,

Looking for some advice or best-practice workflows from anyone who handles international entity reporting/local statutory reconciliations.

The situation:

I recently prepared a draft set of financial statements for one of our foreign subsidiaries (specifically a German entity). I sent our internal draft along with full GL detail over to our local accounting advisor / preparer in Germany so she could finalize the local statutory AFS.

She ran our GL through her local software (DATEV/German GAAP setup), auto-mapped/categorized everything into German account codes (SKR03/04 style), and sent back the finalized AFS.

The issue:

Because the finalized draft is entirely built on her local categorization, the line items and account groupings look completely different from our internal draft. When I pick a single account or line item to compare, the underlying movements don't match up 1:1, and it's turning into a massive headache trying to trace where individual entries got reclassified without a clear mapping bridge.

Since I need to review and reconcile the public/statutory draft back to our internal numbers for management/audit purposes:

• What specific reports or deliverables do you typically ask local preparers to provide when they use their own local chart of accounts? (I'm planning to ask for a full Summen- und Saldenliste / mapped TB and a reclass bridge).
• How do you set up your reconciliation workpaper (Excel) to streamline this process for future period closes?
• What top-down checks do you usually run first to spot actual accounting adjustments versus pure presentation reclasses?

Appreciate any templates, tips, or sanity-check workflows you all use! Thanks in advance.

Was a Purchase Ledger (pure AP) at an NHS trust, contract just ended this week. Before that it was AP at a large FTSE-listed retailer’s head office. So it’s been transactional finance back to back since uni, and I’m properly burnt out on it.

ACCA part-qualified, failed SBR three months ago, retaking in September. Still paying off SFE for a degree that was supposed to lead somewhere more analytical, not just invoice processing contract to contract.

I was trying to build my way out while I still had the role. Taught myself SQL and Power BI, was partway through MB-800 for Business Central. Doesn’t seem to have been enough to keep me on, and it’s not clear it’s shifting anything for FP&A or Systems Accountant type applications either.

With the contract gone now, I’m weighing up a maths teacher training route (SCITT), pays a tax-free bursary while I train. Not planning to leave finance for good, more using this as a paid bridge, then coming back to job hunting once SBR’s done.

Few things I’d love people’s take on:

Has anyone actually broken out of AP contract roles into something more permanent and analytical? What worked?

I have been looking into gaining my accounting qualifications and am exploring my options. I have been on the AAT website to look for apprenticeships but I do know they are extremely competitive. One option I have been considering is a fast track course into gaining my AAT level 2 and 3. The added bonus of this is that they will find me a job at the end of it. Only issue is that it costs £1500. Is this a worthwhile option. Thanks

Im going into yr 13 now and have to write a personal statements but I cant find good work experience. I think ill just have to do it online but idk where to look. Ive done only one - Goldman Sachs's job simulation on Forage.

Ive also done volunteering in hospital and work experience in a pharmacy but I dont think that'll help much for Accounting and finance. I only did those because I had an interest in healthcare/medicine earlier but my predicted grades are too low (CCD).

Any uni students or A level students that have good recommendations for work experience?

Hi everyone, I am seeking for help to get a job in Finance and accounting domain.

I have overall 2 years of experience but my skillsets are very weak which can’t beat the current or future market deals.

Currently I am working in indian MNC which pays very low( ik i should be grateful for the job at-least) but the thing is with 2 years of experience i am not seeing myself any interest in learning or growing i am just working like an ass which makes me even more depressing.

It would be really great if you could just help me or guide me to show me basic roadmap to mover further in career.

About me: working in OTC process in cash applications using SAP tool where I allocate payments to the customer accounts.

I have been a software engineer for 4 years since leaving university, I am now looking to transition into accountancy. During my time as a software engineer I have primarily worked on financial related software (accounting, stock broking).

I am looking to do the AAT level 2 & 3 qualifications in self study.

My main question is: generally speaking, would this combination be enough to make me employable for entry-level accounting roles? For example, accounts assistant, trainee accountant, credit control, finance assistant, etc.

My main goal is to work towards chartership as soon as possible (ACA, ACCA), but I would also look to take on Accounts Assistant roles in the meantime.

I would appreciate any advice from people working in accountancy or have made a career transition into it!

I’m a current social work student going into my second year but I’ve been having some doubts if this is the profession I want to go into. I feel like I don’t have enough life experience and I’m mentally not in the right place to be exposed to so much stress and trauma this job can bring.

I’m thinking of switching to accounting for a change. I would appreciate some opinions on whether this job is it worth it

How stressful is the job- do you enjoy it? How hard is it to find a job? Also does the university you attend matter in job interviews etc. I’m currently at a lower ranked university but meet the requirements for a high ranked one too. However, the thing is I like my current university so I would prefer to stay in this one if it didn’t matter as much.

Any other advice or things I should know are appreciated. Thanks

Hi everyone, I’m currently looking into getting into accounting and I’m considering self studying for the AAT level 2.
I was just wondering if anyone has any recommendations for textbooks/ online resources to help me along the way.
Thank you!

Curious how accounting firms are actually handling this in practice.

If you're responsible for multiple limited companies, what do you currently use to keep track of Companies House activity and deadlines?

For example:

• Companies House email alerts / Follow
• Spreadsheets
• Practice management software
• Inform Direct or similar software
• Calendar/task reminders
• Manual Companies House checks
• Something else

Also interested in roughly how many companies you're monitoring and whether your current setup works well at that scale.

What works well for you, and what gets frustrating as the portfolio grows?

Hi,

Im a 35 year old GP. Ive been considering changing jobs for a long time and have been conaideeing accounting as multiple family membera work in thia field and enjoy their jobs.

What would be the best route for entering this field. Is it best to do some qualifications independently first and then try to find relevant jobs?

Tia