I may have to look for a new job soon due to firm cutbacks, and I was thinking about taking the opportunity to branch into a new field of accountancy.
I have started off from the beginning through to one year PQE (ACCA qualified) in a small independent practice, doing general practice stuff. A bit of auditing, a bit of accounts prep for sole traders, partnerships and small limited companies, reviewing and overseeing elements of juniors work, some basic tax planning (group losses, CGT transactions, incorporation vrs sole trade calc etc.), tax compliance for individuals and limited companies, a little preparing cash flow projections, doing some VAT returns, keeping management accounts on Sage, some company secretarial work such as doing annual returns, company formations, writing up statutory books, and firm admin work such as internal quality reviews, producing reports for institute monitoring purposes and thats about it.
Most clients have been small under the Companies Act, although there have been occassional audits of medium sized companies. I haven’t done any group accounts at all though.
My salary is currently dissapointing in my view. I know colleagues who aren’t qualified are getting £3k+ more than me, and I feel this is because of my age - I am 21 see.
As I am young, I would like to take the opportunity to branch into something new. I haven’t specialised in anything yet, as you can see - I have done a bit of nearly everything but nothing totally in depth.
Getting a bit fed up of the practice office atmosphere, the trudging around to various clients offices, the keeping of timesheets and what not, I wouldn’t mind moving into industry. I want broader experience of the business world rather than feeling like I am just complying with rules all the time, but I appreciate I will need to gain experience first. I’ve never kept a payroll before, or done things like cheque runs, maintain a purchase/sales ledger, completed a cost budget, but on the other hand I tend to be used to to the advanced functions in Excel in the office, and I have prepared a lot of management accounts, analyses and variance reports before too for clients who outsourced management accounts to us.
Do you reckon I can make the move into industry? I don’t feel confident enough to be the senior in a company’s finance function just now, so that rules out small companies who’s finance department may be one person with an assistant. On the other hand, I would prefer not to be another cog among many within the management accounts function of a big plc, alongside dozens of folk same as me. The ideal would be working as part of a small team, meaning I can still get a broad spectrum of work, with a senior to review what I am doing and provide that guidance I would need in my first industry job.
Any thoughts readers have are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
