You can buy study books direct from Sage and do online tests to achieve sage certification. There are 3 levels for Sage accounts (and payroll). Well this was the situation a few years ago when I did them. You may want to check that Sage still do this.
Do you know that you cannot be self employed and be a member of the ACCA without a practice certificate?
In my opinion a good knowledge of accounting is what matters most, working out how to achieve something in software is no where near as difficult as knowing what you are trying to do.
If you want discount on sage training product e-learning etc you can ask your local Sage reseller, (or me).
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For just about anything Sage :- switch to renting, pay-as-you-go sage support, sagecover, upgrades, application integration, reports, layouts, analysis or any other help making life with sage easier/less time consuming Contact me.
Hear hear Bruce. Learning Sage before I understood the basics of bookkeeping held me back a few years I would say, though I guess Joseph will be fine as he is part qualified ACCA.
For anyone who hasn't used Bruce's services I can wholeheartedly recommend him.
Just following up on Richards point above, I have to disagree slightly in that you can be self employed and a member of the ACCA but even as a full member the services that you offer are restricted to bookkeeping to trial balance, VAT and Payroll unless you are supervised by a suitably qualified practicing accountant (so no difference whether you have only just taken paper F1 or you are an FCCA! (Go figure!!!)).
Add to that that even if supervised that supervision will not count as experience towards a practice certificate unless the one doing the supervising is on the Practice Certificate supervision programme.
The whole thing is an unfair antiqaited minefield that see's accountants working as bookkeepers whilst bookkeepers can merrily prepare accounts.
There was a big three page article about it in last months ACCA magazine and whilst the ACCA and ACA are attempting to fix the issue in my opinion they are doing it from the wrong perspective of trying to stop others from preparing accounts rather than allowing qualified accountants to prepare accounts but restricting it on business size.
For non accountants reading this who prepare accounts don't worry. Brussels is standing in the way of changing UK legislation to protect the word accountant (even though elsewhere in Europe it is protected!) so there is little fear currently of the accountancy bodies being able to change the status quo.
On the Sage front you don't have to go to Sage for the workbooks. Also try Amazon resellers.
As mentioned above it comes in three levels (Beginner, intermediate and Advanced) and each comes with a full 180 day trial version of the software.
Also, look around the training providers (specifically Training Link, Ideal Schools and Premier training) as quite often they have special deals on Sage training that are much cheaper than the purchase of the training packs from Sage or even Amazon.
Kind regards,
Shaun.
p.s. before others wonder what a VT shop is doing giving advice on Sage. I don't use it. I never said that I couldn't use it.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Sage also has two learning modules with the software, also the Dummies books are good too. I also learnt a lot by setting up a dummy company and trying different scenarios then having a dig around to see how keying an item impacted on nominals and reports etc. I did the same with the payroll software I use. Just one hint- Before you do something different always back it up then if you do something wrong you can at least unravel it easily by restoring, but it's also good to try to unravel it another way too. The system help files are ok, but not brilliant, but you can often get help on here too.
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
I just read a book by Gillian Gilbert, which was very good as long as you understand the book-keeping you will be fine.
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Accounts,Book-keeping,Tax,Business Finance,Invoice Discounting and Factoring we also specialise in public house Accounting and Finance So if you need our help please give us a call.
Do you want to give the readers a clue which book, say why you feel that it was good for teaching Sage and post an Amazon link to the book?
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
