r/ukaccounting

How achievable is it to complete CIMA/ACCA with a full time job - 40 hours a week

Im 25, Currently working full time as a AP officer for 3 years..doing standard ap work nothing extra.. been offered a finance assistant role but at less hours . its a supporting role

The job role would be mostly be this
Processing purchase invoices
• Assisting with sales invoicing
• Supporting credit control and payment follow-ups
• Reconciling supplier statements and resolving discrepancies
• Performing bank reconciliations and monitoring cash flow
• Supporting month-end journals and accruals
• Maintaining financial records and filing systems
• Assisting with expenses and staff reimbursements
• Assisting with company credit card processing and reconciliation

Would you accept this role at 22hours, less pay or stay as ap officer

Hi, I’m 26F and am currently a resident doctor in the NHS. I have become extremely burnt out by the relentless hours and effort I pour into my job with minimum reward and now I am seriously considering a career switch into accounting. I would just like to know how possible is it for me to get a job in accounting? Is there any further study I’d have to take? Would I have to do another degree again? I’ve been looking at accounting graduate schemes online but I’m not sure if this is suitable for me as most entry requirements ask for 2.2/2.1 or above however my degree bachelors in medicine/surgery is just that. Would I still be able to apply? Is this a good way to progress into the world of accounting? I really couldn’t care less about the pay either. As long as I can afford rent and food, I’ll be happy. I just don’t know if I can take another year in the medical field anymore.

Better because they arrive with some context. Worse because they arrive with confidence about something that is half right and now I have to unpick it diplomatically. Not complaining exactly. Just noticing the conversations have changed in a way I did not predict.

Hi, I’m 22 and I graduated from uni last year in a sports related course, and have since found out that most of the jobs that you get in sports are either unpaid or part time.

I’ve been looking at other options and accounting stands out to me as I’ve always been interested in finance and I’m good with numbers and computers, maths was always my highest grade at every education level.

Just wanted to ask from people in the field, is it worth doing, is it going to be replaced by computers etc, just any warnings or advice would be appreciated.

One specific question I have is how feasible is it for me to get a job with no accounting related experience apart from one sports event I ran the finances for?

Thank you

Heya, I'm a freelancer working in the UK and I've been offered a job by a UK based global events company advertised as £250 plus £150 tax dispersal per day. What is this and what mechanisms are at play?

I haven't heard this term before and would appreciate the knowledge.

Thanks in advance!

I’ve been building a small AI tool for UK MTD workflows and I think I may have misunderstood the actual problem.

Initially I thought the pain point was:

• extracting invoice data
• VAT classification
• exporting into Xero/Sage

So I built a prototype that:

• extracts supplier/date/totals/VAT from invoices
• classifies VAT automatically
• matches invoices against bank CSV exports
• exports MTD-ready CSVs

But after showing it to a few people, I’m starting to think OCR/extraction is becoming commodity infrastructure.

The real pain might actually be:

• chasing clients for missing documents
• review/approval workflows
• handling exceptions
• knowing what’s ready for filing
• audit trails
• communication loops

Basically operational workflow rather than data extraction itself.

Would really love honest feedback from accountants/bookkeepers here because I don’t want to build founder fantasy software.

A few questions:

1. What’s actually the worst part of MTD compliance today?
2. Are tools like Dext/Xero “good enough” already?
3. Would you trust AI VAT classification if confidence scoring + human review existed?
4. Is local-first/privacy-first meaningful at all for accounting firms?
5. If you could remove ONE bottleneck from your workflow, what would it be?

Also curious whether smaller firms are underserved here, or whether this market is basically saturated already.

For context:

• solo founder
• built the prototype in a day
• rebuilt from Streamlit → FastAPI after hitting frontend limitations
• currently free/open source while validating

Not trying to pitch anything honestly; mostly trying to understand whether this is solving a real problem or just a technically interesting one.

I run a sole trader online consignment business from home in London.

I rent a 2-bedroom flat.

1 bedroom is used 100% for business and all inventory/stock is stored there.

Living room is mixed use. I have my office desk there with a computer and printer, I do all admin work there, pack orders, and also do product photography there. I have a 2x3 metre photography backdrop and two softboxes that take up a large part of the room, so I would estimate around 50% of the living room is used for business.

I also store packaging boxes in the corridor.

My usual working hours are Monday to Friday around 8 hours per day. On weekends it varies, sometimes I do another full 8-hour day, sometimes 2–3 hours, and sometimes no work depending on workload.

Based on this setup, what percentage would be reasonable to claim for:

Rent
Council tax
Heating/electric
Water
Internet

Hi All,

Need some career advice…currently i am 25 working as a accounts payable officer for about 3 years in the UK 40 hours a week 28k per year…have been offered another role as a finance assistant with less hours but more responsibilities around 22.5 hours, salary 26.5k FTE. I do have accounting and finance degree and do want to get a CIMA qualification but current job wont pay for it

My current role i do standard AP work but this new role would be a much wider finance role so doing journals, accruals, credit control basically a wide range of finance responsibilities

Should i stay in my current role or move to this new one?

I’m building a new invoice capture tool for UK practices and want some honest input before going further.
The aim is straightforward — more affordable than the current options, with line items, bank statements and unlimited clients all included rather than charged as extras.
But the real thing I’m trying to figure out is throughput. The hypothesis is that most bookkeepers spend 5-6 hours a day on data entry and reconciliation, and if that came down to 2 hours, you could either go home earlier or take on 2-3x more clients without burning out.
A few questions:
What’s actually eating your hours today?
If you’ve switched tools recently, what made it worth it (or not)?
What’s the realistic ceiling on clients per bookkeeper in your experience?
Not selling anything, no link. Just looking for honest answers.

I’ve been a bookkeeper for 10 years, QBE and have no formal qualifications. I started at a bookkeeping practice, and then for the past five years I’ve been in industry. I’ve outgrown my current role and was keen to get back into practice to work with a variety of clients, and managed pretty easily to get two interviews for next week. Both are at local firms, one is a bookkeeping / accounts assistant role, advertised at £30-35k FTE with no mention of study, and the other at a larger company is an accounts assistant role advertised at £25-30k FTE with full study support and specifically seeking someone who wants to train as an accountant. Both are part time, 25hrs per week, and flexible hybrid working, so 1 day in office and 2 days WFH.

Now initially I thought the lower salary in order to gain a qualification and have more progression potential seems like a decent deal, but I’ve seen comments on this sub wondering if accounting is as lucrative anymore as it once was. Also factoring in that I’ll be 40 this autumn so do I even have time for any meaningful wage progression as an accountant if I start the training now, or if I’d be better off just staying an experienced bookkeeper. I have zero interest going back to London to chase money.

Obviously I’m not assuming I’ll be offered both and get to choose, but it’s useful to have an idea of what direction I want to go (and in case I get neither so I’ll know what to target in my next applications!) Becoming an accountant hasn’t been on my radar for like 8 years, I’ve been content enough as a bookkeeper, but this is what’s landed for interviews.

I am currently exploring both careers. My understanding is that Actuaries earn more than Accountants. However my interests would lie much more in accounting rather than actuarial work.

I want a job with a high salary but I also want to somewhat enjoy what I'm doing or at least have an interest in it.

Does anyone have advice?

Feel like my fees have stagnated while overheads have rocketed. Are people charging a flat monthly retainer or just doing a fixed annual billing cycle now?

It feels like workload expectations in accounting keep creeping up while salaries don’t really move at the same pace, especially with month end pressure, lean teams and how stretched a lot of finance functions are. Makes me wonder if accounting in the UK still feels financially worth it compared to the stress and hours, or if people are starting to think the trade off just isn’t as good as it used to be

Hi all, I'm trying to figure out the best way to train as an accountant through online courses.

I've lurked on reddit and scoured websites but they don't make it easy to make a decision as information can be conflicting - some say you need AAT qualifications, some ACCA and some say straight to an apprenticeship so I thought I'd ask people in the know.

What are your recommendations or suggestions?

I do have work experience book keeping and filing taxes for a dog behavourist business so I'm hoping that helps me in terms of experience but I would like to develop a larger repertoire of skills and types of accountancy to make myself more employable

Hi all,

I’m currently a Tax Manager at a Big 4 firm outside London and I’m weighing up an offer to move into an in-house Tax Manager role.

The in-house offer is attractive from a short-term earning perspective, and the move would likely improve work-life balance too. However, I’m concerned that I might be moving for immediate pay rather than thinking properly about long-term career progression and earning potential.

I’d be really interested to hear from people who have either stayed in Top 10 tax through Manager → Senior Manager → Director, or moved in-house around Manager level.

Does staying until Senior Manager or Director materially improve your exit opportunities and salary ceiling?
Is in-house tax equally rewarding long term, financially and professionally, or does patience tend to pay off

My main concern is that the in-house move looks appealing now, but I don’t want to sacrifice longer-term earning potential or career optionality if staying in practice for a few more years would put me in a much stronger position.

Thanks!

Curious what people are charging landlord clients these days, especially with MTD coming in.

For sole trader landlords / portfolio landlords / Ltd company structures:
- what are you typically charging for accounts + tax returns?
- are you moving people onto monthly packages yet?
- are clients actually willing to pay more for bookkeeping/MTD support?

Feels like the old “once a year SA return” model probably won’t survive long-term for landlord clients.

Interested to hear how others are pricing this work now.

running a small bookkeeping practice and something clicked for me recently. the software debates online always treat it like theres one correct answer but the clients i work with are so different that what works brilliantly for one is a headache for another.

sole traders on simple cash-based work? one tool feels overkill. small limited companies with multiple income streams and mtd obligations? then suddenly that same tool feels underpowered. construction clients with cis?

starting to think the best accounting software for bookkeepers question is less about which platform wins overall and more about whether you mapped it to your niche. does others have just picked one and standardised everything around it regardless, or if you run a mixed stack depending on the client.

I know accounting firms use their practice management software to track year-end due dates, confirmation statement due dates, and VAT due dates. Without it, how do small accounting firms track and meet deadlines?

I have created an Excel file with macros where you can get all the Companies House overview informations at once with CRN created another one with Google Sheets which feels more convenient for me though it requires the ch api.

Hi,

I’m extremely grateful and excited to be starting my career soon in private client tax advisory but i’m not sure if I wanna stay here for most the of my career and would like to pivot into private banking/wealth management. Is this possible and what other exit opps are out there for PCS?

Thanks