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Hi,
I am an ACCA member currently and I am wishing to set up in practice. The problem is I am facing potential redundancy and have around 18months at least to collect for post membership experience before I can even apply for the dreaded practicing certificate.
If I do get made redundant, I am in the unfortunate position that I am not very employable at 41years old and on my salary.
In a nutshell, I have 24 years of experience working in an accountancy practice and know all there is to know about accounts production and tax at a small business level, and would have no problem running a small practice of my own. But in order to do this, I would have to either wait to try and get a practice certificate, which could now potentially take years, or take the plunge, resign from ACCA, and set up in practice.
This second option is the most likely as I have a mortgage and family.My questions therefore are;
– Is it easy enough to resign from ACCA – do you ring them/write to them? or just let your membership subscription lapse?
– Can you easily re-join in the future if things dont work out?I do feel a little dissappointed with ACCA’s rules and regulations. If I had known how strict they were about practising I would never have done the qualification and invested my time and money into setting up years ago. I feel like by being a member I am now ring-fenced and restricted in everything accounts related than if I wasnt a member.
In my ignorence – I didnt realise until recently that you can actually set up in practice without qualifications or being a member of an institute or association!!I am aware of the HMRC money laundering regs and such like that I would have to pay to set up in practice, but my main questions relate to the ACCA member situation.
Any advice would be grately appreciated.
Marky
I will answer your questions in reverse order 🙂
Firstly, it is no problem re-joining later if you do decide to leave now. There is a form on the ACCA website – you just send it off (with a fee) and then they will make you a member again.
Secondly – and this is terribly important – if you do decide to resign then you must write and tell them. Don’t just stop paying the subscription.
The reason is that if you just stop paying the subscription then they will remove you from the register, but if you do later apply to rejoin you will have to pay all the subscriptions for the years between stopping and rejoining. (If you resign by writing to them, then you don’t have to pay the subscriptions for all the missing years if you rejoin).To be fair to the ACCA, their rules are the same as all the other accountancy bodies. They obviously can’t stop you from working as an accountant, but being able to call yourself an ACCA could (in some cases) make it easier for you to get work and also as a member you are entitled to receive help and/or advice from them.
Many thanks for your advice John, I was not aware of the subscription situation if I rejoin!
It is a shame that I am having to consider leaving ACCA – I worked damb hard in my own time and at my own expense to achieve it, its just a shame that even after 24 years in accounts and with the same employer I have to “obtain” 2-3 years post membership experience with an ACCA approved employer.Without blowing my own trumpet so as to speak, I work in a small high street practice dealing with your everyday sort of client, such as small roofing contractors, or the local corner shop etc etc. I would wager that I have probably forgotten more about real life accountancy than the sort of experience that ACCA is wanting me to gain in order to practice, and I feel quite a lot let down by them.
Many thanks again.
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