And also does anyone know if you can use the Level 4 in Portugal for English run companies?

 

Hi Rebekah

I see from your other post that you are already studying AAT Level 2, you should be able to access their study resources and get to see what all of the different levels and optional units entail in terms of content (at least you could when I was a student a few years ago).

I think the optional units are for everyone to decide depending on their own particular circumstances and in which route they want to take within accountancy and finance, I chose to do the 2 tax units because I knew that I wanted to work in that field. 

Not sure what you mean by can you use Level 4 in Portugal, AAT is a qualification which will be on your CV forever and whether it is recognised in one particular country or not it will still be a benefit for you.

 

 

RebekahB wrote:

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HI Doug,
Yes I can get on their study resources except I couldn't find what I wanted anywhere, not even when I typed it into google lol maybe I'm just being blind. Do you know where about on the website it is?
I mean one day I hope to be living in Portugal and I wondered if anyone knew if you could use your qualifications over there as an accountant as I've heard a few people over there who have moved have carried on but just wanted a bit more solid infomation and the person who I spoke to at AAT wasn't very helpful unfortunately 

---

 Hi Rebekah

I am no longer a student so can not access the resources to see if it is the same as when I studied AQ2013, I seem to remember that when you went into the study support section which used to be on the left hand side of the screen you had a drop down list of all the different levels and from there you could open each individual module which contained all the resources available including the e-learning modules, green light tests, practice assessments as well as the learning outcome that explained all of the assessment criteria.

As I say this was quite a while back so things may have changed since then, I know there are other members of the forum also studying AAT so maybe someone else will post a reply and point you in the right direction.

HTH

 

 

Choice depends on what you actually want to do with it at the end of your studies. Self employed v employed. Specifics as to the kind of role you may want. Management accountant or Financial Accountant.  Lots of other factors

There is information on the AAT website and it isnt restricted to students, nor indeed members.

Your challenge today, should you choose to accept it is to find it. Its good practice for finding the wood for the trees on the HMRC website as opposed to getting the drivel from Gov.uk.  Ok I wont be so cruel.  

Try this     https://www.aat.org.uk/prod/s3fs-public/assets/Professional-Diploma-Accounting-Qualification-Specification-v3-1.pdf

Couple of suggestions

- Make your question header a bit more specific (otherwise some wont read it so you may be missing out on answers)

- Call centre staff usually get paid minimum wage or just above so never rely on them for any complex answers to questions (any organisation, not just the AAT).  They should in theory know who you refer you on to but some cannot be bothered or you mness up their call handling stats.    Email the AAT instead.

 - If part or all of your question doesnt get answered on here (as sometimes some of us stray off and then wander back a few days later due to being busy!) then just 'bump' your question rather than starting afresh. You do this by 'quoting' part of the bit that is missing and adding a comment - just shoves the question back to the top of the recent posts page.

re Portugal

Im not sure what you men by 'English run companies' specifically - if they are based in the UK with a Portugeses subsidiary for eg, for Portugese registered run by English people or....

Anyway  - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_in_Portugal

Portugese prof bodies come under the umbrella of IFAC. So does the AAT. So email IFAC as well as the AAT.    Although my guess is that you may need ICAEW (or ACCA?) ie Chartered.   You would certainly need to understand the rules that apply via their tax system so you need to consider how you would get those quals (you havent mentioned tax before so Ive not covered it here!), never mind the implications of Brexit.

RebekahB wrote:

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Hi Joanne ,
Thank you for all your suggestions. Nick answered all I needed to know regarding the optional units.

Regarding The questions about Portugal, I mean English people running a business out there, that have nothing to do with England etc, I was wondering if anyone on here had/does work over there as a Bookkeeper/Accountant and how it all worked and if AAT was an accepted qualification over there

Thank you

---

Oh, it was with you just mentioning to Doug about not being able to find it, I thought I would pop it on.

Dont recall anyone on here working in Portugal.

-- Edited by Cheshire on Monday 20th of November 2017 03:12:10 PM

Is found another link on a different forum and apparently AAT isn't recognised out there :( so might have to rethink everything
Not what I wanted to hear

Was added in April and yes it was an AAT forum , I will email AAT again to double check but the link that was provided said the same thing
Rebekah

Oh gawd, Ive no idea.   I cant remember what I had for breakfast let alone what happened a couple of days ago. Probably was going to quote you, but on some devices once I start I then cant see what words you used so probably just then abandoned the idea but left the ' ' marks. I type everything so fast that I dont pay much regard to spelling and punctuation half the time, besides if Im using my phone I get fed up with trying to get my finger to point to the bit I want to change, so if Im on a rocking train then you have even less chance of me making sense! Or perhaps I just forgot all that my english teacher taught me on that day. 

Some forums are pretty cr*p though as well, so I always say beware the information you get.  Or better still, just beware the person who is giving it and their credentials.   There is a lot of men down the pub types giving out accountancy advice on forums, which is often why Accountancy bods end up smacking our heads on our desks mid argument with clients!   I always like to have source links to verify information, but I often rarely add them when Im answering on here - yep, I know,  double standards! 

There are a few people who cannot comment much on here at the moment, who are ultra busy, mid exams etc and this is an Accountants silly season (its mine from 1 October through to 8 Feb - bombed!) Wonder why I bother sometimes, but I use it as a break between the work nonesense and dont like to see a question go unanswered.

Some people also on here do not like answering particular questions (some of the same ones that crop up on a weekly basis) so many of those potentially go unaswered.

Im on the AAT forum, as well as Accountingweb. The AAT one is ok for students getting help with coursework, exams and such, although some of the advice Ive seen from students on real life situations is a bit worrying. Im all for have a go, but when they get it woefully wrong there is no-one actually moderating it properly (other than to stop swearing and bullying and such!). Its not a great forum at all for practising Accountants and Bookkeepers who are after more technical advice, which is why this site is so popular. You may not get many people answering but there are still a fair few asking questions, without the volume from students. Plus Im sure if you ask Shaun when he is back on what volume of hits we get a month we dont do so bad.

Besides on here you dont just get the AAT bods.

But do get the impression you dont want to hear from me, so will leave any more comment to others (other than to link to the AAT forum comment which I almost did earlier)

-- Edited by Cheshire on Wednesday 22nd of November 2017 08:57:36 PM

Hi Rebekah,

as Joanne says, you've picked a bad time of year.

People taking acountancy qualifications have their exams in the first couple of weeks of December so they won't be posting on here too much at the moment.

Those with a lot of clients will be attempting to get all existing self sassessments out of the way before Christmas to free up time for emergency filings post Christmas of new clients who are willing to pay three times the normal price because of their lack of organisation making them emergency jobs.

The site generally fluctuates in activity between three and twenty active thread per day. Start of October was our best month for a couple of years with line traffic back up to me arguing with professional bodies and their training companies sort of level. But, it was predominantly readers rather than posters. You will notice that questions tend to actually be answered here where on some other sites you often find that either there is no response, it students answering students, or it's business people relaying what their mate told them down the pub and the people overseeing the answers do not pick the issues up. We're lucky enough here to have some excellent contributors. I won't mention people by name for fear of missing someone from the list but all in all, a star team where I feel confident enough that when busy I no longer need to be constantly on the site as I have at times in the past.

On the Portugal line of questioning, it's really a null question as the relationship between the UK and Europe is changing so any plans made now may change very quickly. I certainly wqould not be advising anyone to be looking at using existing information on European working arrangements to make plans even for a close time horizon. I think to do so may be a little bit of a head in the sand type of business model.

If you do go to another country eventually then I would advise taking the qualifications that are relevant in that country. For exaample, an ACCA peron moving stateside would take the CPA exams. Your existing studies will put you in a good position to take someone elses exams and any repetition should be looked at as revision or even CPD. If one feels that language is a barrier to taking exams in a country then it will also be a barrier to working in that country even if the target market are expatriots.

If you can I would wait until 2019 (or later) before making any mainland Europe financial commitments.

Shaun.