What qualifications do you need to be an accountant in the UK?

Being an accountant can be a very rewarding and satisfying, with many different roles coming under the job title of ‘accountant’.

At the moment you do not need to have any qualifications to be an accountant. However, in most cases your career development, earning potential and overall knowledge and experience will be significantly improved if you successfully complete the relevant accounting exams.

This article highlights what qualifications do you need to be an accountant in the UK and the different routes you can take to achieve these qualifications.

Different types of accountants

In the UK we have different types of accountants. The route you take and what qualifications you need to be an accountant will largely depend on the type of accountancy you want to focus on. This could be:

• working in industry as a finance director or company accountant;
• working in an accountancy practice as a manager with a view to becoming a salaried or equity partner;
• being a self-employed accountant, tax advisor or bookkeeper; or perhaps
• specialising in preparing and analysing management accounts.

What qualifications you need to be an accountant in the UK may depend on your desired career path

Your career path may also depend on what vacancies are currently available and if you will need to start at the bottom and work up.

For example, if you can’t obtain a placement as a Chartered Accountant student with an approved training employer, you may find it easier to obtain a placement as an Accounting Technician and use this as a stepping stone to “prove yourself” to an employer so that they will support you to progress to subsequent Chartered Accountancy training (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) – further details about these different professional bodies are outlined below and information on what qualifications you need to be an accountant is also available on the ICAEW Website.

From our experience, those that develop a long-lasting, rewarding career in accountancy, do so because they research and apply the qualifications needed to be an accountant.

How do I begin my accountancy career?

This will largely depend on where you are starting from, e.g.

• Are you a school leaver with GCSEs, AS or A Levels?
• Are you a graduate with a relevant accounting degree or a non-relevant degree?
• Are you someone who is looking to return to work after a career break or someone who wants to change careers and move into accountancy?

If a graduate, you can start studying for a Chartered qualification. You can also do this with A Levels in certain circumstances, but you would normally be recommended to start at a lower level and work up.

However, and it is a ‘big however’, one of the main limiting factors for following this route is that you will be required to obtain a specified amount and range of work experience in a Training Organisation/Employer approved by the Professional Body you are studying towards. i.e. you need to be offered a training contract of some form.

You can get started on your studies but you won’t be able to finish them and become a member, without that crucial work experience in an approved training office, normally a minimum of 3 years. Without this, you can be left high and dry, part qualified and unable to qualify.

For the ACA route, these training places are very hard to come by and competition for them is fierce. 30 years ago, 98% of ACA trainees were graduates. However, there are a growing number of trainees who leave school after “A” level, undertake an Apprenticeship in Accounting to complete their AAT qualification and then progress to ACA, claiming exemptions from some of the Certificate Level papers.

There are also exemptions for progression to ACCA and CIMA. The AAT is a great building block for this and a way of getting one’s foot in the door at an employer. We will cover the AAT’s qualifications below in more detail.

What if I have accounting experience but no accounting qualifications?

If this is the case, then we would recommend that you complete the AAT qualification. This will give you a recognised qualification, with professional credibility, that both reflects your current knowledge/skills and enhances them. The question is where to start – at what level.

We do get a lot of students, who despite having prior experience, start with the (Level 2) Foundation Certificate in Bookkeeping in order to a) remind themselves of and refresh those double entry principles and b) get back into a study routine on a topic they understand and c) get used to the AAT terminology and the computer based exam process. They then progress to the full (Level 3) Advanced Diploma in Accounting.

I want to start a new career, so what qualifications do you need to be an accountant?

If you have previously worked in a different profession or sector, but are now considering moving into accountancy, we would generally recommend that you start with the (Level 2) Foundation Certificate in Accounting. This will give you a flavour of what to expect from an accounting career and confirm whether this is something you want to pursue. You could then progress to the (Level 3) Advanced Diploma in Accounting and then to the (Level 4) Professional Diploma in Accounting.

What if I want to be a bookkeeper rather than an accountant?

If you’d prefer to go down the bookkeeper career path, you should consider undertaking a bookkeeping qualification.

Having said that, the AAT exams that cover the AAT bookkeeping qualifications are also included as part of the wider range of exams that are included in the AAT accounting qualifications, so if you want to, you can start with the bookkeeping exams and when you find you love it, progress to the full accounting qualification, making use of the exams you have already passed.

Practical qualifications to be an accountant

The most common practical accountancy qualifications and their associated professional bodies in the UK are highlighted below. These types of qualifications tend to be more of a practical/technician level.

1) The Association of Accounting Technicians – AAT
The AAT qualifications provide a good grounding into all aspects of accounting and compliance.

The AAT qualifications can also act as a springboard into more advanced qualifications such as being a Chartered Accountant, which we cover below.

The AAT specialises in bookkeeping and accounting training, with bookkeeping courses as follows:

• AAT Access Award in Bookkeeping
• AAT Access Award in Accounting Software
• AAT Foundation Certificate in Bookkeeping
• AAT Advanced Certificate in Bookkeeping

and accounting qualifications in:

• AAT Foundation Certificate in Accounting
• AAT Foundation Diploma in Accounting and Business
• AAT Advanced Diploma in Accounting
• AAT Professional Diploma in Accounting

You can also study for AAT apprenticeships, whereby an employer enrols you onto the relevant apprenticeship which allows you to earn while you learn. Current AAT apprenticeships include:

• Accounts/Finance Assistant apprenticeship: Level 2
• Assistant Accountant apprenticeship: Level 3
• Professional Accounting Technician apprenticeship: Level 4.

2) The Association of Tax Technicians – ATT
However, if you would prefer to have an accountancy career which focuses more on the taxation of individuals or businesses, the ATT route could be your better option. ATT offer the following tax related courses:

• Level 2 Foundation qualifications in:
  • Personal Taxation
  • Business Taxation
  • VAT Compliance
  • Transfer Pricing
• The ATT Qualification
• The ATT Level 4 Professional Tax Technician Apprenticeship

The ATT qualification can also open up pathways to becoming a Chartered Accountant or Chartered Tax Adviser with the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

3) The Institute of Certified Bookkeepers – ICB
The ICB offers a variety of practical and vocational qualifications which focus on specific aspects of bookkeeping and accounting.

The ICB has three qualifications which are:

• Level 2 Certificate in Bookkeeping
• Level 3 Certificate in Bookkeeping and Accounts
• Level 4 Diploma in Advanced Bookkeeping and Accounting.

In order to pass the Level 4 Diploma you will need to pass three or more modules from the following:

• Level 4 Certificate in Self Assessment Tax
• Level 4 Certificate in Corporation Tax
• Level 4 Certificate in Financial Statements for Small and Micro Businesses
• Level 4 Certificate in Business Insight

Becoming a Chartered Accountant

If you want your accountancy career to take on more of a strategic or advisory role, you may want to consider becoming a Chartered Accountant.

Within the UK we have the following Chartered Accountant professional bodies:

• Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales – ICAEW
• Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland – ICAS
• Institute of Chartered Accountants Ireland – ICAI
• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants – ACCA
• Chartered Institute of Management Accountants – CIMA
• Chartered Institute of Taxation – CIOT
• Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy – CIPFA

The above links will take you to each of the professional bodies websites where you can find details of their different accountancy qualifications.

As an example of qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, The ICAEW’s flagship qualification is the ACA qualification. There are three levels within the ACA:

• Certificate Level
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level

Being a Chartered Accountant is considered to be the leading accountancy qualification in the UK. Being a Chartered Accountant does open up more career choices and can also have a positive impact on your earning potential, levels of responsibility and the breadth of work you carry out.

It is important to research what qualifications you need to be an accountant in the UK, so that you can identify which field of accountancy suits you most.

How can we help?

The Balancing Act, teaches students how to prepare a final set of accounts, which can have a positive impact on how quickly your accounting career develops. Click on the link to find out more about The Balancing Act.

If you have any questions relating to bookkeeping training or developing yours or your employee’s accountancy and business skills, do get in touch using our Contact Form.