Dear Future Accountant,
When someone tells you to quit, don’t. Rise above and use their doubts as motivation.
My accountancy journey all started in South Africa. I was in year 8 and one of the subjects I chose to take on was accountancy. We used to write exams every three months, I never really took it seriously and after the first three months, I wrote my first set of exams and scored around 30% when the pass mark was 50%. My teacher at the time told me I was useless and that I should give it up, so I thought, “No I’m going to prove you wrong!” and I started to focus more on it and developed quite a passion for it, so when I finished school, I did a BCom in accountancy at university.
While I was at university, I went to a local shopping mall and saw my previous accountancy teacher working behind the counter at one of the baby shops which made me laugh! Turns out I could make it as an accountant, but she clearly wasn’t made to be a teacher.
I started working for a sole practitioner in South Africa while I studied at the University of Port Elizabeth, I worked there for around 3 years. I started as a junior and worked my way up to senior accountant. The company owner then decided to sell the business and move to the UK. I effectively ran the business for the new owners for 6 months, earned enough money to buy my plane ticket, and moved over to the UK myself.
I arrived in the UK in 1999 and started working for a firm in North London. I registered with the ACCA in 2001 and qualified in 2003. I then stopped working in practice and went into industry, working for Charles Worthington Hair as the finance manager reporting to the finance director. I assisted the company in getting their finances in order so they could sell off the product division. Once that was sold, I found myself with not much to do so I went back to my previous firm as an Accounts and Audit Manager. I worked there for 3 years and then joined Raffingers in 2007. In 2011, I was thrilled to be promoted to Partner.
I knew I always wanted to be a partner of an accountancy practice one day, but when I was younger I never understood what 'being a partner' actually involved. I wish that at the time, I had someone who could have explained to me exactly what the partner role entailed. I also wish, as I progressed into different roles, that I had someone who could have informed me what I needed to do / what was expected of me to perform those jobs successfully.
Here at Raffingers, we introduced the mentor program around 7 years ago. Some of the team members that I have mentored have gone on to be PAs and assistant PA’s which is great. It is nice to give the mentees advice, find out where they want to be, and have open discussions with them.
I've been asked numerous times if you need a university qualification to enter the accountancy profession and the answer is no you don’t. I went to university however that was mainly motivated by my wanting to avoid having to join the army, which was a requirement in South Africa at the time. At Raffingers, we have a graduate program that takes on two new entrants every 6 or 12 months. Most graduates haven’t gone to university, they come straight out of school and straight into their ACCA studies. If you’ve been to university you do get exemptions, I received 7 myself, however, as I say, it's not a requirement.
The ACCA course is 3 years and it’s important that you focus on your studies as well as your work so that you have the required experience once you pass your finals. With accountancy, work experience is just as important as studying, It’s all about being exposed to it. I learned a lot from the industry, but it wasn’t for me. Once you qualify you have the option to move to industry to see if it’s for you however moving back from industry into practice isn’t that easy.
As an accountant in a practice, no day is never the same which is great. I mostly enjoy working closely with clients. I enjoy assisting, helping, and supporting my clients through their journey, I have a client that organises festivals, his business organises all the university festivals in the UK as well as numerous festivals in Europe. About three years ago they went through a rocky period, for reasons that were out of their control. I remember being on my holiday and having numerous calls with their suppliers, to keep them at bay until we got the cash flow sorted. Now the business is flourishing, has expanded, and is making good profits. The director is a young chap who is extremely passionate about what he does, and I enjoy working with him. That is the great thing about having such a varied portfolio, one day I’ll be working with a client who organises festivals, and the next I’ll be working with my client who works in communications, so the work is very varied. Many people say it’s a boring profession, not for me.
With that in mind, if you, like me enjoy a bit of variety and want to dip your toes into different businesses, then working in practice is for you. If however, you want to really sink your teeth into just one company, then working in industry would be suitable.
In my opinion, the key to being a successful accountant is that you should have is attention to detail, great communication skills, which include the ability to speak appropriately to a client, have good numerical and analytical skills, and are self-disciplined.
As with anything, the key is to get out there, try the profession through work experience and internships and find out what you like.
Andrew Coney,
Partner
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