Bookkeeping recognised in new National Occupational Standards
Following strong lobbying by the Institute over many years, the Financial Sector Skills Council (FSSC) has strongly influenced the development of the QCF Units in Bookkeeping that are to become the National Standards. This is the first time that bookkeeping has been recognised as a separate profession to accounting, which means that the standards now better reflect the work of a bookkeeper.
Institute director of operations, Patricia Marshall, and head of education, Dr Philip Dunn, played a leading role in writing the new standards. Patricia was a member of the FSSC panel that over the last twelve months has put together the competences in bookkeeping and payroll. Dr Dunn had several meetings with directors of the FSSC and was able to use his many years’ of experience in writing standards to advise both the Institute and the FSSC.
“This has been a long haul”, said Patricia, “but we are extremely happy with the outcome. Having a separate set of standards for bookkeeping is a huge step forward and gives our profession new and important recognition”.
Not that the Institute had it all its own way. Institute chief executive Garry Carter described as a “complete nonsense” the decision to make completion of a VAT return a Level III accounting competence.
“Associate Members of this Institute are more than capable of completing a VAT return”, protested Carter at the Institute’s recent international conference. “I think the FSSC bowed to lobbying from the accounting bodies to get VAT returns moved up to a higher level. What they don’t seem to realise is that the books of micro and small businesses can very competently be completed by an Associate Member of this Institute.
“If the accountants had their way our members would do all the work and then the client would have to employ an accountant to fill in the form. Unbelievable! This would represent a huge jump in costs for small businesses across the country and seems to be completely at odds with other government departments that are trying to reduce the burdens on small businesses not increase them”.
The Institute has therefore taken the decision to step outside the standards and will continue to include completion of a VAT return at Level II.
The Institute’s head of education, Dr Philip Dunn, believes that the decision might have come about because not all bodies require the same depth of knowledge at Level II as the Institute. Commenting on standards, Dr Dunn said “I have been setting and marking examination papers for more than thirty years and I can honestly say that the Institute’s examinations at Levels I, II and III are more thorough than anything else out there. Having said that, Institute students constantly prove that they can cope with our demands and prove beyond doubt that they have the levels of competence required to become very professional bookkeepers”