From catering to bookkeeping

Bev’s route into bookkeeping was far from straightforward. She started as a kitchen assistant, trained as a chef at college, and worked her way up to chef manager for a catering company, where she stayed for around 15 years.

The job went well beyond the kitchen. She also did the banking, balanced the books at the end of each day, and checked deliveries and invoices so the figures could be posted to the company’s computerised records.

Then a card came through her door about bookkeeping and accounting. She gave it some thought, then contacted the training company, who arranged an appointment to see her. At that meeting, she and the company’s representative discussed how the course would give her a better understanding of her role as chef manager.

She signed up in August 2006, completed Level 2 manual and computerised, and was offered a tutoring job as soon as she had passed her exams. She started straight away, with someone always on hand to help or simply check she was doing okay.

In September 2012 she joined Training Link, studied the self-assessment course, began teaching it, and has been here ever since.

Why the manual side comes first

That route shapes how she teaches. Bev believes students should learn the manual side first. “You have to know what the software is doing,” she says, and the best way to understand the process fully is to do it manually. It gives students the ability to understand the data entry, and makes it much easier to spot errors when checking reports.

Put a purchase invoice through as a sale and the software will happily show income where there should be a payment. Knowing whether something is a current asset, a fixed asset or a liability, and choosing the right nominal code, is what keeps the figures right.

Theory isn’t the whole picture, though. How companies work in practice is just as important, she says. In a larger firm, for example, a sales ledger controller might post the sales invoices, a purchase ledger controller the purchase invoices, and someone else the bank reconciliation and year end.

How she teaches

Her approach starts from the fact that people learn differently. When a student makes an error, she asks to see their workings, looks at the process they used, and explains what went wrong, with examples of how it should be done. Calculation and rounding slips are the most common culprits.

She doesn’t write off slow starters. “Not everyone gets it first time,” she says. “Some students take a little longer, but once they get it they tend to fly through with more ease.” One of her students struggled early on, did really well in the next unit, found the third a little challenging, then moved on to Level 3 and flew through it.

Level 2 is the hardest, she says, because many students haven’t studied or sat an exam for a long time, and starting something new can be scary. Her answer is to stay positive, keep them focused and, above all, be there for them. “Sometimes they just want someone to talk to.”

Getting through exam day

When nerves threaten to wipe a student’s mind on exam day, she calms them down, encourages them and builds their confidence. She also gives practical tips:

• Choose a day and time, and have paper, a pen or pencil and a workable calculator to hand.
• Read the instructions first and make notes.
• If a question stumps you, move on and come back to it. This saves time and leaves you longer at the end to go back through.

Above all, she tells them, stay calm, breathe and have confidence in yourself.

A team effort

The courses are a team effort:

• Michele writes the course books, and Bev proofreads them.
• Each tax year, Bev updates the self-assessment course, while Jo looks after payroll and corporation tax.
• Bev has also written some of the self-tests in the ICB exam practice kits, as well as scripts and PowerPoints for the videos Jo records.

“It’s very much a team effort rather than an individual one.”

Tutor of the Year

Bev was named ICB Tutor of the Year in 2018, and has been shortlisted again in both 2025 and 2026.

She was surprised to win, and a little overwhelmed by the feedback from her students. She was nervous on the night, but it was “an excited nervousness”, and she calls being shortlisted again “a privilege”.

Thinking of studying ICB Bookkeeping?

Her message comes from someone who changed her own career:

“We give a student the opportunity to change their career path, giving them the choice of where they want to be, whether that be employment or owning their own business.”

Credentials

• • ICB Tutor of the Year 2018
  • Shortlisted for ICB Tutor of the Year 2025 and 2026
  • Lead tutor, ICB Level 2 and Level 3 bookkeeping
  • Supports ICB Payroll and Level 4 students
  • Training Link tutor since September 2012
  • Fellow of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (FICB); PM.Dip (ICB Payroll Management)
  • In bookkeeping training since 2006