Certified Bookkeeper Programme

How to qualify, and how to look after your certificate once you have it.

Signing up

There is nothing to pay, but you do need a partner account to get in. That same account is what earns you commission on any client you later introduce, so it is worth having regardless.

1. Set up a free partner account via kantivo.app/partners.html.
2. Log in to the Partner Portal at partners.kantivo.io.
3. Select Certification from the sidebar.
4. Pick the brand you want to qualify under and confirm.

That brand determines the wording on your certificate and which register you appear on. Choose whichever name your own clients already know. The syllabus and the assessment are the same in both cases, and the qualification carries identical standing.

Studying the units

Seven units, 28 lessons, roughly five and a half hours of reading. Open a unit and the lessons appear as expandable panels — read one, then move down the list.

Each unit finishes with a Mark module complete button. Nothing is tested at that point; the button simply records that you have been through it. All seven have to be ticked off before the assessment becomes available.

Your place is stored on our servers rather than in the browser, so you can start on one device and carry on from another. Nothing expires while you are studying, and disappearing for a fortnight costs you nothing at all.

Sitting the assessment

Timing begins the instant you open the assessment and is tracked server-side, so shutting the tab or refreshing neither pauses nor extends it. Every answer is written back as you select it, which means a lost connection or a shut laptop will not cost you the sitting — return to the page and you will find your answers where you left them, with the original clock still counting down.

Jump between questions using the numbered grid along the top; anything already answered is shaded, so you can see at a glance what remains. Blanks count against you exactly as wrong answers do, so there is never a reason not to guess.

The order of the answer options is randomised separately for each candidate. Two people taking the assessment at the same moment see different orderings, which is why nobody can usefully tell you that "number 12 is C".

Resits and marking

Three sittings are permitted, a day apart. That gap is intentional: it turns a resit into revision rather than another roll of the dice.

Whatever the outcome, you are shown a complete breakdown afterwards — each question, what you picked, what was correct, and the reasoning. Fall short and you also get a list of the units where you dropped the most marks, which tells you precisely what to go back over.

Exhausted all three sittings without qualifying? Contact us. We clear the counter on request; the cap is there to encourage preparation rather than to shut anyone out for good.

Your certificate reference

Qualifying issues a reference straight away, formatted as BCB-2026-K7M4QP. It is yours permanently and belongs to nobody else.

Quote the reference rather than sending an image. Anyone can check it at kantivo.app/certification/verify.html, which confirms the certificate is real, names who holds it, and shows whether it remains in force. Your assessment mark is deliberately withheld from public view.

For a website or email footer you can link straight to a pre-filled lookup by adding the reference: /certification/verify.html?id=BCB-2026-K7M4QP.

Your register entry

The public register at kantivo.app/certification/directory.html is where owners go looking for a qualified bookkeeper. Appearing on it is your choice and quite separate from holding the certificate.

To set up or amend your entry, open Certification in the Partner Portal and use the register button on your certificate card. You decide:

• Headline — a single line about what you do. It is the first thing anyone reads, so be concrete: "Catch-up bookkeeping for trades businesses" works far better than "Experienced bookkeeper".
• About your practice — a brief paragraph.
• Where you are — town, region and country, all of which prospects filter on.
• Remote working — tick it if you take on clients beyond your own area.
• Sectors — up to eight tags, also used as filters.
• Website and email — both appear publicly, so give a business address.

Anything left blank stays private. Clear the opt-in box and your entry comes off the register immediately, with no effect whatsoever on the certificate.

Validity and renewal

Certificates run for 24 months from the award date, and renewing costs nothing.

The expiry keeps the register honest about who is still practising. A lapsed certificate is reported as "lapsed" on the lookup page rather than vanishing, so anyone checking an older reference gets a straight answer instead of a blank.

If something goes wrong

The assessment button will not activate

All seven units need ticking off first. Go back to the Certification page and look for any still offering "Start" instead of a green tick.

The clock ran down while I was away from the desk

Whatever you had answered gets marked, and the sitting counts towards your three. Begin the next one when you have an uninterrupted hour.

I qualified but I am not on the register

Qualifying does not list you automatically. Open the register editor on your certificate card and tick the opt-in box.

A client says the reference will not check out

Make sure they are entering the full reference, prefix and year included. Capitalisation and hyphens make no difference. Still failing? Confirm on your Certification page that it has not lapsed, then contact us.

I signed up under the wrong brand

Let us know before you sit the assessment and we will reset the enrolment.