UK Practising certificate options - ACCA too restrictive - help!

[kitarna]

I have recently been approached by potential clients wanting me to do soletrader accounts and tax returns etc. This I cannot do because I was never able to get my practising certificate with ACCA.
Is there another way of practising - maybe transferring to another accounting body???

My history as follows:
I am a fully qualified member of ACCA.
I was working in practise, passed all my exams and obtained my 3 years work experience and transferred to membership last year.
6 months later my father in law died and my husband took up the responsibility of running his families engineering company.
This was never the plan.
We decided that I would leave my practise job and help my husband run our limited company - of which we are now both directors.
I only work part time, I do monthly management accounts, year end accounts prep and anything else needed to support my husband.
I cannot go back to practise to obtain the 2 years post qual experience ACCA requires for a practising certificate

Also I have been signing my emails with ACCA letters after my name - is this allowed in ACCAs rules? I am not advertising accountancy work in any way.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Fidget]

Not sure about other avenues to getting a practising cert. They're all probably quite uniform in that respect.

As you're a member of ACCA though, you can use the letters after your name.