AAT level 4 Options

AmyRichardson

Hi all

I have just completed level 3 (if i pass the june exams) and i am considering options out of the 4, external auditing, ptax, btax and credit control

I worked in practise for 2 yrs and i now work in an industry role i have experienced personal tax and am not that keen! but i can do it.....

any ideas what i should do?

Kregna

Do you actually get to choose? I thought those things were covered in set units

Jodi-90

i have just completed the Level 4-
where i did AAT, it was complusary we did btax and ptax, and cash management and auditing was optional (we had to pay extra to do those)
i would advise sitting cash management and auditing as they are simulations rather than btax and ptax which are exams..
i sat ptax and btax in June.. but also did auditing so i didnt have to pass both exams!

hope this helped!

blobbyh

I'd advise choosing the ones which you feel are going to be most useful for you now and in the future rather than selecting solely by which ones are allegedly going to be easier to pass and/or non-exam based. As many are currently finding in this climate, it's not just attaining the AAT qualification but also what you learnt doing it and what you can offer to a potential employer against the tide of others who are all equally qualified.

This is your course and presumably you're doing it to make yourself more employable, both where you are now and over the next few years, so you should choose your options based on that outlook.

In industry, unless you're working in a department that deals with tax or payroll, most organisations need skilled credit control and audit minded accountants (to hopefully reduce costs when needing to compulsorily use external ones) so maybe there's a thought?

AmyRichardson

Thanks to all for your advice

I think that i willl most definatley chose business tax as this will be relevant to my job going forward and seems to be interesting.

I am now just deciding between credit control/ External auditing as i have already started to think about options after AAT such as CIMA or ACCA

To be honest i think i will go for ACCA as this gives me the support to go back in to practise if i ever wanted to??

coojee

blobbyh wrote: »

In industry, unless you're working in a department that deals with tax or payroll, most organisations need skilled credit control and audit minded accountants (to hopefully reduce costs when needing to compulsorily use external ones) so maybe there's a thought?

I don't understand this idea that if you know what the auditor is doing you can somehow reduce your audit bill. The best way to reduce your audit bill is to make sure the auditor can easily trace each and every transaction. This doesn't require any knowledge of auditing but rather a good understanding of book keeping. Time and time again I find students taking the auditing option because they "need to know what the auditor's doing" and really struggling with the subject. My best advice is, unless you work in practice and carry out audits, don't do auditing. Just because it's an assessment doesn't make it easier than the exams.

blobbyh

This...

coojee wrote: »

I don't understand this idea that if you know what the auditor is doing you can somehow reduce your audit bill.

... is answered by this...

coojee wrote: »

The best way to reduce your audit bill is to make sure the auditor can easily trace each and every transaction. This doesn't require any knowledge of auditing but rather a good understanding of book keeping.

... which is partly the point I was making. Having an appreciation of how to adhere to and maintain legible, easily followable audit trails, whether accounting or in a non-accounting function (e.g. QA in industry), can help prevent problems later and reduce unnecessary added costs. As you say, this can be mostly done not just through keeping but also making readily available up to date accurate records, e.g. fixed asset register or prepayment schedules, instead of the auditors continually being unable to find and having to keep requesting records and the time spent searching for missing documents.

Plenty of people can do bookkeeping but not every bookkeeper is naturally systematic or able to implement and maintain decent audit trails and systems. Possessing an appreciation of auditing techniques would surely contribute to the formation of these? SME's would certainly appreciate an audit minded bookkeeper as it does tangibly help keep their audit costs down if much of the prep work can be done internally. pre-external audit. Just because it's a tough topic, it doesn't necessarily mean the OP shouldn't consider it as it clearly does have uses outside of practice.

Besides, internal auditing is not just accounting terminology but multi-industrial and routinely performed in any number of manufacturing businesses where often one of it's core functions is to reduce outside costs (e.g. the annual external audit for keeping a trade certificate or registration) through maintaining strict internal quality controls.

coojee

I agree with you that keeping up to date fixed asset registers, prepayment schedules, bank recs etc will help to reduce the audit fee - but this stuff's not covered in the auditing unit. It covers things like substantive tests, tests of control, what kind of audit report you should give etc. No one working in industry would ever need to know about this and a knowledge of it doesn't help reduce your audit bill. I can see the point of understanding how a good accounting system should be put together and this knowledge can be put to good use within industry.


I'm coming at this from the point of view of a tutor. I've seen lots of students take this option because they think it's easy only to find that it isn't. In some instances students have not completed their qual because they can't achieve this unit.

messedup89

coojee wrote: »

I agree with you that keeping up to date fixed asset registers, prepayment schedules, bank recs etc will help to reduce the audit fee - but this stuff's not covered in the auditing unit. It covers things like substantive tests, tests of control, what kind of audit report you should give etc. No one working in industry would ever need to know about this and a knowledge of it doesn't help reduce your audit bill. I can see the point of understanding how a good accounting system should be put together and this knowledge can be put to good use within industry.


I'm coming at this from the point of view of a tutor. I've seen lots of students take this option because they think it's easy only to find that it isn't. In some instances students have not completed their qual because they can't achieve this unit.

I took audit and ocmc because i thought they'd be easier than the tax exams and was right.
Also if your going on to ACCA there is an audit exam so the skills test should help a bit. On the otherhand there is a tax exam so obviously the aat tax exams would help. Tough choice

tigger37

messedup89 wrote: »

I took audit and ocmc because i thought they'd be easier than the tax exams and was right.
Also if your going on to ACCA there is an audit exam so the skills test should help a bit. On the otherhand there is a tax exam so obviously the aat tax exams would help. Tough choice

I took both audit and business tax for my options so hope that helps me out in ACCA.