thinking of quitting !!

lauram

hey all

i was doing really well with my intermediate course home study ,but i missed the date to register with AAT to follow the old standards, and the course has changed to online assignments now and just a real test not a simulation test, and now ive really started to struggle, it doesnt help that ive had 2months off whilst waiting for them to sort it all out.

this is the assignment that i attempted and literally didnt know where to start, i got so frustrated it had me in tears and i had to stop doing it.

R.Bryan is a successful sole trader, but is not particularly good at maintaining financial records. He asks you to prepare his final accounts fot the year to 31 May 2010. You establish that at 1 June 2009 he had the following balance:


Vehicles at cost 100
Equipment at cost 200
Provisions for depreciation:
Vehicles 50
Equipment 80
Trade creditors 170
Trade debtors 225
Prepayments:
Rent 12
Insurance 15
Accurals:
Telephone 4
Electricity 6
Bank 28
Stock 150
Capital 420


In addition R.Byran is also able to provide the following information for the financial year to 31 May 2010.

Receipts from customers were £1200000 and there are trade debtors at 31 May 2010 of £230000.

Bad debts of £35000 were written off during the year and discounts to customers amounted to £30000.

Personal drawings amounted to £100000.

Payments to suppliers were £650000 and £155000 was owing to suppliers as at 31 May 2010.

Stock at 31 May 2010 was £190000.

Rent of £10000 and telephone bills of £1000 were paid in advance at 31 May 2010.

A £15000 electricity bill was still to be payed at 31 May 2010.

Other payments made during the year were as follows:

Insurance 25
Rent 40
Rates 5
Electricity 30
Telephone 14
Motor Vehicles expenses 20
Wages 120

Total 254

we have to do a P+L and balance sheet

i think it firstly threw me how it went from a figure of below 50 for a lot of things, and then jumped to over 100,000 for other things !

that aside, i thought i had to do workings on paper, like the bank account, as i dont have that figure and other bits, but i just lost myself and ended up closing the assignment down and ending up on here.

coojee

I'd hazard a guess that the figures less than 100 are actually in £'000s as you've got Trade Drs in the opening TB of 225 and then at year end 230,000. It's damn near impossible to have opening drs of 225 and closing drs of 230,000, it's much more likely that opening drs are in fact 225,000. Is this an in house assessment or the AAT's sample paper? You should find some ledgers for you to fill in so that you can work out the missing figures, you may need to make some notes on paper but eventually you'll need to fill in the ledgers as well.

lauram

hi
yes i have just checked back with my tutor after my rant, and yes the figures i first put up should be in £000, so 25 for example is £25,000.
so thats now sorted.

im guessing i need to do a bank account to find out the bank amount which is needed, as well as a sales and purchases account, to find out sales amount and purchases amount.

would you say those are the only 3 missing figures i need to find?

thanks for replying, finding it all a bit daunting

lauram

coojee wrote: »

I'd hazard a guess that the figures less than 100 are actually in £'000s as you've got Trade Drs in the opening TB of 225 and then at year end 230,000. It's damn near impossible to have opening drs of 225 and closing drs of 230,000, it's much more likely that opening drs are in fact 225,000. Is this an in house assessment or the AAT's sample paper? You should find some ledgers for you to fill in so that you can work out the missing figures, you may need to make some notes on paper but eventually you'll need to fill in the ledgers as well.

im doing home study with premier training, its the accounts prep two assignment 1.

i havent even sat the accounts prep 1 exams yet, as they now wont be ready til december, but premier thought it best to crack on with the accounts prep 2 assignments whilst we are waiting.

mge

Hi lauram. This is an EXTREMELY complicated question. It's very important that you don't let the fact you struggled with this question lead to you quitting AAT. When I first saw a question like this I hadn't got a clue where to start. Learning to answer questions like these takes lots of practise, but it will eventually become much easier.

I would advise you to start on easier questions to build up your confidence first before you tackle something like this.

In order to answer this question you need to draw up some individual accounts. The following steps need to be taken:

1. Work out a figure for sales by drawing up the Sales Ledger Control Account (You are given figures for opening and closing debtors, receipts from customers, discount allowed and bad debts)

2. Work out a figure for purchases by drawing up the Purchase Ledger Control Account (you are given figures for opening and closing creditors and payments to creditors)

3. Work out how much rent goes to P&L by drawing up the Rent Account (there is prepaid rent at both the start and end of the year)

4. Work out how much telephone expense goes to P&L by drawing up the Telephone Account (there is an accrual at the start and a prepayment at the end of the year)

5. Work out how much electricity expense goes to P&L by drawing up the Electricity Account (there are accruals at the start and end of the year)

6. Work out how much insurance expense goes to P&L by drawing up the Insurance Account (there is a prepayment at the start of the year.)

7. Work out the closing bank balance by drawing up the Bank Account (you are given the opening balance, receipts from debtors, payments to creditors, drawings and a list of payments of other expenses).

Once you have calculated these seven figures, you should have everything you need to draw up a P&L and BS. It's just a matter of following the form of these two statements precisely and making sure you don't miss anything out.

Best of luck. Just keep on plugging away at it and it will get much easier

katie2008

Dont quit, if I can get through the year and pass (and then enrol on tech) then anyone can.

After the 10 months that I had, im so happy to keep going. Just remember it all makes sense eventually (just dont leave it until a week before the exams to figure it out like I did).

Good Luck in your studies.

Katie

lauram

Hi
I took the time to do this tonight and draw up my accounts, it took me 2hours so il have to get faster for my exam! I'm also not sure if I can take pens and paper and draw up accounts for a computer exam ??
Apart from anything else the layout threw me- the figure for receipts was something like 1200000 but apparently I should of taken that as 1200 - why wasn't it just written as the figure is meant to be ?? There was a figure of 15000 and that was taken as that amount - so why would I have to take 0's off of some figures but not others ?

I've got my password for the next assignment so I'm sure il be on here again haha, it's about doing journals for mistakes and to create a provision for bad debts after the trial balance, I'm guessing that's to cr debtors and dr provision for bad debts ??
Also have to do appropriation accounts in one half , one third and I fifth I think (have to check that) - but how do u work it out when it's all different percentages ?

I must sound really daft ha

Thanks all xx

steveJ

When i did my CBE in London i was given some paper and a pen. I found it so much easier writing it all out on paper and just inserting into the proforma screen.

Just keep working at it and youll be fine.

lauram

I found the last assignment much easier by doing the t accounts and just inserting the figure, I just need to speed up doing it, I have no idea how long my first exam is but it took me 3hrs to do my last assignment and at a guess I'd say maybe we get an hour and half ?

steveJ

Even my CBE was 3 hours long. I finished after about 2 hours and checked through for about 45 minutes. I dont like checking over my work for too long as i start getting paranoid and tempted to change things!!!

Have you found out where you can sit it yet ?

lauram

ive been told there is a centre in liverpool street, but so far my exam date has gone from sep to december, with still no fixed date in place.

question for you, if you can please help - im having trouble with this terminlogy.

im doing appropriation accounts for my next assignment, and done them ok i think. the next task says to do them as if there was no agreement in place with the 3 partners - does this just mean how the profit is split, or also that there wouldnt be any interest on profit in place too? and salaries in place? are all them 3 classed as a partnership agreement? or is it just the salary and profit sharing thats classed as that?

thanks

mge

Hi lauram,

If there is no partnership agreement then:
- there is no interest on capital
- there are no partnership salaries
- there is no interest on partner drawings
- profit is split equally between the partners

There's no reason why you can't take your CBAs now, under either the old or the new scheme. They are definitely ready to take. You could try contacting your local BPP centre. Many of their centres will let external candidates take the CBAs for £48.

lauram

ah ok thats how i did it, so that part at least was right, im not familar with the term CBA (was that it ?) im doing a level 3 diploma in accounts, the intermediate stage, and have just done assignments for accounts prep 1 and accounts prep 2.

im studying home study with premier training.

when i got my study guide, it was for the old standards, and was meant to sit exam in aug, my first ones, i registered with AAT around 15th july, and it was then that premier contacted me and said that as i had failed to register before 1st july, i had to now follow the new standards, which meant a slightly longer course, no simulations, just assignments and then the actual exam for each section, so 5 exams in total.

so basically the assignments im now doing as similar to the ones ive already studied for but i have to re do the sections id already completed.

premier then told me the AAT would have the exam ready for accounts prep 1 in oct, then when i asked other day, was told AAT dont have the exam ready until december.

mge

Hi lauram,

I am also working through Level 3 under the new standards at the moment. There are 7 units in all. Five of these, including Accounts Prep 1 and Accounts Prep 2, are assessed via CBA. This is Computer Based Assessment ie. an exam. (I haven't really looked into how the other two will be assessed yet).

These CBAs are now ready to be taken. In fact I took the Costs and Revenues CBA today at a BPP centre (although I do not actually study with BPP). I'm not sure why Premier are telling you that the AAT don't have the exams ready yet, because as far as I'm aware you are able to take both Accounts Prep 1 and 2 now.

As for the assignments you mention, I think this is just something that Premier issue to students. As far as I'm aware it is not necessary to take these in order to pass the level, and I imagine that many AAT students won't have these.

If you think you may be ready to take the Accounts Prep 1 CBA it is probably worth joining the AAT if you haven't done so already. Once you have joined you will find a practice CBA for each unit, which will help you to decide whether you are ready. There are also plenty of past papers etc. You will then need to find a centre near you that accepts external students in order to take your CBA.

Regards, mge