Starting Level 3

scottwhitto

Hi all,

Ive just completed my level 2 and I'm looking to start Level 3 in September after the summer holidays on the new AQ2013 syllabus.

I'm currently in a full time job doing purchase ledger however my employer is keen to move me more towards management and financial accounts.

I'm just wondering what sort of things ill be learning in level 3 which my employer can help me to learn by getting practice with them at work.

Different units for Level 3 AQ2013:

-Accounts Preparation
- Prepare Final Accounts for Sole Traders and Partnerships
- Costs and Revenues
- Indirect tax
- Professional Ethics
- Spreadsheet Software

Thanks for your help in advance.


Scott

ademoore

No one replied yet, so I will give it a whirl!!

I would say, if your employer could get you more involved with the company month end procedures then that would start to help you out considerably, especially with AP1 and AP2.
AP1 is more about developing your knowledge from BA2, taking that final trial balance, learning more about important adjustments like accruals and prepayments, irrecvoerable debts etc, and showing all of these entries on an ETB. AP2, then takes that ETB knowledge and starts preparing accounts for sole traders and partnerships - and all of the various differences and calculations these might lead to! AP2 is also about learning about incomplete records, and what to do when you have to piece together information from an incomplete file - the logic of the control accounts being really tested here.

It depends on the nature of the business you are as to how much you can get involved in the management accounting side of things. C&R really develops your Basic Costing knowledge and goes more into the manufacturing side of accounting, like process costing, stock valuations (more on FIFO, LIFO, AVCO) and the prime points to reorder your stock etc.

VAT is a good one to put in practice in the workplace if they are VAT registered and would be a good extension on your PL experience - you are completing the purchase side of the business, how does that impact on a VAT return?

Ethics is about knowing what is fair, being honest and being just as an accountant and not doing any thing to discredit the qualification! CPD comes in to play here too, which is just recording everything you do in terms of training.

From my own days as a management accountant, a lot of what we did during the course of the job I did within excel, and spread sheets is just about extending your knowledge along the lines of pivot tables, h and v lookups, if formulas, conditional formatting etc. This is one my students, when studying, realised how much they could actually put into practice at work and they enjoyed studying it!

They are great subjects at level 3, enjoy them!

scottwhitto

Thanks for the reply

Had a meeting Friday afternoon and my employer has decided that its time to move on from Purchase Ledger and now im going to under the Managements Accountants supervision. So hopefully this will go hand in hand with my studies when i start level 3 in Sept.

Just awaiting my CMPA results back from Lvl 2 and im done!

Cant wait to get into it as i really enjoyed BA2, and the last few months ive been doing prepayments and accruals for the business so im looking forward to getting stuck into a bit more!

Thanks for your help

jadetremarco

Hi Scott,

I've just completed Level 2 too only because I'm an apprentice, I did Professional Ethics from Level 3 as an extra module. If you need any help with that I can assist as I passed last Friday I have all my notes still and I could scan and send them to you.

Thanks Ademoore for the heads up about Level 3. I'm sure I will be asking for help in September!!

Jade