Please, i need help about optional units.

JK9194

Hi everyone,

I am doing aat level 4 atm so i chosen two optional units which are business tax and credit management. I just started business tax in jan 2014 so it was ok but i need to learn and practise more.

Now, i want to change from credit management into external auditing. I am just wondering if external auditing is hard to do it? I want to do acca after when i done aat level 4. My friend told me that i should do business tax and external auditing because these units are relate to acca.

credit management will be start in jan 2015 so i cant wait for that long. i want to change other unit which will come in sooner.

thanks
jk

topcat

Hi .

i havent done auting but have heard it is very 'dry' and mostly common sense so hopefully wouldnt be too difficult .

i would go with what your interested in though as your more likely to succeed, can you pick up the credit management unit from another learning provider?

Nps

If you're doing business tax already, I would do personal tax as there is a lot of cross over, and if you can pass business tax then you'll find personal tax a doddle as it's much easier.

Nps

You mention basing your choices on future ACCA studies - I found the tax units very helpful for ACCA and passed the ACCA audit paper comfortably with no prior knowledge from AAT.

Sam22

I'm part way through the External Auditing book - I have my exam in 2 weeks. And I've got Business Tax after that. I went with what I was interested in. I hadn't done anything on auditing before, but I thought I'd pick it as, even though I don't work in an auditing firm, most firms are audited, so having some basic knowledge would be helpful. I'm quite interested in Tax so that's why I went for the business tax option.

Clintm15

Hi JK,

I chose Credit Management and Personal Tax. I found Credit Management to be by far the easiest AAT exam I ever took. I have just passed ACCA F6 Taxation and found that my prior knowledge from Personal Tax was extremely helpful. Not much else I can add.

Kind regards

Clint

JK9194

Hi thanks for your advice guys. I haven't decide it yet so i am thinking to do credit management or personal tax. I am not sure about external auditing because someone told me it was so boring and straightforward.

thanks

JK

CeeJaySix

Not necessarily straightforward, but definitely boring - and I work in audit. However it's worth an ACA exemption if that has any impact!

Rachetman

For me, I found external auditing tough to do. Even though most of the exam is multiple-choice, that doesn't necessarily makes it easier to pass. The unit is very verbose and if you are someone who is more comfortable with calculations/numbers, then it's best to give this a miss. And that's not taking into consideration the lack of exemptions you would get from passing this unit.

On a related note, has anyone else done external auditing? A few weeks back, I re-sat the auditing exam and did as much as I could on it. The resit, I felt, was much harder and so I'm nervous on whether I pass this or not.

Rosierabbit

Personally i have gone for the tax units rosie x

CeeJaySix

Rachetman wrote: »

And that's not taking into consideration the lack of exemptions you would get from passing this unit.

Depends on what qualification you want to study - certainly it exempts you from one to the ACA Knowledge stage exams - I'm exempt from 5 of the 6 (though I did have to sit an extra Level 4 exam to get them all).

As Rachetman says, it's all words and no numbers, so in that respect is similar to PEAF and not a lot else. If you have no experience in either audit or an accounts department I would think it's quite difficult to get your head around what's going on. However it is very useful for both practice (where most people start in audit) or industry (where most companies big enough to have a dedicated finance department will be audited).

From a general accounts preparation point of view, the two tax units are the most useful.

zaf1987

All i can say about options is that i chose credit control, due to fact there was element of law, i.e contracts ( i have law degree), and it was a small module. it was extremely boring, i ummd and aahd for over 2.5 months before i packed it in and started fin performance, and now im 3 months behind schedule. just make sure your making right choice for right reasons. i.e not because its short module.

Rachetman

I'm considering doing a different optional unit besides external auditing. I'm looking at doing one that is more calculation/number based, rather than one that involves an awful lot of wording, such as external auditing. Got any suggestions? Maybe credit control?

welshwizard

Well, I would first ask, where am I intending to work? If it's in industry (i.e. in an accounts department role) then CRDC and CSHM are likely to be mroe use that PTAX and BTAX which would be more practice based (as would Audit). Why not do 4 out of the five? Use you noggin and do CSHM and CRDC to get your AAT Main qualification, then go back to your provider in September 2014 and study for the new Level 4 Certificate in Taxation and Ethics (some of which you may already have some experience/knowledge of!) - that way you get the benefit of it all don't you? It's important to remember that not everyone wants to go on to ACCA/ACA/CIMA/CIPFA and often people finish Level 4 still undecided. The Level 4 Certificate in Taxation and Ethics is also a good idea for your CPD needs too.

Rachetman

My preference would be to work in an accounts department, so doing both CRDC and CSHM would be quite good, although I need to pass one optional unit to pass Level 4. Never heard of a Level 4 Certificate in Taxation and Ethics before. I suppose the fact that it's new might explain why I've never heard of it! But which out of the two takes the least amount of time to attend classes?

welshwizard

I teach CRDC in 5 weeks and CSHM in 9-10 weeks (3hrs per week). Is that any help?

Rachetman

Yes, that helps massively. The thing is, I got another class I had to go to, and don't want to spend a great deal of time on the optional unit, relatively speaking.