Optional Units - Which to choose?

yokshire_lass

I am struggling to decide which optional units I want to study for level 4, I understand what is covered by the Business Tax, Personal Tax, & Auditing Modules. However can anyone tell me in simple terms what topics are covered in the Cash & Treasury Management, & Credit Management Modules.

Thanks in advance

AkateH

Just wondering if anyone can shed some light on a query I have...

I'm currently studying level 4 through a college and the optional modules that were chosen for us to do were Business Tax and Auditing. I'm planning on carrying on to do ACA after this and to get an exemption from their principles of tax exam I need to have done both of BTax and PTax. So to save me having to basically sit BTax twice I'm wanting to sit Personal Tax as an additional optional module (call me crazy!)
I contacted my college course administrator and asked if I would be able to sit and pay the exam through the college (whilst self learning) or if not I'd find a separate assessment centre. The reply I got was that I would not be able to sit another optional module as you can only sit 2 optional ones.

Is this true as I thought you would be able to sit as many as you'd like!

Thanks in advance

Irrorate

Why don't you sit BTax with your current centre then self-study or go elsewhere for PTax? If it's true you can only sit 2 optionals. That may be the case as your exam is made up of 6 units with different weighting - if you sit 7 units they need to apply a different weighting metric to your overall grade.

(that or grade you out of 110%)

AkateH

@Irrorate thanks for your reply.
Yes that is the plan, I would be doing PTax as self study either way I just wanted to see if the college would let me sit the exam there or not.
That would make sense if you were only able to sit two, I hadn't thought about it from that angle!

Irrorate

Your exam centre should still be able to let you sit PTax when everyone else is doing auditing, they just submit you for that exam instead of auditing.

AkateH

@Irrorate sorry bit of crossed wires, I'm wanting to sit all 3.
Buisness Tax and Auditing through College and Personal Tax as self study. I was just wanting to check that I could sit 3 optional modules as the college told me that I could only do 2 regardless of whether it was through them or not.

AkateH

I have e-mailed AAT directly but I think there's quite a wait before anyone replies!

CSan89

You can sit all optional ones if you want to. Ive done BTax and Ptax and i am sitting auditing in August as i am planning to do the AAT-ACA fast track.. I'm sitting them all at the same college. Sounds like your training provider didnt know and is just making excuses.

AkateH

@CSan89 Brilliant, thank you for that!
The fast track is what I'm wanting to do also so it's nice to know someone else has the same plan!

Laz82

Hi,
Sorry for jumping on your thread, I was kind of wondering a similar thing, but if you do three, which 2 count towards your overall score is it the highest two, or the two you sit first, or some other way? thanks

absco14

Credit management is quite alot of laws/legislations aswell as learning how to grant credit. A small module and i believe (but dont quote me) has the highest pass rate out of all level 4 optional modules.
Cash and Treasury is cash flows, accruals, prepayments and investments. Little bits of law including bribery ad money laundering.
Obviously alot more to it but that is the basis

ncraggs

Auditing is the easiest, it is mainly multiple choice. I think both tax units are really interesting, and students should choose a unit on it relevance to them and their interest in it, not because it is easy.

yokshire_lass

Thank you, do you think I will limit my options if I choose both tax units?

mergen

If you choose both tax units you will be exempt from tax unit/s in ACCA (if that's what you want to do)
Auditing and Credit Control are easiest.

deanc1582

I know there are already posts asking about which optional units to choose and most discuss the easiest. I was thinking both Tax units but wondered if anyone else chose these options and how they found them? Is the easier option the sensible option?

hal978

A lot of people found Personal Tax hard however it was my best exam so far.

I also chose External Auditing because it would give me an additional exemption from ACA, which I was thinking of studying after.

KoopaCooper

I chose Personal Tax and Business Tax as my two options (*under AQ2013) and in hindsight it might have been better if I had chosen easier options for one or both of them instead....I did eventually pass them, on the third attempt for each, but I found it was quite stressful for me at the time.

But well, everybody's different, and you may get on great with these modules.

KoopaCooper

mergen said:

If you choose both tax units you will be exempt from tax unit/s in ACCA (if that's what you want to do)

I heard this somewhere too - but I recently emailed ACCA to ask if having taken both tax units exempted me from F6 Taxation, and was told there was no such exemption; that AAT gets you the same 3 exemptions regardless of which optional units you take at level 4.

Unless the person who replied to my email didn't know what they were talking about?

mergen

Hmmm colleague at work who is an apprentice was told by his "mentor" from Kaplan that by choosing both Tax modules he will be exempt from F6 in ACCA.
http://www.accaglobal.com/uk/en/qualifications/accountancy-career/aat-acca.html
looks like ACCA are correct, only first 3 papers.

KoopaCooper

mergen said:

Hmmm colleague at work who is an apprentice was told by his "mentor" from Kaplan that by choosing both Tax modules he will be exempt from F6 in ACCA.
http://www.accaglobal.com/uk/en/qualifications/accountancy-career/aat-acca.html
looks like ACCA are correct, only first 3 papers.

Yeah, I was told the self-same thing by my level 4 tutor at college. I thought "that sounds great - four exemptions instead of three!".

Ah well, three is still three better than none at all. xD

CSan89

If you do both taxes and exteral auditing then you will get exemptions to 5/6 of the ACA(ICAEW) certificate level. The odd one out being Law as AAT do not cover it.

hal978

CSan89 said:

If you do both taxes and exteral auditing then you will get exemptions to 5/6 of the ACA(ICAEW) certificate level. The odd one out being Law as AAT do not cover it.

You only get exemption from "Principles of Taxation" on the ACA if you also did Indirect Tax at level 3 (in addition to Personal Tax and Business Tax). This is what ICAEW told me.

KoopaCooper

hal978 said:

CSan89 said:

If you do both taxes and exteral auditing then you will get exemptions to 5/6 of the ACA(ICAEW) certificate level. The odd one out being Law as AAT do not cover it.

You only get exemption from "Principles of Taxation" on the ACA if you also did Indirect Tax at level 3 (in addition to Personal Tax and Business Tax). This is what ICAEW told me.

But...level 3 modules are all compulsory anyway?

hal978

KoopaCooper said:

hal978 said:

CSan89 said:

If you do both taxes and exteral auditing then you will get exemptions to 5/6 of the ACA(ICAEW) certificate level. The odd one out being Law as AAT do not cover it.

You only get exemption from "Principles of Taxation" on the ACA if you also did Indirect Tax at level 3 (in addition to Personal Tax and Business Tax). This is what ICAEW told me.

But...level 3 modules are all compulsory anyway?

Are they? Whoops! Someone from AAT said they were not:

https://forums.aat.org.uk/Forum/discussion/comment/448281#Comment_448281

CSan89

@hal978 Well I have assumed that people that have completed level 4 have done level 3. You are correct that you need level 3 indirect tax as well as level 3 costing and adv. bookkeeping.

KoopaCooper

hal978 said:

KoopaCooper said:

hal978 said:

CSan89 said:

If you do both taxes and exteral auditing then you will get exemptions to 5/6 of the ACA(ICAEW) certificate level. The odd one out being Law as AAT do not cover it.

You only get exemption from "Principles of Taxation" on the ACA if you also did Indirect Tax at level 3 (in addition to Personal Tax and Business Tax). This is what ICAEW told me.

But...level 3 modules are all compulsory anyway?

Are they? Whoops! Someone from AAT said they were not:

https://forums.aat.org.uk/Forum/discussion/comment/448281#Comment_448281

Okay...I think I see what's going on there.

Individual modules in level 3 are not optional. To get level 3, you need to complete all 6 of the level 3 modules.

Taking level 3 as a step on the way to becoming MAAT, however, IS optional. You don't have to get level 3, as long as you get level 4 you can apply for MAAT status.

That said however, most colleges won't accept learners into level 4 classes unless they've already got the level 3 (and some won't accept you into level 3 unless you have a degree or level 2 already).

So yeah, level 3 is optional; but if you're taking it, then individual modules are not.

luciedriver

Hi Guys

Just wondering if any of you have sat the CREDIT MANAGEMENT or the CASH AND TREASURY MANAGEMENT modules?

I have my Decision & Control next week and then start my optional unit, one of the above and have around 6 weeks until the exam date.. just wondered how people got on and if there was any feedback on the two exams in terms of difficulty and content etc.

I am leaning towards Credit Management but there isn't much in it..

Appreciate any comments

Thanks
Lucie

Agnes123

i've done credit management and found it rather easy. (I have got some work experience from this so this definetely helped too). I've also done personal tax as the other optional and found it a lot more difficult (and not had the results yet either). The exams where very similar to to the examples from aat.

Cheesypeesy

Credit Management was my easiest unit in Professional level. There's a lot of crossover from Decision and Control in terms of KPIs, and the exams are very consistent across the board in my experience.

Cash and Treasury Management has a bit more to learn but it's also not too difficult.

I would think they are the two easiest optional units, so unless you want to display your knowledge of tax or external auditing you might as well go with these two.

sharpy92

I did both Cash and Treasury and Credit management. We only had about 5 or 6 weeks until each exam and I passed first time. A few in my class struggled with Cash and Treasury (luckily I already deal with cash flows etc at work so was quite straightforward for me) so out of the two I would recommend Credit Management.

I think Credit Management seemed more common sense when answering the writing questions so more people passed with higher marks first time.

lucym96

I would definitely recommend Credit Management - there was not a massive amount to learn and I passed first time, it's quite straightforward. Cash and Treasury has been the only exam I've failed... I did my resit last month so it's now the only result I need to finish Level 4! Hopefully I've passed But that might just be me, as the others above passed first time, but it's definitely the hardest exam of them all in my opinion! So out of the two I'd go for Credit