Professional Ethics Q & A Session with Teresa Clarke from 3aaa Apprenticeships


Good evening everyone, and welcome to the latest ASN FREE Q & A session with Teresa Clarke from the Norfolk Community Learning Services on AAT Level 3 Professional Ethics. If you have any questions, please post as a comment below. Please be aware, if any questions are left unanswered, then they will be answered at a later time. And thank you all for participating…..now over to you, who has the first question

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Hi. Do you have a question?

Diana Reid Lovelock

Diana Reid Lovelock I am taking my PETH next week and there seems to be a huge amount that you need to memorise

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke What are you struggling to remember?

Suzanna Rich

Suzanna Rich Good evening, I am shortly to start studying this unit. What advice can you give me about how to approach it, and about what they look for in the exam answers-ie the detail required, and the style they look for.

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Hi Suzanna. I would suggest that you read through all the facts, making notes of points to remember. Then work through the scenarios and see if you can work out what they are looking for. Remember, if it says “state” it means one or two words, “describe” means tell us more about it and “explain” means go into more detail.

Suzanna Rich

Suzanna Rich thats useful, thank you! Why do so many people seem to dread this unit?

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke It is because accountants, in general, like numbers and are suddenly faced with lots of words and sentences. Not so bad really.

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Natasha Everard
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Diana Reid Lovelock

Diana Reid Lovelock I’ve just read through Sustainability in Osborne and there is lots and lots of new information suddenly that didn’t come up earlier in the book, wham at the end

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Sustainability is the easier one to remember as most of it is common-sense, but taken into the workplace environment.

Diana Reid Lovelock

Diana Reid Lovelock But there is so much jargon, I feel overloaded

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Lesley Ann Hillman

Lesley Ann Hillman Same, I am taking this exam in 2 weeks, it’s so much to remember, i feel overloaded too

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke See reply below to help you remember the Fundamental Principles, Risks and Threats. What else are you struggling with?

Lesley Ann Hillman

Lesley Ann Hillman I think my main issue is getting it down on paper so to speak, I can remember things like the fundamental principles, the threats.. the risks I’m still working on, but i when i try to answer the longer questions.. it’s a mess.

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Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Answer the questions in a particular format. Point Example Explain. Firstly make your point using a sentence from the question. For example “Is the sky blue or black when it is raining?” Start with The sky is black when it is raining…..then go on to give your reason…..because the clouds are full of rain….then go on to explain why this is and what happens when the rain stops. I hope that helps.

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Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Remember – Make Your Point. Explain your Answer. Give your Example. Usually in that order, but you could transpose explain and example.

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Lesley Ann Hillman

Lesley Ann Hillman Thanks, couple more weeks to practice, fingers crossed will get it right, thankfully have a few practice papers and been working through the kaplan, osborne and bpp books for extra practice.

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Practice is definitely the key. If you can remember the facts and how to relate the threats and principles to each area, it will be much easier. In particular, do not forget to mention money laundering whenever you feel it necessary, including how toSee more

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Lesley Ann Hillman

Lesley Ann Hillman Yes I’ve noticed that comes up quite often when going through chapter questions, i must remember that, and if it’s a sole trader it’s direct to the NCA

Lesley Ann Hillman

Lesley Ann Hillman Thank you for doing this, making me feel better about it

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Lesley Ann Hillman You would take it to your professional body, ie for me that would be AAT.

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Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Lesley Ann Hillman That’s great. I do love this subject. My favourite to teach !!

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Lesley Ann Hillman

Lesley Ann Hillman Oh yes of course, thank you

Natasha Everard
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Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Can you give me an example or two?

Matthew McVicar

Matthew McVicar Hi. I have my PETH exam on Monday. I have worked through the Osbourne book but still do not feel as if I can remember it all. Thank you for doing this session I am here to try and learn a bit more about what i need to concentrate on over the next few days.

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Can you remember the Fundamental Principles? Use PIPCO to help you remember. Do you remember the risks? Use PLERPS to help you remember. Do you remember the threats to the principles? Use “Familiarity with the SAS can be Intimidating” to remember these. Do a practice exam and empty your head of everything you can remember. Then test yourself on the scenarios.

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Diana Reid Lovelock

Diana Reid Lovelock Need to know the definition, the 3 key components of the Brundtland report, the triple bottom line, Responsibilities of accountants etc. etc.

Ruby White

Ruby White Thank you, Natasha!

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Natasha Everard
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Diana Reid Lovelock

Diana Reid Lovelock I’m okay with the risks and threats but the Codes of Conduct and Sustainability chapters seem huge. Do you need to memorise them all? How many marks are there on those bits?

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Read through sustainability and make notes. One you have converted into notes, it will not look half as difficult. Much of it you will find it relatively easy to recall.

Natasha Everard

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Paula Rutter
Paula Rutter I used three peas in a pod
people
planet
profit
these are
social
environmental
financial

try make up names to remember things

use flash cards and post it notes around the house

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Diana Reid Lovelock

Diana Reid Lovelock There is only one practice exam on AAT site. I will do Premier mock though

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Your training provider should be able to provide you with more practice questions. Or I would suggest the Kaplan revision guides too.

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Natasha Everard
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Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke When you try to remember the Brundtland report, you don’t need it word-for-word, so just remember it in your own way – something like “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations”. Triple bottom line is simply People, Profit and Planet – the three things a business should consider in a new venture. People being considering employees, people living nearby etc, planet meaning the environment, polution etc and profit obviously following. Link them with things such as using environmentally friendly products could mean more profit because more people will like to buy the products. It is the responsibility of accountants to uphold sustainability for ourselves and promote it within the businesses we work.

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Before you start your exam, empty your head of everything you can remember about the subject, all the facts etc on the scrap paper. It will help you focus on the questions as they arise.

Jo Ingram

Jo Ingram Hi I’m here

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Diana Reid Lovelock

Diana Reid Lovelock I did an assignment earlier and it gave a list of four things that an oil refinery was doing wrong and asked to relate it to the responsibilities of an accountancy business – I couldn’t get the context

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Sometimes it is hard to put yourself in the scenario. But try to place yourself in that business. Generalise on the comments though as most businesses need to improve on how they deal with the Triple Bottom Line, ie People, Planet, Profit. You could comment if they are not treating their employees well, not looking after the environment in the area, not using recycled packaging etc. All these types of things will apply to most situations.

Diana Reid Lovelock

Diana Reid Lovelock Can you pass if you get all the smaller questions right?

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke No. The scenarios are necessary. You need to work on those too. Obviously a good idea to get all the smaller questions right though. It will need less marks on the rest. However, I would always suggest that, as with all exams, you aim for 100% to allow for anything going wrong on the day.

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Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke A good way to remember the different types of Bribery is MUFC (Man Utd FC). Me – active bribery. You – passive bribery. Foreign – bribing a foreign official. Company – a company failing to prevent bribery. Write that down at the start of the exam – it will help.

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Nikkita Spyrou

Nikkita Spyrou With the triple bottom line, I can understand the people and planet aspect but what is the profit part? Isn’t being sustainable and ensuring you follow the people and planet bit what contributes to sustainable profit?

Diana Reid Lovelock

Diana Reid Lovelock Profit = Economic Growth

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Sustainable profit comes along with the other two really. It is about making profit whilst being sustainable in other ways. A business would consider its people, eg employees and members of the public, and it’s environment, eg the surrounding area, the carbon footprint etc and this would lead to an increased profit because people would like to buy from this company. Think about Fairtrade products as an example.

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Nikkita Spyrou

Nikkita Spyrou Thank you this makes sense

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke That’s great.

Natasha Everard
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Jo Ingram

Jo Ingram I did an assessment and was told I had answered all the questions right only I failed to use any of the aat key words so lost marks How would you answer without quoting the text book yet using the key words?

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Use the fundamental principles in all questions which allow it. Use all the threats to the principles, use the risks, the types of bribery and don’t be afraid to quote the textbook if you can remember some key points.

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Don’t forget the difference between civil law and criminal law – that questions usually crops up. Civil law – balance or probabilites and financial compensation. Criminal law – guilty without reasonable doubt and could be a fine or imprisonment.

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke When to disclose and when not to disclose is another key question. Confidentiality is important as part of the law, ie Data Protection and also a fundamental principle. However, you are permitted to disclose if required by law, in the public interest or if permitted by the owner of the information. Be clear on this one.

Diana Reid Lovelock

Diana Reid Lovelock In business – where there are a number of accountants is it necessary to keep confidentiality about a client and not disclose it to another person in your own company if they aren’t working on that client’s work?

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke No. If you are working within the same company, then you are both bound by the same rules, so confidentiality between you would not apply. Does that make sense?

Diana Reid Lovelock

Diana Reid Lovelock That’s what I thought but I was not sure because of an answer in one of my assignments

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke If you were working on work for clients who knew each other, you could talk to each other, so long as you did not disclose anything to your own client about the other client’s business.

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke This is a good way to avoid the threat of a breach of confidentiality too. If you are working on the accounts of two businesses that are competing for the same project, you could pass one set of accounts to another colleague to take on so as not to put yourself at risk of a threat against your objectivity.

Natasha Everard

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Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Confidentially only relates to information which is not available in the public domain – keep it real !

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke When practising your exams, try to type them as that it how you will have to do them in the exam and it helps to get in “exam mode”.

Nikkita Spyrou

Nikkita Spyrou i usually struggle with the conflict resolution part, how do you know when it is right to escalate to a senior manager or when you need to first assess the situation to ensure ethical principles have actually been compromised

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Stop look and think. That is the first step. Stop and take a look at the facts. Is there good reason to suspect a problem. Gather the facts and then pass to the senior manager if you have reasons to suspect. Put all the relevant facts, dates and information together and then leave it to the senior manager to decide whether to take it further.

Nikkita Spyrou

Nikkita Spyrou The threat of advocacy- i am not able to grasp this fully from the definition, could you provide some examples or scenarios which display this threat?

Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke This is always a really difficult one to explain. If it comes up in an exam, it would jump out at you. I basically explain as “if you were to stand up and promote the best painter in your town and you also had several other painters as your clients, you are looking at a threat of advocacy because you are advocated their product over others and this could lead to a threat against your objectivity”. Does that help?

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Nikkita Spyrou

Nikkita Spyrou Yes very much, thanks!

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Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke So pleased to help!

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Natasha Everard
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Natasha Everard

Natasha Everard Does anyone have any further questions? I really have to say that this Q & A session was great and really want to thank Teresa for her time tonight 🙂

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Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke I have really enjoyed this ! I hope you all learn to love the subject.

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Diana Reid Lovelock

Diana Reid Lovelock Mmm – not sure about that 🙂

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Natasha Everard

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Nikkita Spyrou

Nikkita Spyrou You have been a huge help, thanks a lot!

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Ruby White

Ruby White Thank you very much for the great session!

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Matthew McVicar

Matthew McVicar Thank you 🙂

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Teresa Clarke

Teresa Clarke Good luck with your exams !

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Mae'dda Maele
Mae’dda Maele How to learn not to forget