ACCA P4 Advanced financial management - Interest rate swaps

I have been working as a financier for 20+ years, but I have never used swaps in my practice. It is a very interesting way to fix financial costs, but Ukrainian banks do not provide such services. I read about the swaps in P4 exam textbook. It seems that P4 examiner also likes the swaps and puts it into exam questions.

The first interest rate swap occurred between IBM and the World Bank in 1981.

Career development: seven steps to your success

Every student focuses on her or his studying and exams. After sleepless nights and stressful examinations, a newly qualified professional starts to seek how to progress professionally.
We are on 28000 days on the planet on average and work for 10000 of these days. Thus, it is the crucial thing to decide where you want to be?

Step #1 Establish the reasons for your move

ACCA P3 Business Analysis - the most popular models

I'm preparing for ACCA P3 exam. It seems Business Analysis is the best and most interesting subject in the ACCA qualification!!! The only problem is that there are a lot of models we need to remember)) I try to find the most popular models and focus on them while I'm studying P3.

Model # 1   PESTEL    Macro environment, strategic position analysis (evaluation)

Political  -  tax policy, labour law, environmental law, trade restrictions, tariffs, and political stability
Economic -  economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and the inflation rate
Social -  health, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety
Technological -  R&D activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate of technological change
Environmental - weather, climate, and climate change
Legal -  discrimination law, consumer law, antitrust law, employment law, and health and safety law

Professional marks in ACCA P level exams

One of the features of the Professional level exam papers is the awarding of ‘professional marks’. These are marks allocated not for the content of an answer, but for the degree of professionalism with which certain parts of the answer are presented.

They will usually be awarded in Section A (the compulsory part of the exam paper) and will total between four and six marks.
 
 It may be, for example, that one requirement asks you to present your answer in the form of, say, a letter, a presentation, a memo, a report, briefing notes, or similar.

Some marks may be awarded for the form of the answer in addition to the content of the answer. This might be for the structure, content, style and layout, or the logical flow of arguments in your answer.

You should assume that if the question asks for a specific format of answer that some marks may be awarded for an effective presentation of that format.

My ACCA friends sometimes ask me about the specific formats of question answer. I would like to share these formats here.

When you failed your ACCA exam with 47-49 marks, then ask yourself whether or not you try to gain any professional marks. Maybe you can improve your performance next time)

REPORT

ACCA P3 Business Analysis - examiner's reports

There is no any individual feedback for ACCA students from an examiner about their exam work sheets. The ACCA offers to find an examiner's report about all students exam performance.

We can find these reports on www.accaglobal.com.
To download them click the link P3 examiners reports

I'm preparing for P3 in December 2013. Thus, I try to analyse the recent report of performance in June 2013.

The pass rate of P3 is about 50%. Therefore, this exam is slightly easier than F8. How to join to the group of successful candidates? I'm looking for the clues in the examiner's recommendations.

Question 1
Section A MidShire Health - 50 marks

Part a) i) 18 marks +2 prof.marks - Project management concerns
Performed well

ACCA F6 Taxation in the UK revision stage

Hello my ACCA friends,

our exams will start in one month and this is a time for revision for most of us)))
The key factor of exam success is practicing past exam papers. When I read the suggestions from other students, 90% of them believe that past papers help to pass an exam well.

I used the Malaysian teacher Low Chin Ann's video lectures about F8 Audit and assurance and passed it well. Today I watched his video lectures about ACCA F6 Taxation (UK) past papers. I think they can help you to prepare well for F6.

ACCA F6 Qs2 KimSee 2008

ACCA P2 Dec 2007 Q 4 International conceptual framework

The question 4 in ACCA P2 exam tends to be easier than 2 and 3 in section B. It is usually a current issues question. To be highly scored on this question, you need to plan your answer, use the headings and short paragraphs for every sensible point.

Question 4 December 2007

International conceptual framework

25 marks * 1,8 minutes = 45 minutes.
15 minutes to read&understand question requirements and plan the answer
25 minutes for write 25 reasonable points
5 minutes to revise the completness of your answer under plan

You can download the past exam papers www.accaglobal.com

Q4 The IASB has begun a joint project to revisit its conceptual framework for financial accounting and reporting. The goals of the existing frameworks and converge them into a common framework.

Required:
a) Discuss why there is a need to develop an agreed international conceptual framework and the extent to which an agreed international conceptual framework can be used to resolve practical accounting issues. (13 marks)

b) Discuss the key issues which will need to be addressed determining the basic components of an agreed international conceptual framework. (10 marks)

Appropriateness and quality of dicussion (2 marks)

Q4 (a) 13 marks

(1) Convergence

Tax havens: excellence or fragility for corporations

Tax havens: where they are?

There is no precise definition on tax havens. The OECD (Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development) initially defined the folowing features of tax havens:

• no or low tax;

• lack of effective exchange of information;

• lack of transparency;

• no requirement of substantial activity.

ACCA Advanced Diploma in Accounting and Business

Advanced diploma in accounting and business

If you decide to complete the ACCA Qualification, you will be awarded the Advanced Diploma in Accounting and Business on your way to completing ACCA Qualification.

What's involved?

You will need to register for the ACCA Qualification. When you have completed the Fundamentals level exams (F1-F9) and also the Professional Ethics module, you will be awarded the Advanced Diploma in Accounting and Business. You can progress to the Professional level to continue your ACCA Qualification.

How long will it take to complete?

It's up to you, but please note there is a 10-year time limit to complete the exams when gaining the ACCA Qualification. You can sit exams in June and December at one of 380 exam centres around the world. You can complete Foundations in Professionalism before or after the exams. So you could complete this Diploma in 12 to 18 months.

How can you get your certificate?

The 50 most common questions for job interview

One my friend usually tells me you need to go to a job interview to become more confident. Thus, you gain valuable experience of communications with HR specialists. It helps you to obtain the dream job in the future.

Some of the employers like to pose unusual interview job questions. They explain the reason for doing it that they need to select the creative workers to boost the company's development. Nevertheless, the most job interview questions are common and we need to be prepared well for them.

Forbes finds the 50 most common interview questions. It is a great list to practice and to prepare for your job interview.

1. What are your strengths?
2. What are your weaknesses?
3. Why are you interested in working for [insert company name here]?
4. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?
5. Why do you want to leave your current company?
6. Why was there a gap in your employment between [insert date] and [insert date]?
7. What can you offer us that someone else can not?
8. What are three things your former manager would like you to improve on?
9. Are you willing to relocate?
10. Are you willing to travel?

ACCA procedure of claiming your Practical Experience Requirements (PER)

To become an ACCA member and to call yourself a qualified accountant you need to complete practical experience. You should prove that you are able to apply in the work place the knowledge which has learned in your exams. It helps to demonstrate your potential employer that you have practical skills, not only knowledge and ethical behaviour.

You can gain your PER before, during or after completing your exams. It would be great advantage if you complete your PER at the same time with your exams as it reinforces what you learn for the exams.

What is PER?

PER is a guidance for you which includes 36 months practical experience and 13 performance objectives (POs) requirements. POs are closely linked to the exams syllabus. It would be a benefit to coordinate your study and achieving POs to gain the most from both.

What is the relevant experience?

How to introduce yourself - ACCA's PO # 5 Communicate effectively

ACCA's performance objective #5 states that we need to communicate clearly in order to work effectively with others.

Every new communication with people starts with the introductory speech or writing the speech introducing yourself.

First impression makes a significant impact on how others perceive you. Be careful with the words introducing yourself. The information can either uphold or harm your credibility.

There are some suggestions I have collected about good introductory speech:

Your name

State your name clearly at the beginning. Name is important for many people. They will think about your name in their mind during your speech, if you do not start with that.

Say your first and last name with any titles you usually use.

Details about your current life

Tell people where you are at your life.

Five myths about ACCA's Performance Objectives

Many ACCA students focus on their exams progress. In the same time, the employers are keen on their knowledge gained from exams, ethical behaviour and practical experience.

Thus, do not forget about your Ethics module and PER. It makes your value as a professional higher and your chances to get an attractive job offer increase significantly.

ACCA analysed the students' contacts via ACCA Connect and found five myths about Practical Experience Requirements (PER).

Myth #1 "All I need to achieve a PO is to tick right box"

There are three challenge questions for any PO and no any prescribed right or wrong answer. You should describe your own situation (up to 500 words), then your experience gained (up to 500 words) and possible impact if you had not behaved ethically in this situation (up to 500 words).

Myth #2 "I don't need to prove experience - once, I've passed exams, I am ACCA member"

Exams are only part of the story. You need to apply the knowledge gained from exams in the workplace. Exams, ethics and experience are all needed for ACCA membership.

ACCA approved employers in Ukraine

• List of Ukrainian companies which offer unique career and development opportunities for their employees - members of ACCA:

• Ukraine International Airlines (Kiev.Ukraine)
• Wrigley Ukraine (Kiev.Ukraine)
• Bank Renaissance Capital (Kiev.Ukraine)
• Suntrade S.E. (Kiev.Ukraine)
• Interpipe (Kiev.Ukraine)
• Kyivstar GSM (Kiev.Ukraine)
• BDO, LLC (Dnepropetrovsk.Ukraine)

The summary of ACCA F8 Audit and Assurance

Quick look at ACCA F8 Audit and Assurance.

Assurance

Audit is the process, assurance is the product.

Agency theory: secondary agent (auditor) delivers the aussurance to principal (shareholders) that the report (FSs) provided by primary agent (director) shows T&F view.

Objective of EA is assurance, purpose of EA is delivery confidence of FSs to shareholders.
Reasonable assurance is a high degree of confidence, but NO guarantees!

5 elements of assurance engagement:

(1) 3 parties relationships:

• practitioner (auditor)
• responsible party (director)
• intended users (shareholders)

(2) subject matter
(3) criteria (standards)
(4) audit procedures to form opinion
(5) audit report

Positive assurance - high level, but not absolute, a lot of testings to form opinion, FSs show T&F view
Negative assurance - medium level, a smaller amount of testings to form opinion, we have no evidences that CF forecast does not provide T&F view.

Statutory audit is an audit of annual FSs.

Auditor & AC - matters to discuss:

• scope & timing of audit
• significant findings during audit
• independence issues
• modification of audit report (opinion)
• man-t representation requested
• fraud cases

Corporate governance (CG) - systems by wich the company directed and controlled.
Rules of CG:

• global - OCDE Code
• national - The US - SOX, The UK - The UK CG Code
• other - Stock Echange Rules

Underlying concepts of CG:
HAIR DRIFT

Related and correlated risks - ACCA P1 June 2013

To be honest, I missed this theme when I prepared for P1 June 2013. Reading the opentuition forum I discovered that the same question was in past paper P1 June 2011. Unfortunately, I didn't pratice all past papers. My knowledge of statistics helped me to find the right answer.

Related and correlated risks 

Question 1, part a), 10 marks (18 minutes)

Briefly explain ‘related’ and ‘correlated’ risks. Explore the correlation between legal risk and reputation risk for Hoppo if it were to cancel its contract with Red Co.


Related risks are the risk which vary because of the presence of another risk. They do not exist independently.

Correlated risks is a particular example of related risks.
Risks are positively correlated, if the one rises, then the another also rises and vice versa. That means they vary in the same direction.
Risks are negatively correlated, if the one rises, then the another falls and vice versa. That means they vary in opposite direction.

Successful ACCA exams strategy

How to write the answers to score high marks?
How to allocate sufficient time for all questions in a paper?
Why apparently well-prepared students performed badly in the actual exam?
Whenever a student marginally failed, they would insist that they did not understand why.

There are some good advices to prepare for successful passing ACCA exams:

1. Cover the complete syllabus

ACCA provides some amendments in their syllabuses every year. If you use the materials of your friends or colleagues from previous years, you should search for update materials to complete the syllabus.
There are some free materials !

2. Practice your handwriting in three hours sessions

The summary of ACCA P1 Governance, risk and ethics

Governance

Agency theory - directors act as agents of shareholders
Potential problem - strategy to benefit directors, not shareholders, different attitude to risk (not their investment), short-termism
Goal congruence - incentives to align interests (profit related pay and share option schemes)

Rules or principles-based approaches
Rules - SOX, legally enforced, section 404 ICFR penalises SMEs
Principles - UK Combined Code of CG, comply or explain, SMEs more leeway, not legally compulsory, market benefits or penalties for non-complier

CG concepts - HAIR DRIFT
Honesty- truth, not misleading
Accountability - directors accountable to shareholders, stakeholders
Independence - NEDs free from conflict of interests
Responsibility - directors responsible to stakeholders
Decision taking - improve wealth of an entity
Reputation - ability to comply with CG concepts
Integrity - honesty and balance, trustworthy
Fairness - take into account legitimate interests
Transparency - full disclosure of material matters

CG purposes -PIGCREW

Practice methods - governance provides practice methods to aid those who are managing a company
Investment - governance creates assurance and trust thereby attracting investment
Growth - governance creates conditions for growth of the economy
Control - it is set in place to control excessive behaviour in the organisation
Rules - it creates rules within which the organisation is operated
Employment - it creates employment as well as deals with several employment issues
Wealth - it supports a wealth-creating capitalist system

Chairman - role (Higgs report) - RAISE DIP
Run the board
Active engagement by board members
Induction programme
Sufficient time for complex decision
Effective communications with shareholders
Development needs for directors
Information provided accurately and timely
Performance evaluation

Useful Mnemonics for ACCA P1 Governance, ethics and risks

Preparing for exams, I have noticed that such enormous amount of new information is not able to be retained in my mind (!) How to improve the memory? The answer of this question is given by mnemonics. Many of teachers at Opentuition, BPP & LSBF use this technique in their lectures to improve the memorizing of their students.

I have collected some useful mnemonics for ACCA P1 Governance, ethics and risks. Hope it facilitates you to remember the relevant. :)

Ethical principles
PrOFIT

Probity
Openness
Fairness
Integrity
Transparency


Internal controls - categorisation
OPA SPAMS

Organisational Controls

• Control over the organisation structure including managers having specific responsibilities and delegations tasks.

Authorisation

• Controls to ensure that transactions do not proceed until an appropriate individual has given approval.

Physical

• Protection of assets against theft, unauthorised access or use.

Supervision

• Oversight of work of other individuals to ensure tasks are carried out correctly.

Personnel

• Controls in place to ensure the suitable people are employed.

Arithmetic Accounting

• Checking accounting transactions for accuracy, includes use of accounts and reconciliations (e.g. bank reconciliation).

Segregation/rotation

• Different people for each transaction to – Authorise, Record, Maintain physical custody of any assets (i.e. petty cash), pay for it.

Management Controls

• Control actions taken by management depending on the contents of reports received. Managers should be involved in the day to day supervision of staff.

Internal control - objectives

SCARE

Safegard Assets

Comply with Laws&Regulation

Accurate Financial Information

Reduce Fraud

Efficient Business

Corporate governance - concepts

HAIR DRIFT

Free past exam questions of ACCA F8 Audit and Assurance

Hello to everyone!

Preparing for an exam ACCA F8 Audit and Assurance (Int) I found the video with analysis and resolving past papers exam.

The lecturer Low Chin Ann - Kolej Bandar, Citypro (www.acca2u.com)  writes by hand the answers of questions in the answer sheets. This may be a very good example for students who are needed in time management in exam. This video helps to get the skill of fast navigation into the task and to present the answers clearly and precisely.

Low Chin Ann gives the recommendations about how many to write to gain more marks on exam.

Free video of ACCA F8 revision