Why students fail assessments

Posted by & filed under Ready, Set, Go.

There was a time when British cyclists barely won any Gold medals and not a single Tour de France, despite 110 attempts.

Then one day along came a new coach Dave Brailsford, with a different philosophy of doing a hundred things 1% better.

They call it the theory of marginal gains. And just as it brought fame and success for cyclists, Victoria Pendleton, Laura Trott, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome; and Sir Bradley Wiggins, it can work wonders for you.

Doing things 1% better

From planning revision to booking your assessment, there are a host of small things that you can do just a little bit better, to give yourself a precious edge. We have spoken to a range of tutors and training providers to find out where students slip up. Armed with their advice, this could help you avoid common mistakes.

Here is our list of marginal gains for you to achieve your breakthrough:

Pitfall – poor time management

Many students are running out of time in their assessments because they have no plan once the assessment starts.

This is often mentioned in connection to the Advanced Diploma assessment when working with spreadsheets in section 2.

Solution

Practice more mocks. Get used to the type of question. Work out which ones you can do quickly, and those that require more time.

Example: Phil Toomer MAAT, a former AAT student, and now an online tutor, recalls his experiences studying AAT’s Professional Diploma.

“I took mocks and found I was running out of time. So I began looking  at how much time I was spending in each section. I noticed I could do the numerical questions quite quickly. So I decided to do those first so I would know how much time was left for the written questions.

“Then I started practicing on the written questions so I could get my time down. When I came to take the actual assessment I finished with 25 minutes to spare.”

Pitfall – finishing too soon

Often students will close their assessment with time to spare.  For example, students for their Foundation Certificate may complete in half the time allotted and then just close the assessment.

Solution

Use left over time as an extra opportunity to check every question, you could pick up precious marks.

Pitfall – failing to get feedback

You might be taking a mock assessment from a book and then marking yourself. It’s crucial to get feedback on the written elements too.

Solution

Use resources like flashcards and take mock assessments. But also get feedback, especially on written elements, from your tutor or study buddies.

Arrange to take mocks a couple of weeks ahead of the actual assessment to give time to act on feedback. If possible, ask your tutor to comment.

If you are self-studying, join a Facebook group. Post your written answers and ask if someone will give feedback.

Pitfall – misreading the question

When it comes to the paper, read the questions calmly and thoroughly – don’t just dive in assuming you know what the examiner wants. Sometimes students will answer only half the question.

The question might be: ‘Identify X and describe with examples’. If you haven’t included the ‘examples’ – which many students don’t, you won’t get the full marks for that question.

Solution

Misunderstandings happen when students dive headlong into the question, because they are panicking about time. Make sure you manage your time, so you can read a question through thoroughly.

Pitfall –  writing skills

Accounting is no longer just about numbers. Explaining complicated things to non-financial readers is becoming an increasingly important part of the profession. It’s also increasingly important in assessments.

Marks can be lost through poor spelling and grammar. At Foundation and Advanced, the examiner’s report specifically highlights that spelling and grammar will be considered in the marks. At Professional, this is expected – as are detailed answers.

Solution

Practice as much as you can. Brush up on key words. Many students struggle in the assessment because they’ve misunderstood the ‘command words’ that crop up within the questions. Here’s a refresher on what the key verbs mean:

  • identify: Pick out several key points or assets from a list. There’s no need to be  over-descriptive
  • describe: Detail the features of a subject/object
  • explain: This means you have to include a ‘why’ or ‘because’ element. Simply outline how or why something happened
  • compare: Talk about the similarities and differences between two or more objects.

Learn more tips on study verbs. Or for Advanced Diploma, try this two-part series.

Spreadsheet skills

At the Advanced level, the big issue is spreadsheets. The students who have dealt with spreadsheets throughout the year are the ones getting good results.

If you’re not being taught spreadsheets, mention it to your tutor. You need to be using Excel on a regular basis to do well in the assessment.

You can hone your spreadsheet skills with our Excel Tips series.

Don’t forget the ‘standard’

The standard is the assessment syllabus, which students can access from AAT’s website. You should be able to see from the standard what topics will come up, and be able to go into the assessment armed with that knowledge. So few students are taking advantage of this – many don’t know it’s available.

Parting tips

  • Do all of your mandatory assignments, and make sure you pass them before you take your assessment. Some students are failing because they haven’t done this. It is better to book an assessment than cancel, because you are not ready than to go ahead without a pass under your belt.
  • Link your answers back to your scenarios.
  • Plan your schedule to give yourself the greatest chance of success. Do all the necessary work and submit it, get feedback from your tutor, then start your revision. What you don’t want is a six week gap in the middle.
  • Leave work that is not essential to the synoptic assessment. For example, postpone standalone units such as indirect tax. The same applies to optional units in level 4.
  • If your exam involves using accounting software, check that the venue uses software that you are used to. If you are used to the desktop version, and are asked to use the cloud version instead it could feel very unfamiliar and affect your performance.

Browse the full range of AAT study support resources here

The importance of practice assessments

Posted by & filed under Ready Set Go (Advanced).

You’re studying to achieve your qualification, so you need to pass assessments. 

It may be some time since you last sat an assessment.  As in life, preparation is key.

Failure to plan is planning to fail…

Enter your assessment date in your study planner. Then start to write your sticky notes and enter them in your diary.

  1. Review all your notes and practice, practice and practice. Reading the book is a passive form of learning and has limited success, so make your revision active. Can you recreate a definition on a postcard by only looking at the front?  Can you explain a principle to someone (real or imaginary)? 
  2. Once you’ve mastered that, do some e-learning on AAT, the Green Light tests are next on your task list.
  3. The Examiner reports are the next thing to read, review, scribble on and highlight.  All AAT units have one and it reviews the student’s past performances, showing what worked and where they were weak, learn from other’s mistakes – an easy win.
  4. Use the qualification specification for your qualification. , Go through the learning objectives and  work out what you can and can’t do.

Now you can plan – focus your studies to fill those weaknesses.

It’s very tempting to do questions you know, but in revision you need to concentrate on those you can’t answer.

Do as many practice questions as you can, the adage practice makes perfect is true in accountancy.

Practice assessments

When it comes to a practice paper, first read the question carefully, then read what you need to do, then read the question again.

So many marks are lost due to not answering the actual question asked, but answering what you think they have asked, or what you know.

Ensure that you understand the ’Active verb‘, it’s explained in more detail in the ‘Study tips – how to apply the active verbs’article.

Consider your answers

With practice papers, attempt to highlight the active verb and key points. So for example:

“Describe what’s required in a business document to make it professional.”

Your answer would be “A business document should be clear, easily understood, polite, accurate and free from errors.”

Finally practice assessments, do them under assessment conditions, no books, no music or disruption.

Don’t read the answers and say “Yes, that’s what I would have written.” It’s better learning to try, finish the paper and then review, if it’s wrong, you will learn from that.

Practice assessments are designed to get you familiar with the layout, what is likely to be asked and in what format. The more you practice them the better final grade you will get. They are great active learning and focus on what knowledge is needed to pass the assessment.

Top tip

Each time you sit an assessment and self-mark, make sure you review where you could get more marks. Use them as a tool to further identify areas where you need to do more revision.

Finally, assessments are not as scary as you imagine.

If you’re likely to get stressed, practice deep measured breathing and remember the assessor just wants to be sure you understand the topic, they’re not trying to catch you out. 

Browse the full range of AAT study support resources here

Career profile: HMRC’s CEO, Sir Jon Thompson

Posted by & filed under Inspiring stories.

Sir Jon Thompson is permanent secretary and CEO of HMRC.

He’s held the position since April 2016, when the organisation was starting work on one of its biggest projects in years: Making Tax Digital.

Thompson has made a career out of shaking up the public sector. Before HMRC, he was director general of finance and then permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence (MoD), where he oversaw one of the largest organisational changes in Europe, a restructuring that reduced costs by 20%. Before that, he was the first finance director of Ofsted, which led to him becoming director general of corporate services for the Department for Education.

All of Thompson’s prominent central government roles came later in his career: his children were grown up by the time Thompson moved to London and soared up the ladder. “It was a complete really, that I joined the civil service,” he explains. “After Gordon Brown, in the 2004 Budget, said he was going to recruit some finance people to professionalise the civil service, I got a phone call: ‘Do you fancy coming in and having a conversation?’”

Thompson’s story is testament to how far hard work and determination can take you. Here, he takes us through the milestones of his career, and the lessons he’s learned.

On specialising in the public sector

I did CIPFA after I completed the AAT qualifications. After a while, you develop an affinity with the public sector. There’s something special about wrestling with some of the really significant issues of state or the economy, which you get to do in the public sector.

I did work in the private sector. I spent two years working for Eagle Star, which is a defunct insurance company, and then I went to EY for five years, which was a fantastic experience, doing advisory, external order and all sorts.

One of my biggest clients – a local authority – tempted me back to the public sector. They needed a director of corporate services, so I applied. After five years of advising people how to do things, I wanted to see if I could do it myself.

On his MoD time

I was director general of corporate services at the Department for Education when I got the chance to work for the MoD. It was the last government organisation to get its own director general of finance. I had no background in defence, so it was a bit of a culture shock.

For one thing, it’s a very, very large organisation; we had a ten-year budget of around £360bn. The balance sheet is strong enough to enter the FTSE at number three.

It was an incredibly steep learning curve; in addition to being extremely complicated financially (it genuinely does involve rocket science), defence has this incredible internal language that is hard to understand if you don’t have a defence background. ‘Buckshee’, for example, means spare equipment.

One of the key challenges that every finance person faces is: how can you communicate complicated financial ideas in a language that non-finance people understand?

The biggest challenge at the MoD was the culture change needed as part of the work we were doing. Undertaking one of the largest organisational change programmes in Europe requires a big shift. You can simplify processes, get control of the money and put in accountability systems, but how will you behave as a person in this new system? Are you going to change it enough so that, for example, you take responsibility for finance as a business leader? That takes longer than changing systems and processes.

It’s generally the last thing that changes in an organisation. The key to making it work is listening and learning. It taught me a lot about being a leader. I remember when Philip Hammond, who was defence secretary at the time, stood up in Parliament and announced that the MoD had got control of its budget at a time when public debt was out of control. That was probably the highlight of my time there.

Do as many different things as you can. Diversity is great. It gives you depth of experience

On his early days with AAT

I left school at 18. I didn’t go to university. We were a very working-class family: go to the comprehensive, leave with a bunch of A Levels – that sort of thing. I became an apprentice at the local council and they said: “We want to do some structured learning.” So I did a couple years of a BTECH National in business and finance.

That then enabled me to go on to do the AAT qualifications in 1986. It was fabulous, because I could relate the work I was doing with the structured learning that I was getting at the college. My son is currently finishing his AAT qualifications. He’s following in the old man’s footsteps because AAT gives him a great platform. It doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll become an accountant – AAT opens up doors.

I can also think of a friend of mine in their mid-40s who has been doing bookkeeping and finance for a while, and is now doing AAT on the basis that it might open up something else for the rest of their career.

AAT offers an age-blind qualification that enables you to access other opportunities. Then it’s down to you to use the platform however you want to – whatever suits your life.

On transforming HMRC’s vision

When I first started at HMRC, I assumed that there was a vision for where it would go, but there wasn’t, and we needed to deliver some serious digital change.

After three months of discussion with colleagues we decided this: we wanted to be a world-class organisation in our field. PwC recently said that
we were second in the world.

We think of ourselves as the largest customer-service organisation in Europe. In the past couple of years, we’ve significantly improved from the lows of 2015. If you want to ring us now, it takes us on average under five minutes to pick up the phone, whereas before it was more than 30 minutes.

We actually break customers into six different groups. One of those groups, believe it or not, is organised criminals. We treat them as a discrete set of customers. It’s about getting the balance correct between helping the vast majority who want to get things right and cracking down on the actual criminals.

We’re also one of the biggest digital businesses in Europe. By the spring of 2016, 18 million customers had a digital tax account with us. That means we must span a number of disciplines, not just tax.

Making Tax Digital is a way for us to strip out some of the complications and make it easier for people to do business. I did my self-assessment online in under ten minutes. We’ll soon be able to link our computer system with yours, so the information just transfers digitally out of your system into ours, when you’re ready. It could completely remove the need to fill out forms. We think there’s a lot of potential in that.

On the need for balance in your career

Your decisions in life need to be a blend of the career-focused and personal. You have to think about where you want to live and how your choices affect the important people in your life. Do you want to maximise your earnings or not?

You have to sit down and make those decisions with your loved ones. I didn’t start working in London until later on in my career. We moved when I was 48, as my children had started to leave home. There was a point when my children’s education was the priority – that meant that, if I wanted another job, I was limited to 50 miles from where we were living, to give them that stability.

When the youngest one went off to university, we thought: “Do we have to stay here or not?” My final piece of advice would be: do as many different things as you can. Diversity is great. It gives you depth of experience. I think this is my 22nd job and my eighth employer. It may or may not turn out to be my last.

This article appeared in our summer 2018 issue of 20 magazine.

The benefits of collaborating with other industries for your business

Posted by & filed under Networking, Run your business.

Are you looking to grow your business, gain a few more clients or expand your skill set?

Forming a strategic partnership with a like-minded business could be a creative and cost-effective way to do it.

No doubt you have valuable services, talent and/or resources that you can share in return for help in an area that you need it so it will be a win-win situation for both parties.

It’s better together

Particularly if you’re a small business, it’s easy to feel restricted by lack of time, resources and tight budgets. If you work on your own then sometimes it can be lonely – the creative juices can dry up and motivation to win new business can wain.

But of course, there are many other businesses in similar situations, lots who you probably already have in your network. Consider opportunities that you might have closer to home for collaboration or cross-promotion where two (or more) heads will be better than one. 

What to look for in a potential partner

  • Someone who is already part of your network or has come recommended.
  • A business with goals and values that align with your own.
  • Where is the overlap, for example, a matching target audience? What can you offer to each other?
  • Good communication is essential – be honest with each other about your expectations.
  • Be prepared to cultivate the relationship – learn and grow together. 

7 brilliant business partnership ideas

Idea 1: Service or skill swap

How it works: Identify a service or skill that your business would benefit from acquiring, find a relevant provider and offer them a contra-deal of your services in return.

Example: A client of yours runs a marketing company and you need help running your social media channels – offer to exchange accounting services of a similar value.

Idea 2: Sharing resources

How it works: Club together with another business to share the costs of resources like equipment, premises or admin staff.

Example: Two sole traders currently working from home expand into a rented office space together.

Idea 3: Advertise together

How it works: Split the costs for advertising or marketing by sharing the space.

Example: At an event for SMEs, share a trade stand with a legal company where you both offer packages for startups.

Idea 4: Cross-promote to customers

How it works: Both businesses go out to their database with a special offer from the other.

Example: Team up with your local printers to offer a special offer to their clients and in return promote one for them to yours.

Idea 5: Expansion of services

How it works: Grow your business and improve your customer offering by collaborating with another business in the same industry who offer a complementary service.

Example: Find a local business with a service that you don’t offer (for example, bookkeeping) to offer a full service to your clients for managing their finances (and so the bookkeeping business can do the same to their clients by using your services).

Idea 6: Share content

How it works: Build a network online where you share each other’s content.

Example: Twitter is great for finding like-minded businesses – start sharing their tweets and blogs and you’ll get the same in return. When you have more established relationships you can guest blog for one another or be interviewed on their podcast.

Idea 7: Create something brand new together

How it works: Let the creativity flow with your new partner.

Example: Team up with a freelance designer to start a co working space or networking group for local businesses.

The first steps to finding that perfect partner

  1. Adopt an open attitude to new opportunities – don’t restrict your possibilities and be prepared to relinquish a bit of control.
  2. Explore existing business relationships and friendships – these are more likely to be fruitful than cold calling potential partners.
  3. When you network, do it with finding new partners in mind, as well as new clients. Keep an eye out for partners on business courses and at industry events.
  4. Make contact – get in touch and propose a trial partnership.
  5. Go with your gut instinct – if something doesn’t feel right it’s probably not.
  6. Try out different partners and don’t be disheartened if the first one doesn’t work out – it’s all part of the learning curve.

Data analytics – 3 – visualisation techniques to bring your data to life

Posted by & filed under AATPowerUp, Data analytics.

The third part of our series on data analytics from digital guru Chris Argent introduces the art of data visualisation.

In one sense, data visualisation is not new to us finance professionals.

Accounting has always involved handling data, from processing transactions, to analysing performance, or complying with regulations and standards

Part of that challenge has been to make the data easy to understand with visualisation.

The big change has been in the sheer amount of information available. And of course the sophistication of tools available to do it.

Organisations generate more data these days. There also public or commercial databases with useful information. As a result, better tools with more power and functionality have been developed. So we need to take a fresh look at data visualisation and consider it as a key tool in our toolkit.

Pictures are power

Data visualisation has been around for longer than you think. And people have been using it to solve big problems and gain a strategic advantage.

Early world maps such as the Piri Reis map are a good illustration.

Piri Reis map
The Piri Reis map charted the Atlantic from Europe to America

The Piri Reis map was created in 1513 by the cartographer of the same name from military intelligence sources. In those days, the nation that ruled the waves had the potential to rule the world. So a reasonably accurate visualisation of oceans and coastlines had the potential to unlock a huge advantage.

The processes behind the compilation of the map are similar to modern day data visualisation:

First, define the challenge.

Second, bring the data together.

Source data for the map was distributed all over the world and not structured in a helpful, easily consumable way. This included navigator knowledge, ships logs, historical diaries, regional map and picture books. 

So Piri Reis’s solution was to combine 20-34 sources, remodel them into one consolidated view, understand them better in one database, then create one visualisation using colour, pictures, text and keys.

500 years on, we take much the same approach in data visualisation today.

The 5 most influential data visualisations of all time

Take a look at some data visualisation examples that have made history.

Download PDF

Design principles for data visualisation

Data visualisation needs to help businesses observe trends and patterns, helping users see those patterns fast, understand and remember the data better, and enable real-time decision making, by speeding up consumption of data and changing course, based on live data feeds.

All of this can be done globally, collaboratively, quickly on a self-service basis, and content can be explored and edited by both accountants and analysts, and business users with their own custom views to help them understand their part of the business decision.

Data visualisation focuses on presenting data in the most meaningful way, for quick delivery of insight to support decision making.  It involves making best use of visuals or graphical resources to strengthen human awareness and facilitate understanding of information and insight.

Design for the mind

Great presentation requires a little understanding of the way the human mind works and how we perceive and react to information.

  1. People find multiple attributes hard to process.
  2. Our attention capacity is limited.
  3. Cluttering our field of vision is distracting.
  4. Patterns can be observed if presented effectively.
  5. People’s attention is drawn to contrast.
  6. We dislike ambiguity.

Example: Hollywood films

This popular visualisation was created to explain the performance of the biggest Hollywood films.  It was well received, but in terms of business decision making it helps to highlight some of our own limitations with consuming data and the need to get it right. 

Hollywood Insider visualisation (click to view)

How accurately and quickly can you answer the below performance-related questions?

  • What’s the ratio of profitable films or loss-making films?
  • Which genre has the most flops?
  • Is there any relationship between the Critic’s rating and profit recovery?

More movie ideas

This page showcases more ways to communicate success factors in the movie business.

Which works best?

Example: probability matrix

A probability impact matrix like the one below is a very common way of visualising project risk. It demonstrates good use of contrast. For example, red draws attention to the high risk projects that need to be reviewed.  But it’s also a bit bland. Also, it’s a little ambiguous because it doesn’t tell a story or give a precise message about what to focus on.

Click to view original

How accurately and quickly can you answer the below performance related questions?

  • Which project needs our most attention?
  • What the definition of a high-risk project?
  • Are any “moderate” impact projects defined as high-risk projects?

Example: life expectancy around the world

This is a more successful example of data visualisation. The problem it addresses is clear and the illustration also tells a story about record-keeping over time and by location. You can probably detect this and answer the following questions without difficulty. 

Click for interactive version

Click for interactive version

From these graphics, how easily could you answer the following questions?

  • Which regions have the best and worst life expectancy?
  • Which countries have been keeping records the longest?
  • How has average life expectancy changed?

How to develop your skills

There is a growing range of software to help with visualisation projects. But even with these, it is vital to broaden your own understanding as much as you can.

There are several ways to do this.

  • Be aware of all the different types of visualisations available to you.
  • Buy a few books that “make data beautiful”.
  • See how infographics and graphic designers make data more interesting to their readers.

As with the Piri Reis map, think about the problem and the purpose of the visualisation and go on a journey with the message.

  • Think of the user and allow them to find the message on their own terms, with their preferences.
  • Consider the overall challenge, audience needs, and actual content.
  • How should you structure the display for speed and simplicity?
  • What can you do to ensure messages can be consumed fast?
  • Finally, what will visualisation be?

Make a conscious decision on the type of visualisation that you want to use, and how easy it will be for users to understand the message in the data.  Think of the pro’s and con’s of using one visualisation compared to another, one colour scheme to another.  It’s worth taking time to get the above right, as the visual may be part of a report or dashboard for a very long time.  A few minutes here, my save a lot of questions later on.

The next level – data dashboards

Individual visualisations can be combined in to one big visual to highlight the most important information and KPIs needed by each type of business user.  The aim is to create a single view that can be understood at a glance.  Enter the Dashboard.

Dashboards are hard to get right.  As you can see, just one visual needs careful consideration so a collection of visuals with different formats and messages needs even more.  The main challenges are to display all the required metrics and messages on one screen, clearly, so it’s easy to understand and consume fast.

It is possible if worked on collaboratively.  Consider the overall design keeping the user in mind, ask them want they want regularly and aim to eliminate clutter and distraction, group data into logical sections consider the messages being communicated, highlight what’s most important (the top left of a screen is the most prominent place for this) and show meaningful comparisons, not just last year or the budget, think of decision lead times and use that time horizon. 

Microsoft-power-bi-socila media
Social media sentiment (click to view)
dundas-health-and-safety
Health and safety dashboard
migrant deaths
Tracking migrant deaths
HR Dashboard

Conclusion

Take Data Visualisation seriously.  As you can see people like to see information in a particular way, and the above is just the tip of the data/mind iceberg.  It’s time to get serious as data will only get bigger and bigger, and getting data visualisation right can be the difference between making a good business decision and a bad business decision, winning a profitable deal or losing a deal, retaining your business seat at the table or losing them.

Glossary

KPIs – Key Performance Indicators a quantifiable measure used to evaluate the success of a business and organisation in meeting strategic and performance objectives.

Data Attribute – Is the characteristic of data that sets it apart from other data, such as location, length, or type.  This is important to understand when visualising lots of data from one model.

Data Model – Is how we organise different data attributes and simplify and standardise how they relate to one another in the real world entities.

Common Data Visualisation Tools – Sisense, Looker, Domo, Tableau, Power BI, Qlik, MicroStrategy.

About the author:

Chris Argent has overseen digital finance transformation projects for Vodafone, Amazon and John Lewis. He is the founder of Generation CFO – an online resource for finance professionals.

Chris is a speaker at the 2019 AAT Annual Conference. Find out more here:
Annual conference

How to turn stress into productivity

Posted by & filed under Mental health, Ready, Set, Go.

According to NHS reports, doctors wrote 13% more notes for stress and anxiety in 2016/17 than in the previous year.

While the most recent figures from Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates that 15.4 million workdays per year are lost to stress.

If you experience excessive stress over a long period of time it can cause headaches, muscle tension and sleeping problems. However, equipped with the right tools, stress can be positive, helping you become more productive.

Enter the flow zone

If you take early action, it’s possible to turn negative stress into positive pressure. Within reason, a bit of stress can be a powerful motivator.

Eustress is the energy you experience when you’re challenged by a difficult situation but still in control. Aiming high for something important but challenging will give you the experience of eustress – training for a marathon, travelling to a foreign country or going on a first date.

While stressful, the anticipation, excitement and courage required to undertake any of these activities helps to push you to higher levels of performance, cope under pressure and develop determination.

Positive stress

This kind of positive stress is sometimes called “flow”, meaning a state in which you are so involved and engaged in an activity that you lose track of time and forget about what’s going on around you. To enter the flow zone, you need to give yourself the space to concentrate intently on a task that is challenging, but that you have the skill to complete.

So how do you ensure when you’re studying you’re experiencing eustress, not distress

  1. Practice, practice, practice

To be able to achieve flow you need to be skilled at what you’re doing.

This doesn’t mean you need to know indirect tax back to front, but it does mean you need to practice being a better student by studying regularly, developing a better ability to focus in each study session and finding ways to connect the concepts you’re learning.

2. Remember hard work equals meaningful results

To achieve flow you need to be working on something that challenges you, that allows you to become immersed in solving the problem or learning new skills.

Your studies are a perfect vehicle to achieve flow. Work that matters to you will help you find flow.

3. Give yourself space

Avoid distractions like emails and text alerts which pull you out of the zone. Give yourself an environment to work in that allows you to focus completely.

4. Set goals

You need to know where you’re going in order to get there. Working hard without an idea of the outcome means it’s impossible for you to know what success looks like, and therefore what to strive for.  Satisfaction will come from knowing you’ve achieved what you set out to do.

Give mindfulness a try

Emma Mamo, Head of Workplace Wellbeing at mental health charity Mind, recommends using mental exercises to build a more resilient body and mind.

“Mindfulness involves making a special effort to give your full attention to what is happening in the present moment,” explains Mamo. “You focus on what’s happening in your body, your mind or your surroundings, in a non-judgemental way. It can help people become more self-aware.”

Try a mindfulness course to learn how to focus on the present moment and turn stress into motivation. You can try an online course, work with an offline practitioner, or try The Mindfulness App to practice on the go.

Set and defend your boundaries

To make stress motivational, it’s important to set some personal boundaries. Carole Spiers, chair of the International Stress Management Association, recommends seeking help if you struggle with a specific task, or if balancing out multiple commitments becomes difficult. It’s also important to stick to healthy study habits to maintain a clear work-life balance.

“At the end of your day you need to shut down and return to your personal life,” says Spiers. “There are plenty of people who never switch off. There are many small things you could do. For example, not going to bed at night with your phone next to you could help considerably.”

Always focus on the task at hand – whether you’re studying or relaxing – by removing distractions. Put your phone away and find a quiet spot to study. Keep track of why you’re doing a specific task and what goal it ultimately serves.

Don’t be too hard on yourself

If you feel guilty for experiencing stress it’ll always be harder to turn your stress into positive motivation.

Gail Kinman, a chartered psychologist and an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society, believes it’s important to be kind to yourself if stress makes you feel like you’re worthless or weak.

“We’re often much harder on ourselves than we would be on our loved ones,” she says.

“We tell ourselves that we don’t work hard enough and should be able to cope. But if somebody you’re close to was going through the same thing, you’d be much more understanding. Practice self-kindness: see yourself as human and fallible, and as somebody who deserves forgiveness and breaks.”

Rather than letting stress take control of you, take control over your stress and turn it into motivation.

Arm yourself with a strong set of skills to achieve that enjoyable flow state, use mindfulness to turn your perspective on its head, and focus on your long-term goals.

Celebrate your success once you’ve completed a task, and you’ll find yourself benefiting from the energy and stimulation it brings before you know it.

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4 ways to remember what you learn

Posted by & filed under Ready, Set, Go.

Whilst you are studying, it’s important to explore the best ways that you are able to review and retain information.

We have four great ideas to share, to help you climb to the peak of performance.

However, you should also consider the popular study habits that may not do you any favours.

Habit 1 – re-reading

Re-reading is the default method of revision. Re-reading material generates a warm feeling of familiarity with the information. We mistake this for mastery of the subject. But it’s an illusion. Try this test. Think of a favourite song. You really love it, and are totally familiar with it. Can you remember the words from beginning to end? Probably not.

Re-reading notes and materials is the go-to approach for many of us, but it is a surprisingly ineffective way to create long term memories and master the material.

To learn, you need to actively engage with the information, which means using it too. For example, recalling it to answer questions, or linking it to other concepts in different combinations.

Habit 2 – highlighting

When we unleash a set of highlighter pens, we feel like we are really getting down to serious study. However, there is little learning benefit to highlighting or underlining text. What we are doing is making it easier to re-read.

A 2013 study by the Association for Psychological Science found highlighting and underlining did not aid knowledge retention, even though both practices are incredibly popular.

Highlighting can actually be counterproductive because it draws attention to specific facts rather than the whole concept. This may get in the way of the brain making connections with related topics that you’re already familiar with.

Again, highlighting distracts us from the real key to learning – recalling and using the information.

Habit 3 – laptops

Laptops are incredibly popular as study tools. They seem like a great way to compile notes, and offer the advantages of speed and searchability.

However, studies have shown taking notes straight into a computer leads students to write far more but process less. In other words, they tempt us to become more typist than student.

Researchers at Princeton University and the University of California looked into this. They compared the performance of students using pen and paper to take notes in a lecture against those using laptops. They found students who used a laptop did not understand the lecture as well as those who wrote their notes out by hand.

Everyone is different, but producing volumes of notes on a computer may be setting you up for long re-reading sessions.

Better study habits

Here are some different ways of taking notes and revising information.

Tip 1 – Cornell note taking

The Cornell note-taking method is a proven formula that’s been around since the 1940’s and has three strengths ‘baked in’, it encourages note-taking, summarising and review.

For this approach, you need to prepare your notepaper by dividing it into three areas. Draw a rule at the bottom about three fingers’ width from the foot of the page. This is the summary area. Above this, is the area where you will record your notes. You should divide this space in two by adding a column on the left side – again about three fingers’ width. This is the cues/questions column.

Use the large note area for jotting notes and drawing pictures as you study.  Write key words in the cues/questions column alongside as you go. This will help you recognise and link concepts. Later you can recap the ideas more formally in the summary area to get you really thinking about the information.

Tip 2 – mind mapping

Mind mapping is an even more flexible way of taking notes. The basic principle is, that you start with a blank page and write your topic in the centre. You then add individual keywords or short phrases connecting them to your topic with lines.

Mind maps can have as many levels as you like. You can also get the creative side of your brain involved by drawing pictures and adding colour. This helps ingrain the information and make it easier to recall, say, concepts behind keywords – because more of your mental faculties are involved with the information.

Mind maps can be drawn by hand, or using software on PCs or  tablets.

Tip 3 – summarising

Summarising and re-writing is a great skill to use, whether or not you use the Cornell method.

AAT bookkeeping student Donna Maclaren shared with us how she used this technique to help her conquer questions in AAT Advanced Certificate in Bookkeeping. ‘I found that there was a lot of info to collect and retain, and got myself mixed up at times.’

‘My way of learning was to write it down on paper every day, until it sunk in. I concentrated solely on Debit and Credit and what sides the individual accounts go to, and also only learned what goes into a P&L. Once you know that it is easier to sort out the Statements of Financial Position.’ Using this approach, Donna raised her score by 23% in her resit.

Tip 4 – the Feynman technique

Einstein apparently said if you can’t explain something simply, you don’t fully understand it. A good way to get something straight in your head is to teach it to somebody else. The best way to do this, is to imagine you are teaching it to a child.

This is basically the Feynman technique, invented by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman to help you learn anything. In a nutshell, you have to:

  • Find a concept
  • Write everything you know about the subject in simple language and imagine you are explaining it to an eight year old, using analogies and pictures
  • Review your explanation pinpointing any area in which your knowledge is lacking or unclear
  • Rewrite all your material again, addressing the weaknesses

It’s good to experiment with these techniques and see what work best for you. Whichever one you choose, make sure you combine it with spaced repetition for maximum effect.

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How to prepare for your appraisal/performance review

Posted by & filed under Career, HR.

Does the thought of sitting down with your boss and talking about your performance fill you with dread? If it does, you’re not alone.

Work appraisals or performance reviews are often seen as scary and stressful. But they don’t have to be.

Appraisals can actually offer a great opportunity to move on in your career, instigate changes that make your day-to-day life easier, or even get a pay rise.

Whether you know you’ve been struggling, or feel confident you have out-performed, preparation is the key to making your next appraisal a positive experience.

How appraisals work

In most companies, performance reviews are conducted at least once a year (although some companies are changing the appraisal format altogether).

The aim is to give you and your manager a chance to discuss how you are getting on, and to set some career goals for the next six or 12 months.

Generally speaking, appraisals consist of a written form via which you can assess how you think you’ve performed, followed by a one-on-one meeting with your manager.

However, in some instances, appraisals may also include feedback on your performance from other people, such as colleagues and clients.

How to fill out the appraisal form

Appraisal forms usually ask you to record your achievements over a certain period, rate your performance during that time, and set down objectives for the next six months or year.

Make sure your responses highlight your successes and illustrate how well you are fulfilling your responsibilities.

“Go through your job description and try to come up with an example of how you are excelling at each element,” said construction site manager Dave Harris.

Top tips for your appraisal form

  • Be honest – it’s much better to assess your performance fairly and explain how you plan to improve.
  • Be succinct – keep sentences short and try not to repeat yourself.
  • If you’re having trouble coming up with examples of your achievements, ask your colleagues – you may be pleasantly surprised.
  • Be specific – vague statements will do little to further your cause.
  • Emphasise how your skills have developed – mention any training or courses you have done.
  • If you want to move up the ladder, state the role you would like – and find out what skills you need to get there.
  • Be positive – keep the tone upbeat and constructive.

How to prepare for the performance review meeting

Once you’ve completed your written form, your boss should set up a meeting to discuss your responses, give his or her feedback, and set your objectives.

This meeting is also your chance to discuss your workload, and highlight any issues – as well as exploring your career goals.

Try to come up with goals that are SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.

“Agreeing clear, objectively verifiable goals at the end of your appraisal will make it easier for you to show how well you have performed at your next review,” said Robin Holt, a project manager in the charitable sector.

“If, for example, you are asked to deliver a piece of work by June, make sure you know whether that means complete the report or implement the report recommendations.”

Other sensible steps include pulling together any results, such as sales figures or students’ grades, that illustrate your success over the period under review.

Be ready too to take responsibility for any failings.

“Be open about the support you need from your manager to increase your chances of success,” Holt said.

And remember: while it’s important to fight your corner, it’s equally important to show you can accept constructive criticism.

Finally, prepare some questions to ask your manager during your review.

These could include:

Can I take a course to improve my skills (in a certain area)?

Top tips for your performance review meeting

  • Avoid reading out a long list of achievements – it should be a conversation, not a monologue.
  • Acknowledge areas or skills that need improving – and suggest ways to achieve this.
  • Be enthusiastic – where possible, show appreciation for the company and your role within it.
  • Practise – talk through your career aspirations with friends and family so you’re clear about what you want to say.
  • Shine – this is your chance to make an impression. Don’t waste it!

Five things to start now

Skills shortage – how accountancy firms can work around this

Posted by & filed under Run your business, Skills.

With accountancy firms a vital part of the business world, it’s essential that the sector has the talent it needs to be able to cope with client demands and regulatory requirements.

But the industry has long faced the challenge of skills shortages, and there is little sign of that improving.

According to the Hays Salary and Recruiting Trends 2019 guide, 89% of firms in the sector say they have experienced some kind of skills shortage in the past year.

The difficulties have been compounded by a lack of qualified candidates entering the market, as a result of firms cutting back on recruitment and training of junior staff during the economic downturn.

“We are witnessing a shortage of middle management candidates – technically strong ACA-practice-trained accountants, specifically across the finance and accountancy sector,” says Martin Parr, a manager at recruiter Sellick Partnership.

“This is as a result of the 2008 recession when firms cut their graduate schemes, meaning that there were less candidates entering the market. These candidates are now qualifying, giving us a shortage.”

Providing ‘micro advisory’ services

James Poyser, CEO of inniAccounts, says the sector itself is polarising into the highly technical end of accounting and ‘micro-advisory’ services, with the skills required for the latter in particular short supply. “Micro-advisory services will be propelled by HMRC’s digital plan,” he says.

“It provides clients with regular nudges and reminders on what to do, when to do it and will come with an element of strategic input. It’s going to be crucial for the growth of our industry as more automation comes in. But, as it stands, we don’t have the skill to support it. There isn’t enough of the highly technical and capable skill, and not nearly enough of those with the emotional intelligence to provide advisory services.”

New skills are also required as accountants move into providing advice to clients which might traditionally have come from banks.

“Accountants need to be better prepared for this broader client service role,” says Ollie Maitland, co-founder and CPO at Capitalise.

“Advisors must have an awareness of the extent of financial products in the UK ecosystem and develop their client handling and people skills in order to satisfy new client expectations. This need is particularly acute among manager-level staff.”

How to address the shortage

Firms in the sector are turning to various ways to address the shortage and ensure they can attract and retain the skills they need. “Most of the organisations we speak to are combating this shortage by raising salaries and offering much better benefits, such as flexible working, increased holiday allowances and higher pensions,” says Parr.

“We have seen businesses offering between £5,000 and £10,000 more than they were for the same roles a few years ago. This is, however, becoming an issue for smaller firms that do not have the budget, who are often priced out of the market when considering the best talent.”

Broadening the recruitment base

The Big Four firms have also broadened the base from which they will recruit, he adds, by removing some information about university and education from CVs.

“Historically, these businesses would generally only employ candidates with a ‘red brick’ university education,” he says. “By removing this information from CVs, candidates are being interviewed and considered on merit alone, giving them a wider pool of talent to choose from.”

Mike Lloyd is managing partner at Haines Watts Swindon. His firm has put more emphasis on recruiting the right people at the beginning of their career and keeping them with the business.

“Giving them a clear career path is key,” he says. “The current generations are not as fixated on security and seldom see things as a job-for-life so if you are going to keep them then their role needs to evolve and they have to see how it can work from day one.”

Finding out what they want as a reward for success is also important, he adds, as this may not be what an employer assumes. “This may not be a money bonus or shares – it could be support for a charitable event or something else,” he adds.

Temporary measures for immediate skills need

Some 40% of accountancy and finance employers have hired temp or contract workers to address immediate skill shortages, according to the Hays research, but 22% are turning to developing the skills of existing staff.

“We have observed a variety of learning initiatives: 14% have increased their training budget, 13% have implemented a mentoring programme and 25% have allowed employees study leave for external training,” says James Brent, director at Hays Accountancy and Finance.

Many firms are also taking steps to develop younger talent, including school leavers, rather than relying on graduates or more experienced hires. One in four (26%) have turned to apprentices, says Brent. 

Developing an apprenticeship programme

“Apprenticeships are key to attracting new generations into the profession and will help address skills shortages,” he says. “These opportunities enable faster mobilisation of skilled staff which in time will help alleviate skills shortages.”

One example here is BDO, which has increased the number of apprenticeship vacancies it offers to those who choose not to go to university.

“This has been beneficial as it allows us to hire promising, digital-ready talent at an earlier stage, developing them from the outset while offering an alternative route to gaining a professional qualification and the chance to ‘earn while you learn’,” says Teresa Payne, head of people.

“Apprentices can begin their career three years ahead of their peers at university in an environment where training is aligned to both business needs and technological advances.”

Developing your team from the inside

inniAccounts, meanwhile, has developed its own academy for new starters, school leavers and existing members of the team to help ensure staff learn some of the skills that are becoming increasingly important.

“It means they are continually learning about accounting and acquiring new skills like listening, problem solving, and developing a strategic vision which will become essential,” says Poyser.

Technology could also help alleviate skills shortages by seeing some elements of the job automated, although this is also likely to increase the need for other skills, believes Brent.

“In particular, automation projects are contributing to the increased need for operations and technical skills in accountancy and finance, rising from 27% last year to 40% this year,” he says.

Future recruitment challenges

Despite the various coping strategies organisations are putting in place, it seems likely that the sector will continue to struggle to attract and retain the talent it needs for a while yet.

According to the Hays research, 68% of accountancy and finance employers expect their greatest recruitment challenge for the next 12 months to be a shortage of suitable applicants. While 42% said the competition to secure talent was their biggest concern and 77% plan to increase salaries over the coming year to hold on to staff.

Where firms do have gaps, it’s vital they move quickly to fill them, particularly in the middle-management roles where the battle for talent is at its most intense, says Parr.

“Businesses that do have the budget and are able to attract the best candidates need to act fast to stand a chance of securing the best candidates,” he says. “A lengthy recruitment process will only deter candidates and allow rival organisations to have the upper hand.”

Study tips: the non-current assets cycle – part 1

Posted by & filed under Advanced Diploma, Students.

The first article in our series on the non-current assets cycle for AAT Advanced Diploma students.

Study Tips: Non-current assets cycle series

Every business needs items that are fundamental to enabling its existence, be that a laptop for a self-employed consultant like myself or a factory full of machinery for a large manufacturing organisation. 

These items are non-current assets and their accounting treatment is a significant topic which all accounting students need to understand. This is because the cycle of buying, owning and disposing of non-current assets incorporates a variety of accounting concepts and advanced bookkeeping skills.

We are going to look at this cycle over the course of three articles to try and better understand the theory, processes and double entry bookkeeping involved.

I recently noticed that my laptop was making a funny noise.  It is six years old and coming to the end of its useful economic life.  I cannot work without it though, as everything I do for clients is done using a computer.

As I am a self-employed I can easily make the decision to replace it because my capital expenditure doesn’t need authorising.  My most challenging issue is how I fund a replacement as I do not have the capital reserves or access to credit that larger organisations usually have.

Non-current assets policies

Now let’s contrast my situation with that of a large manufacturing organisation (LMO Ltd) as the same issues arise but because the scale is bigger they need to be dealt with differently.  As organisations grow they reach a point where it is impossible for the owner(s) to make every single decision because there are just too many.

Therefore they create policies and procedures to enable others to make decisions in line with the owners’ wishes. There are often policies around replacing non-current assets after a set period of time rather than just waiting for them to go wrong or wear out.  There are also likely to be authorisation procedures that mean different amounts of expenditure can be sanctioned at appropriate levels.

For example, a production manager might be authorised to buy replacement parts to ensure that machinery is kept running on a day to day basis, but is unlikely to have the authority to actually replace a machine itself.

Strategic capital expenditure

Non-current assets are defined as items purchased with the intention of long term use within a business.  Therefore their purchase is often a strategic decision and involves significant capital expenditure.

I spent an afternoon researching laptops on the internet and found a suitable replacement that costs £380 plus £10 delivery, and £36 for software.  I also applied for a 0% credit card and calculated the monthly repayments needed to clear the debt by the end of the 18 month term.

Now, for comparison, let’s say a machine at LMO Ltd is due to be replaced and will cost around £10,000.  LMO have a policy of capitalising items over £500 and the procedure is for the procurement manager to acquire three competitive quotes from the company’s approved suppliers.  At the same time the finance manager may be looking at funding options to see if there is enough spare capital to make a cash purchase or whether financing, in the form of a bank loan or lease agreement, might be best.

The next step in the process could be for the management accountant to analyse the options using some capital investment appraisal techniques, such as calculating the payback period, discounting the net cashflows to calculate the net present value (NPV) of each option and comparing the NPVs to the company’s required internal rate of return.  A management meeting is likely then to take place to decide which machine to buy and the most suitable funding method.

Is it revenue or capital expenditure?

I researched, bought and had my laptop up and running in two days and spent £426.  However, LMO Ltd’s capital expenditure procedure is likely to take months to complete, even before the delivery and installation time is factored in, plus its spend will be around £10,000.  The disparity is due to the significant differences between the two businesses such as their types, sizes and decision making processes.

However, despite this, capital expenditure will have been made and a non-current asset purchased in both examples.

Let’s now imagine that LMO Ltd need to replace a laptop and just happens to select the same make and package as me.  The company’s capitalisation policy means that the purchase will be treated as revenue instead of capital expenditure, even though the laptop is intended for long term use in the business.

The concept of materiality

This is an example of the fact that accounting is not one size fits all, and is made possible by the application of International Accounting Standard 1 (IAS 1) and specifically the accounting concept of materiality.

The concept states that an item is material if its omission will influence the economic decisions of the users of the accounts.  IAS 1 allows organisations to select appropriate accounting policies as long as accounting concepts, such as accruals, going concern and materiality are adhered to, and objectives like relevance and comparability are adopted.

Judgement needs to be applied in the case of materiality and this means that as a sole trader the laptop is material to my accounts and should be shown as an asset on my statement of financial position (SoFP).  However, it also means that LMO Ltd can adopt a capitalisation policy which is appropriate to its size and write off items, which are technically assets but are determined to be immaterial, as expenses on the statement of profit or loss (SoPL) instead.

In part two we will look at the invoice for LMO Ltd’s new machine, and how to record its acquisition in the accounting records and non-current asset register.

We will also look at other policies and procedures the company has regarding non-current assets and how it complies with IAS 16 – Property, Plant and Equipment.

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