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

Teresa Clarke Hi. Do you have a question?

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 What are you struggling to remember?

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.

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

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

Teresa Clarke Can you give me an example or two?

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 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.

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.

Natasha Everard Ruby White here 🙂

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?

try make up names to remember things

use flash cards and post it notes around the house

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

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 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 Hi I’m here

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 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 Can you pass if you get all the smaller questions right?

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.

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.

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 Profit = Economic Growth

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.

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 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 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 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.

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

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 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 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 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 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?

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 🙂

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

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

Ruby White Thank you very much for the great session!

Matthew McVicar Thank you 🙂

Teresa Clarke Good luck with your exams !

Diana Reid Lovelock Thank you Teresa Clarke