Certificate for  Accounting Technicians (CAT)

This programme is accredited by the highly regarded Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and has been designed for anyone who works or wishes to work in an accounting support role.

Ideal as an entry-level qualification, it will give you the opportunity to claim exemption from the ACCA's professional Foundation level courses, should you wish to acquire further accounting qualifications later in your career.

The syllabus covers the following topics:

Transaction accounting will develop your understanding of the operation of accounting systems and of the transaction recording procedures. It will teach you how to record monies received and payments made, maintain petty cash records, account for cash and bank transactions and for goods and services supplied or received on credit, and record payroll transactions.

Office practice and procedure will familiarize you with the role of the office as the centre for information and administrative processes and procedures. It will help you to explain the features of key office resources, describe data processing procedures, draft routine business communications, understand basic health and safety, and explain the principles of good interpersonal relations.

Maintaining financial records and accounts will improve your understanding of the techniques used in the collection and collation of information for financial records. This covers accounting conventions, capital acquisition and disposal records (including recording income and expenditure), as well as extended trial balances and the collation of information for the completion of financial accounts.

Cost accounting systems looks at the operation and maintenance of accounting systems for the capture, measurement and reporting of cost based information. This will help you to describe costs by classification and by purpose, undertake accounting transactions for material costs, labour costs and expenses, calculate the costs using full cost absorption, marginal and activity based methods, and use tools and techniques for the analysis and presentation of data.

Information technology processes will introduce you to the office IT environment, covering for example, the main hardware and software features, and the elements, processes and procedures within the data processing cycle. You will also learn how to minimize IT risk, use IT effectively particularly with reference to spreadsheets, and will touch on security issues.

Drafting financial statements will teach you how to prepare year-end financial statements from a trial balance and interpret financial statements for a range of organizational forms. We cover external financial reports, accounting concepts and conventions, and compare different forms of year-end financial statements for different types of commercial organizations.

Information for management introduces you to management accounting techniques designed to support the management processes of planning, control and decision making. This will help you to prepare forecasts, draft budgets, prepare budget variance and standard cost reports, and analyze financial data from a strategic perspective.

Preparing tax computations and returns will familiarize you with tax law and practice as it relates to individuals and companies, employees and employers living in the UK. You will learn how to calculate income, compute property and investment income, prepare adjusted profit/loss and capital gains computations, as well as account for corporation tax and corporate tax returns.

Managing finances will acquaint you with the techniques used by organizations to plan cash-flows, optimize their use of working capital and allocate resources to capital expenditure projects. It will give you an understanding of the cash-flow cycle and of sources of short, medium and long term finance and show you how to prepare cash flow forecasts, assess the need for working capital, and run an effective credit and cash management operation. Internal audit procedures are also covered.

CAT
Certified Accounting Technician
Computer Based Testing (CBT) for Level A Examinations

The Accountancy Technician Qualification
ACCA's Accountancy Technician Qualification is a combination of study and practical experience, designed to build your knowledge in Accountancy, IT and Management.
With an emphasis on flexibility and opportunity, the CAT qualification is  accessible to anyone aged 16 year or over. There is no time constraints to complete the examinations.
On completion of CAT, students are eligible for automotive transfer to the ACCA Professional Qualification and entitled to exemption from Part-1 of the examination.

In Keeping with its forward thinking philosophy, ACCA introduced Computer Based Testing (CBT) as part of its Examination assessment process in September 1998.Computer based Examination are now available for CAT Level A papers A1 - Transaction Accounting and A2 - Office practice and procedures making them available on a continuing as opposed to a six monthly basis. CBT for CAT level 'B' Shall commerce from June 2001.

How Do You Enroll?
If you went to attempt a computer based examination you will first need to find an approved assessment centre where you can sit the examination CAMS is one of the approved assessment centre where you can register yourself for CBT
It is not necessary to be registered as a CAT student with ACCA to sit the computer based examinations for level 'A'  but for CBT of Level 'B' registration with ACCA is compulsory.

 
How Does CBT Work?
. Your examination questions will be displayed on the monitor and you will enter your answers directly onto a PC.
. On completion of the examination your file will be marked by the computer automatically.
. CAMS will provide you with a certificate  showing your result.
. CAMS will return the examination disc to ACCA where it will be used by ACCA to confirm your result.
. Candidates who have not previously registered with ACCA before attempting the CAT CBT  examination can do so at         this point and claim their passes where applicable. this will allow progression to CAT Level B Scripted examinations at
the next eligible session.
The types of question which make up the examination as well as the examination duration and pass mark are the same as for the paper examination.
If you would like to sample a CBT examination you do so on a demonstration disc. Each disc contains sample question and can be used to learn how the examination is implemented. this demonstration disc is available at CAMS.
 

CAT
Level A
(MCQs:2 hours exam on Computer)

A1.Transaction Accounting
A2. Office Practice and Procedure

Level B

(each paper: 2 hours duration)
B1.Maintaing Financial records and Accounts
B2. Cost Accounting Systems
B3. Information Technology Process

Level C
(each paper:  3 hours duration)

C1.Drafting Financial Statements (Industry & Commerce) 
C2.Information for Management
C3.Audit Practice & Procedure
C4.Preparing Taxation Computation & Returns
C5.Managing Finances

Commencement of  Classes  (for Dec. 2001 Exams)
The Classes for CAT level 'B' shell commerce from 11^th June 2001 and for level 'C' from 23^rd June 2001.For admissions, Students can collect Registration from the office and submit them by 9^th June and  22^rd  June for level "B" and level "C" respectively.
CAT level "B" examinations will he held on computers (CBT). As it is planned by ACCA-UK.

For Registration and Queries, Please Contact:
     Mr. Fazal Haq Qureshi
     Program Manager
     109-B Gulshan-e-Faisal
     Bath Island, Clifton, Karachi-75530
     Phone: 5837108 & 9
     Fax: 5834783
     E-mail:  [email protected]

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