FAE September 2012

froggatt2011

R0N BURGUNDY wrote: »

Didn't look up one thing but when I get off on study and make notes for the exam, I'll have quick reference material. Prob only need one file and a few text books with tags for quick reference also. But yeah - wastes time that u can't afford. Ideally not use anything -= but if u want something specific, might be worth a quick flick.

I had to look up the IMP stuff as well the executive summary (another point which I didn't really get), so the suitcase full of books was totally superfluous to requirements. Saying that, it's coming with me again tomorrow!!

BESman

I've heard of people binding the notes into booklets for each subject so you'll have 5 or 6 spiral bound booklets. Seems a lot handier than lugging big lever arch folders around with you and you could also number the pages and make a table of contents.

I think I'll have to do this because there's no way I'll be able to study effectively in a library with the way my notes are organised at the moment (about 7 lever arches of chaotic mess). I'll need to spend next week trying to get them together for smaller bound booklets and numbering the pages etc. I'd prefer to do this now instead of mocks but I suppose exam practice has its benefits too, even if I know very little at this stage.

Mavic09

My answer was identical to EVE T comments. Two small difference

Tax- you can surrender R&D tax credits to employees- DASL is a subcontractor thus can't do this (unless his client forgoes the credit which is higly unlikely) but would explain the flexible/ innovative remuneration comment in relation to his clients. Didn't think to put down BIK, Pension- which was poor form...

Mgt. Acc.- Did a relevant costing, comparing the contract to opportunity cost (that is what a relevant costing is?)- saying they should turn it away based on the revenue per hour I had calculated from the appendix and the hours mentioned in the body of the txt. If I was less awkward I could have taken their word for it that it was a good idea, again poor form....

The timing was poor on my part today, and with three cases tomorrow it will be tougher to cut losses with indicators and move on to the next case once time is up.

mrduffy

I have suitcase its just the insurance policy like driving a car may never have to use but usefull when open book and need something technical, some of the case studies have scare me when it comes to some of the tax indicators. i am also knackered could nt do anything after todays exam

Accrual Intentions

7upfree wrote: »

All I know is if I do what I did today in September I'll def fail. Knew to a certain extent what they were asking but defo missed one or 2 points.

What I don't understand is all the suitcases and boxes of books even if I had of had them with me they would of been no benefit as I would have spent half the time looking through it

As Basil Fawlty might say, if you were on mastermind your specialist subject would be ,'the bleeding obvious'.

I believe two years ago not a single person in Ireland achieved an overall pass in the FAE mocks. I imagine the pass rate at the mocks is usually below 5%. I my experience of mocks with the Institute in general they tend to mark them on the harsh side in some sort of attempt to 'scare' students into working harder.

So I wouldn't worry about it. If you were ready for that exam today then you wouldn't need your study leave!

Chalk_Farm

Anyone have the solution for Uniform4Us?? Have all apart from that one, can't understand where it is! Cheers for help

Jame Gumb

Mavic09 wrote: »

Tax- you can surrender R&D tax credits to employees- DASL is a subcontractor thus can't do this (unless his client forgoes the credit which is higly unlikely) but would explain the flexible/ innovative remuneration comment in relation to his clients

Is that examinable (on the basis that it's a 2012 thing)?

Are we supposed to use 2011 rules and rates for the purposes of the exam?

7upfree

Accrual Intentions wrote: »

As Basil Fawlty might say, if you were on mastermind your specialist subject would be ,'the bleeding obvious'.

I believe two years ago not a single person in Ireland achieved an overall pass in the FAE mocks. I imagine the pass rate at the mocks is usually below 5%. I my experience of mocks with the Institute in general they tend to mark them on the harsh side in some sort of attempt to 'scare' students into working harder.

So I wouldn't worry about it. If you were ready for that exam today then you wouldn't need your study leave!

I was coming from the point that I was finished by 1.30 although I wasn't the first person to leave. I probably should have made that clearer. I knew a bit more then I thought I would in terms of knowing what they were looking for.

I never for one minute thought if pass the mocks. To be honest I'd rather not as it can make you too complacent.

Hopefully today will be a bit better as the comprehensive case study is my weak point anyway.

From Monday on study plan is ready to go and it'll be head down for the rest of the summer

ferike1

That was tough today.

I never know if I am writing enough for the stupid indicators.

Jame Gumb

ferike1 wrote: »

That was tough today.

I never know if I am writing enough for the stupid indicators.

Very tough.

Hard to focus on one Sim without worrying about the other two.

Found the indicators difficult to identify - As in I think that I was identifying more than were there.

Ethics stuff tricky too.

funkymonkey9

Found today easier than yesterday,I was glad to be able to move onto other cases and forget the one I'd just done,I felt yesterday that I dwelled a lot on the indicators I couldn't do,didn't really attempt the last one because didn't have a breeze!wrote a bit on strategic direction and what I thought they should do!definitely have to get quicker though,half an hour reading time is not enough

ferike1

Two questions

How many pages do you guys generally write per indicator

How many indicators do we have to get RC and C in over the 2 days to pass?

MPBC123

That was a disaster. Only done 1st case, started 2nd one & found myself writing a load of crap so got up & left.
1/2hr reading not enuff for the 3 cases.
The 3rd case seemed like a nightmare, I quickly read over it but lost all will when they started talkin about so many figures!

Chalk_Farm

Where was the ethics in the first case today...really confused on that one

dee359

Chalk_Farm wrote: »

Where was the ethics in the first case today...really confused on that one

i couldn't find that either!


Today was a nightmare compared to yesterday. The cases got progressively worse i thought! hadn't a clue about case 3.

Accrual Intentions

Does anyone have slides or notes on how the Elective is marked/what's required? I can't seem to see anything like this anywhere. Failing that can anyone tell me how it is marked? ie., do you need C across the board or can you get some RC's etc? I'm doing Tax (NI) by the way.

Chalk_Farm

dee359 wrote: »

i couldn't find that either!


Today was a nightmare compared to yesterday. The cases got progressively worse i thought! hadn't a clue about case 3.

Yeah case 3 was a joke! I was reading it then half way through had to ask myself what is going on here, really confusing..gave up!

MPBC123

Accrual Intentions wrote: »

Does anyone have slides or notes on how the Elective is marked/what's required? I can't seem to see anything like this anywhere. Failing that can anyone tell me how it is marked? ie., do you need C across the board or can you get some RC's etc? I'm doing Tax (NI) by the way.

There is an online lecture under fae general I think explaining how they are marked.

Jame Gumb

Chalk_Farm wrote: »

Where was the ethics in the first case today...really confused on that one

I thought that maybe it was the idea of not treating and ill child because his or her parent didn't have cash or insurance details to hand as per Board instructions...that medical businesses are intrinsically different to "normal businesses"?

Could be totally wrong though.

Tipped around staff ignoring non payers and the FC's incompetence.

Tenuous stuff though.

Chalk_Farm

When talking about Ethics (as part of Business Leadership) do the ES1-ES5 feature as part of BL Ethics?

Username2011

Probably not correct to call them indicators but nevertheless I'll make a stab at some of the things I waffled on about today

Case 1 - Metro Clinic
Premise of the case was that it was a private for-profit health clinic that opened up a pedeatrician clinic.

They asked you outright for the business, info mgmt, internal controls and ethical issues

=> Business:
* Revenue issues in that they were not collecting fees correctly
* Change management issue - changing from middle-class/wealthy adult customers who had no issues paying (they only sold to those that had health insurance) to children in a socially disadvantaged area. Didn't train the staff to prepare for this
* Issue with the fact that the prior accountant was not qualified and they didn't have much faith in his ability (don't know if this was an indicator). Tied this in with the fact that when you apportioned the 12 month Year 1 budget, it was really off base with actuals. And in general the budget was a bit of a shambles
* Admin staff worked 9-5 and charged overtime for the 4 hours extra that the clinic was open. Costly

=> IMP issues
* The system was not configured well and this allowed patients to be charged without necessarily paying/proving eligibility of insurance or DOH card
* There was issues in that the insurance enquiry form often was unavailable and the alternative was a telephone service which was only available 9-5 so there was 4 hours in which they couldn't verify insurance. (again ties to the revenue problems)
* The only change they made to the system was to add the "parent's details" to the form - so not tailoring the system to the new target customer

=> Internal controls
Cash is being received and lodged by the admin staff -potential for fraud
Finance are only reconciling the cash received to the PAS system which is input by Admin staff

=> Ethics issues - difficult for staff to turn children away
I thought in the exam that the patients shouldn't keep the patients forms the way they do but I forgot to put that down

=> Should they take exit clause and close the clinic
I said no, just to strengthen internal controls etc. and showed how much extra revenue would have been earned if they had properly collected it



CASE 2
=> Weakness of budgetary system - Mgmt
Singlehandly prepared by Paul with no consultation. 10% variance from profit is still quite high. std costs hadn't changed. Ignores SCL because its not material. etc etc.

=> Role of FC
Paul seemed overdominant. eg with the budgets, and then he decided how inventory should be valued

=>Independence issues - CG
WIth aunt on the board - this isn't in direct compliance with the Code though - because the B1.1 provision only talks about Non Execs and Chairmans
Nevertheless , the MD who is chairman the board is not independent

=> Inventory figure - FR
Incorrectly valuing inventory

=> Sale of SCL
- tax implications - not sure what these were exactly, when through the merits of sale of a trade/asset or sale of shares. Perhaps someone answered this correctly? Then the tax implications on the dividend which differed depending on type of sale. And stamp duty & VAT was in there too.
- said that the value of 800k was undervaluing it (but not really sure why)
- also said that there may be potential in Russia and Far East because the divisional MD had autonomy and was focusing his attention there . Suppose this was an opportunity to discuss divisionalisation but by then I was wrecked

Finally Case 3 - Redemptoria
Basically had to discuss the "nakedly ambitious" (Paul you crack me up!) Mike's strategic document
=> Corporate governance - reduction of board to 5 members. Having joe as the board chairman is not independent and in violation of the code.
=> Bad debt provision - writing it off completly is a bit of a disaster
=> Strategic direction of the company - waffle waffle
Could tie in here the change in membership fee, the management bonus pool,
=> Change from company limited by guarantee to shares - didn't know what to do here
=> Tax implication of distribution of surplus - presume there's some CGT implication here

Accrual Intentions

Jame Gumb wrote: »

I thought that maybe it was the idea of not treating and ill child because his or her parent didn't have cash or insurance details to hand as per Board instructions...that medical businesses are intrinsically different to "normal businesses"?

Could be totally wrong though.

Tipped around staff ignoring non payers and the FC's incompetence.

Tenuous stuff though.

I think there may have been several different ethics issues but I took the main one to be the same that what does the business do if there is a sick child but they are unable to pay for treatment.

dee359

Jame Gumb wrote: »

I thought that maybe it was the idea of not treating and ill child because his or her parent didn't have cash or insurance details to hand as per Board instructions...that medical businesses are intrinsically different to "normal businesses"?

Could be totally wrong though.
.

Yeah that's a good point. totally missed that.

Mr Grind

My general gist...

Metro,
Budgeted split in admissions was 50:50 Billed (private @€;60) or unbilled (public - service fee)

The actual was about 25:75 Billed versus unbilled.

I re-calculated the budget for year 1,2,3 based on the 75:25 split.
Decided the revenues wouldn't cover the costs.

Options:
a) Increase Billed/private revenues - limited due to location of the hospital in disadvantaged areas.
b)re-negotiate service charge with DOH - no chance.

IMO the financials didn't make sense & that's before you start to take the IT/Internal control issues or account for likely massive bad-debts in year 1. (approx 50% of billed)

I opted to pull out

Case 2 sames as Username 211

Case 3 - struggle

Szewinska

I decided not to sit exam today or yesterday as I had zip study done for it and so am wondering if the Institute will make available on the site the paper from both days. I would imagine so as the review sessions will be on next week and week after.

I might do the tax elective paper tomorrow.

Username2011

Mr Grind wrote: »

My general gist...

Metro,
Budgeted split in admissions was 50:50 Billed (private @€;60) or unbilled (public - service fee)

The actual was about 25:75 Billed versus unbilled.

I re-calculated the budget for year 1,2,3 based on the 75:25 split.
Decided the revenues wouldn't cover the costs.

Options:
a) Increase Billed/private revenues - limited due to location of the hospital in disadvantaged areas.
b)re-negotiate service charge with DOH - no chance.

IMO the financials didn't make sense & that's before you start to take the IT/Internal control issues or account for likely massive bad-debts in year 1. (approx 50% of billed)

I opted to pull out

That sounds really good. I didn't even think to do that.
I used the sample of 20 that they took and where for example there was 12 instances over the 20 days where people didn't have the DOH card with them but were still treated- I projected that forward. Then said with the proper controls in place (where by they only treat patients for free who have proof of insurance/DOH card, otherwise they had to pay the 60euro) this is the revenue they'd earn
In hindsight though thats not really realistic and your's sounds brill!


Can I just ask you how you treated the tax for the sale of SCL?

Jame Gumb

CGT treatment for HoldCo - Section 626B participation exemption probably available - Dividends to Wilson family company exempt from CT as franked investment income - Dividends out to individuals not subject to PAYE but subject to DWT and income tax/levies.

That's what I said anyways.

Outraging2012

Jame Gumb wrote: »

CGT treatment for HoldCo - Section 626B participation exemption probably available - Dividends to Wilson family company exempt from CT as franked investment income - Dividends out to individuals not subject to PAYE but subject to DWT and income tax/levies.

That's what I said anyways.

Ah yes got the patricipation exemption but forgot the Franked investment income PAYE exemption. Thanks for that

siobhan4460

Szewinska wrote: »

I decided not to sit exam today or yesterday as I had zip study done for it and so am wondering if the Institute will make available on the site the paper from both days. I would imagine so as the review sessions will be on next week and week after.

I might do the tax elective paper tomorrow.

i was the same ,...except I couldnt just face it.....def going to go tomoro and attack...hope the institute puts up the papers..not happy dont have copies of the papers and its my own fault for missing out

froggatt2011

That paper has scared the bejaysus out of me. Total fail.