Sunday 12 June 2016

Working Effectively

A couple of months ago I completed my working effectively unit. In this unit I learnt how to work effectively in an accounting and financial offices.

In this unit I learnt how to work in an accounting department within an organisation and how important it is to have different policies and procedures in place so all the employees work within the same rules. Also I learnt the reporting lines which is important in an organisation so if you need to report anything you know who you can go to. Also I learned that you need a good range of communication skills in an accounting department which includes English and Maths skills.

In another part of this unit I learnt how to work independently and as part of a team. Also how important it is to have good time management skills and how to prioritise your work load. I also learned why you need to keep developing your skills for yourself and the organisation you work for needs.

Final I learnt about different ethical values and principles and how important it is to certain employees. Also I learned what sustainable values meant to an organisation.

I didn't really have any problems doing this unit. I just found it a bit hard because I always struggle with English based exams. I just took my time doing the exam and made sure I read the full question properly so I could understand it.

Basic Costing

I have recently complete my Basic Costing Unit.

In this unit I have learned the difference between different types of costings within an organisation. I have learnt the difference between materials, labour, overheads and what is direct or indirect cost to a business. Also I have learnt how to use a coding data to identify different costings.

After I learnt about different costings I started to learn about different types of inventory. I learned the difference between raw materials, work in progress and finished goods. Along side this I learnt the manufacturing system to help calculate the direct cost of making something. In the manufacturing system there is a part to calculate the overheads costs. There are three different overheads fixed, variable and semi-variable. I also learnt the difference between FIFO (first in first out), LIFO (last in first out) and AVCO (average cost). I used these methods to help me calculate the labour cost.

The final section of this unit was all about spreadsheets and how to input the costings into a spreadsheet. I learned a few basic functions and formulas to help me to calculate the full costings over a certain period of time and to see if the actual cost is more or less than the budget cost. I also learnt how to set out a spreadsheet so you can understand it easily without getting confused with all the numbers.

I found this unit quite easy to do and once I learnt the differences between certain things it was straight forward. I only struggled with a couple of parts. The first part was the manufacturing system but the only way to learn it was to just do it over and over again until you know which order it went in. The other part was learning how to calculate the labour cost using FIFO, LIFO and AVCO. To help myself learn this calculation I just did different practice questions and if I still struggled understanding it I asked my tutor to go through it again with me.