Complete Pearson Education Ltd Occupational Qualification Accounting & Finance specification revision resources. Tailored syllabus coverage with topic breakdowns, quizzes, and practice questions.
Specification Topics
- Debtor Call Handling Principles
- Banking procedures
- Preparing for Career Progression in Business
- Maintaining and reconciling the cashbook
- The Business Environment
- Processing customers’ financial transactions
- Maintaining petty cash records
- Underwriting straightforward new risks
- Processing applications for financing and credit facilities
- Maintaining the Journal
- Basic Principles of Costing
- Generating and qualifying sales leads
- Support customers using on-line customer services
- Preparation for Debt Collection Principles
- Operating a sterling counter till
- Dealing with customers by telephone in a financial services environment
- Selling by telephone - inbound
- Selling by telephone - outbound
- Principles of recording and processing financial transactions
- Processing straightforward new insurance claims notifications
- Computer Applications for Financial Management
- Deliver reliable customer service
- Debt Collection Case Management Principles _pre legal_
- Authorising financial transactions using telecommunications
- Assessing and using straightforward financial information to reconcile accounts
- Complying with regulations within the financial services environment
- Promoting the organisation’s additional financial services products and services
- Payment Processing Practice
- Processing documentation for bank or building society accounts
- Operating payment by instalments
- Dealing with straightforward claims for insured losses
- Provide Basic Cost and Revenue Information
- Finance in the National Economy
- Processing life, pensions and investment business applications
- Processing straightforward insurance business as an intermediary
- Improving and maintaining workplace competence in a financial services environment
- Selling face to face
- Give customers a positive impression of yourself and your organisation.
- Deal with customers using bespoke software
- Debt Collection Negotiations Practice
- Debtor Call Handling Practice
- Providing information to customers in a financial services environment
- Processing straightforward insurance policy documentation
- Processing straightforward mid-term amendments
- Finance in the Global Economy
- Processing ledger transactions and extracting a trial balance
- Processing straightforward requests for payment against life, pensions and investment contracts
- Processing documentation for financing and credit facilities
- Dealing with requests to cancel financial services products or services
- Resolve customer service problems
- Debt Repayment Monitoring Practice
- Preparing and pursuing statements of account for financial products and services
- Processing payments relating to stakeholder investment transactions or accounts
- Underwriting straightforward alterations to life, pensions and investment contracts
- Contributing to reports for mortgage and/or financial planning clients
- Payment Processing Principles
- Assessing and using complex financial information to reconcile accounts
- Planning and organising work in a financial services environment
- Computerised Accounting Software
- Financial Services for Individuals
- Underwriting straightforward policy alterations
- Settling straightforward insurance claims
- Processing documentation for straightforward life, pensions and investment contracts
- Preparing and delivering a sales demonstration
- Debt Collection Negotiations Principles
- Preparation for Debt Collection Practice
- Setting up bank or building society accounts for customers
- Agreeing the settlement of straightforward claims for uninsured losses
- Building effective relationships with clients in a financial services environment
- Operating credit control procedures
- Business Financial Performance
- Preparing and recording financial documentation
- Debt Repayment Monitoring Principles
- Processing straightforward insurance renewals
- Processing straightforward claims for uninsured losses
- Processing straightforward insurance renewals as an intermediary
- Assessing and using financial information to reconcile stakeholder investment accounts
- Providing an administrative service for mortgage and/or financial planning clients
- Debt Collection Case Management Practice _pre legal_
- Professional Ethics in Accounting and Finance
- Learning from a Work Placement in Business
- Maintaining Control Accounts
- Financial Services to Support Business
- Operating a multi-currency till
- Processing instructions for straightforward mortgage and/or financial planning business
- Financial Services Regulation, Ethics and Trends
- Work Effectively in Accounting and Finance
Top Exam Board Tips
- In role-play assessments, always begin by introducing yourself and the organization before stating the reason for the call.
- For written tasks, ensure your call logs are legible and include all mandatory fields as per organisational policy.
- When answering scenario-based questions, reference relevant legislation such as the Data Protection Act and Financial Conduct Authority guidelines.
- Practise using open questions to encourage debtors to disclose information about their circumstances, aiding resolution.
- In your assignment or written task, always describe both the banking process and the rationale behind each step—explain why tasks like immediate endorsement of cheques or using tamper-evident bags are important for security.
- When discussing document storage, explicitly mention relevant legislation (e.g., Data Protection Act, GDPR) and organisational confidentiality policies to show applied knowledge.
- Use a real-world scenario or case study to illustrate your understanding, such as walking through a day’s banking from the point of receiving cash to reconciling the bank statement, including how you would store the related documents.
- When evidencing skills, always link them directly to the job specification and provide measurable outcomes.
- Prepare for competency-based interviews by practising the STAR technique for common business scenarios.
- Research the organisation thoroughly and prepare insightful questions to ask the interviewer.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Neglecting to confirm the debtor's identity, leading to potential data protection breaches.
- Adopting an aggressive or confrontational tone that escalates the situation rather than resolving it.
- Failing to document key information from the call, such as payment promises or disputes raised.
- Overlooking the need to outline the call's purpose and seek the debtor's consent to continue.
- Omitting the cheque number or payer details when recording deposits, leading to tracing difficulties if a cheque is returned unpaid.
- Confusing retention periods for different document types, such as discarding bank statements after one year when they should be kept for at least six years for tax purposes.
- Failing to reconcile cash receipts with till records and paying-in slips daily, resulting in undetected shortages or theft.
- Storing physical documents in unsecured areas or mixing digital files without access controls, breaching data protection principles.
Key Terminology & Definitions
- Call planning and preparation
- Effective communication strategies
- Compliance and data protection
- Recording and documentation procedures
- Handling difficult conversations
- Understand the banking process, Understand document retention and storage requirements.
- Professional skills and behaviours
- Career development pathways
- Application document preparation
- Interview performance techniques
- Self-reflection and gap analysis
- Industry and role-specific requirements
- Maintain a three column analysed cash book, Reconcile a bank statement with the cashbook
- Business ownership models
- Organisational structures