Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
A to Z Vehicle hire
Assessment book
600/6892/9
R324 04
F/504/3353
UD65 04
Notice to candidates
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appendices of this assessment book.
To help you in this they have asked the accounts staff to prepare some brief information about themselves, an
overview of the accounting system, and also a list of events that have occurred over the previous few months since
the partnership was formed. This information can be found in the firms diary.
You are required to produce a business report addressed to Alan Milnes, Senior Partner. The report should be
approximately 4000-5000 words long but please note that the word count is not critical; what is important is the
quality of the writing.
For more information see the guidance page or review the guidance on the AAT website.
Task 1)
Review and evaluate the accounting system.
Task 2)
Conduct an ethical evaluation of the accounting systems.
Task 3)
Conduct a sustainability evaluation of the accounting systems.
Task 4)
Identify weaknesses and make recommendations for improvement.
Record keeping systems - explain the purpose of financial reports and the suitability of the organisations
current reports to meet organisational needs
Internal systems of control - identify how internal control supports the accounting system and the types of
internal control in place and any controls that are missing
Fraud explain the causes of fraud, common types of fraud, methods that can be used to detect fraud and
potential areas for fraud within the organisation
Working methods/practices - review the working methods used including the use of appropriate computer
software and the operating methods in terms of reliability, speed and cost effectiveness
The review should cover all aspects of the assessment criteria, as mapped above, when they can naturally be
introduced into the report. If the criteria cannot be covered in the report then they should be covered in a written
explanation included in the appendix.
Whilst a SWOT analysis may be a good starting place, this should not be placed in the body of the report.
Task 2)
Conduct an ethical evaluation of the accounting systems.
Evaluate the accounting systems against ethical principles by reviewing working practices.
Task 3)
Conduct a sustainability evaluation of the accounting systems.
Evaluate the accounting systems against sustainability principles by reviewing working practices.
Evaluate the system to identify significant weaknesses, which should be clearly explained along with their
impact upon the organisation.
For every weakness that has been identified there should be one or more recommendations made to
attempt to improve the situation.
The recommendations should concentrate on the effect that the changes would have both on the
organisation and on individual members of staff. They may also highlight:
o training needs;
o aids to improve staff performance;
o changes needed to organisational culture;
o anything else which would improve the running of the accounting system.
At least one of the recommendations made should be subject to a cost benefit analysis. Whilst not all benefits are
quantifiable, all costs are. Students should make any necessary assumptions or estimates to allocate costs to such
items as time, unknown salaries, or any other unknown expense involved in the recommended changes. All
benefits should be identified, including those that cannot be allocated a financial figure. This can include such
things as improved customer relationships, improved documentation systems or staff morale (though this could be
allocated a financial figure as improving staff turnover cuts recruitment costs).
Note on appendices
Any charts and diagrams or supporting evidence should be included here and cross-referenced within the text. Any
appendices included should be referred to in the main body of the report or, in the case of supporting statements to
cover missing assessment criteria, be mapped and cross-referenced on the mapping document.
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Sending or posting anything that brings the firm into disrepute, is defamatory to the firm or its services.
If any breach of this policy occurs, disciplinary action may be taken - ranging from a formal warning to dismissal,
depending upon the seriousness of the offence.
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Renting a car
Travelling by car can get you places which can be very difficult to reach by public transport or tour. It gives you the
convenience of going your own way, in your own time, and it can often be cheaper than public transport
alternatives, especially if travelling as a couple or a group.
The downside is that in some places, traffic conditions may differ wildly from what you are used to, and foreign
conditions can add stress to your travels that you can do without. In some circumstances it may be better to rent a
car with a driver. In countries where wages are low, this may not cost significantly more than the cost of the car
alone.
Pricing
Base price
Price is normally calculated by number of days. Usually the more days you take, the less you pay per day. Cars are
classified according to a class, small to large, prestige and specialty vehicles, and there is a sliding scale of prices
for each car class. When you book you are usually given an example of a car type in that class, but it need not be
that type you are receiving.
Rental car companies normally permit a small amount of time, usually around an hour, for late returns. After that
they can charge up to another full day rental for a late return. If you know you are going to exceed the rental period
you can often call the rental company and arrange an extension. Normally the standard contract rate (without
discounts) would apply.
Most rental companies have a one day minimum rental period. Price for durations less than a day normally are not
regulated. If you need to return the car at significantly different time of the day, you can try haggling to get extra
hours for free
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Insurance Surcharges
If the car is damaged or stolen, or if your car damages another or injures or kills someone, your liabilities (to the
rental agency and/or others) can go far beyond the fee you agree to pay for the rental. In addition to paying for any
repairs required, the rental car company will charge you for any loss or revenue while the car is being repaired, and
administration costs for managing the repair.
Usually when you come to rent a car you are presented with several insurance options. Some of these are:
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Collision Damage Waiver - sometimes included in the rental cost, this reduces your liability in case of an
accident to a fixed amount advised by the rental agency.
Windscreen Breakage Insurance - sometimes a small extra daily fee will cover you against the cost of
windscreen damage
Personal Effects Insurance - covers loss of personal items in the car when it is stolen or damaged.
You should take the time to consider the insurances offered, how they affect your liability, their cost, and whether
your personal car insurance, travel insurance or charge card (used to rent the car) provides partial or full coverage.
Sometimes some of these insurances and surcharges are compulsory, e.g., in foreign countries where your
personal insurance doesn't offer coverage. Sometimes some coverages are built into the base rate.
If insurance or waivers are optional, consider the following before accepting the charge:
1. As above, if you have an automobile insurance policy on your vehicle at home, check to see if it includes
coverage for rental car damage.
2. If you plan to pay with your credit card, check also to see if it includes rental car coverage. Be aware that in
many cases this coverage is secondary (meaning your existing auto insurance coverage pays first).
3. If you have purchased a travel insurance policy that covers trip cancellation, medical expenses, etc., check
to see if it includes a rental car collision/loss benefit. Some packages do, providing primary coverage up to
a certain amount. (Primary coverage means that the insurance pays before other policies, including your
own auto insurance.) Depending on the amount of insurance you buy, the per-day charge for a travel
insurance policy that includes rental car coverage can work out to less than the per-day amount of a
waiver. It is usually cheaper to purchase travel insurance than to pay for the Excess Reduction/SuperCDW at the rental counter.
Rental companies tend to prefer bona-fide visitors rather than local renters when it comes to excess levels and
excess reduction. Sometimes these are lower for international visitors booked in advance, for airport renters with a
flight number, or for people using a corporate discount code.
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Some rental agreements may have a limit on how far you can travel per day or in total, and will charge for
additional distance travelled. Others have unlimited mileage.
Even with unlimited miles, you may see limits that confine you to adjacent states or regions. Getting those limits
relaxed may involve added fees; violating them may generate stiff penalties...all in the rental contract.
Other surcharges
Rental car companies are notorious for finding additional surcharges, sometimes not added until the point of sale.
These can include location or airport taxes, improvement fees and other surcharges, admin surcharges, registration
recovery surcharges and other local taxes. Sometimes local taxes are not just the local sales taxes, but also local
vehicle taxes that are "recovered". At the Las Vegas airport, such fees can increase the cost of a rental by close to
60%.
This practice has become so notorious that some consolidators promote themselves on the basis they guarantee to
offer a fully inclusive price, but check the fine print.
If you can't drive a manual transmission (stick-shift), check that your rental car is equipped with an
automatic transmission. Rental cars in most of North America and Australia as well as some parts of East
Asia normally come with automatic transmissions. Rental cars in the rest of the world, especially Europe,
Africa, and South America, will usually come with manual transmissions, and renting a car with an
automatic transmission is much more expensive.
Check there is room for all the passengers and luggage you will be carrying. The car may not be the exact
model you booked, and the boot (trunk) space may vary.
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If you are travelling on unsurfaced/gravel roads you may want to consider a car with high road clearance or
4-wheel drive.
Most rental car agencies can rent you a GPS navigation system with the car that is preloaded with maps
for the relevant city and region. Sometimes the system is already built into the car; sometimes they will give
you a portable unit to attach to the dashboard.
GPS navigation when driving in a new city can save you a considerable amount of time studying maps
while trying to get your bearings. Check the price carefully, as GPS navigation rental for a week can
sometimes cost as much as simply buying one.
Rental car companies often rent child seats or booster seats. If you are flying with a young child,
sometimes you can take your seat on the plane to save the cost of this hire. Make sure the seat you have
will attach to the car you are hiring and complies with the relevant local standards.
Most industrialized countries are going to electronic toll collection (ETC) and replacing traditional toll plazas
with toll gantries that read transponders and license plates on passing vehicles. Some rental car agencies
include transponders across their entire fleet; others rent them at the counter. If you do not make
appropriate advance arrangements with the rental car agency for toll payment by renting a transponder, the
rental car will get hit with a fine by the toll road operator, and the rental car agency will pass on the fine to
your credit card along with a "convenience fee."
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If you book a small economy car, it is quite common to get upgraded at the airport if those cars have sold,
in which case you will get the upgrade at no additional cost. You can usually still change your booking at
the airport if don't get upgraded.
If you don't book you run a greater risk of no availability -- particularly in a small location, or at popular
times of year.
Some airports don't have all the airport rental agencies in one place to enable you to haggle effectively.
A better price can sometimes be obtained by a rental car company not in the city centre or at the airport.
If you book with a travel agent they often take a require prepayment in full, and will give you a voucher to present at
the rental car desk on arrival.
You may also encounter somewhat better offers or treatment if you book through the agent/agency arranging your
flight, or through or by citing your membership in clubs or large associations, e.g., AAA/AA, AARP.
Delivering the car to your location
Some rental car companies offer an option to deliver a car to your initial hotel, and/or to pick it up in the hotel at
your final destination. This option may be offered free as part of an extended period of rent (e.g. 1 week and more,
as for Budget in Portugal). In this case, an agent comes with a full set of papers, everything is filled out on spot and
may not need to visit rental office at all. The car rental companies would charge a minimal delivery fee, if the car is
to be delivered at your location. Other rental car companies may pick you up in the car, and take you back to the
rental car agency to fill out the paperwork. This is mainly so their driver has a way to get back to the rental car
office, rather than being left stranded at a hotel without a car.
If your hotel has only paid parking around it, it is your responsibility to pay for parking time required for an agent to
prepare papers with you.
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what to do in case of accident; breakdown when you still can drive; breakdown if you cannot
controls of the car that differ between car manufacturers (rear gear, seat adjustment, lights, radio, opening
gas/fuel tank, opening trunk/boot, opening hood/bonnet, etc)
what kind of fuel is recommended, and how it is marketed at your destination (A98 vs A80; petrol in a diesel
engine--both can prove an expensive mistake)
And before you move the car, adjust your seat and then all mirrors to meet your needs.
Frequently you will be provided with a free driving map of the region.
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If the tank is not full when the car is returned but it was when it was received, you may be charged a
premium - up to three times the cost of the fuel - for the tank to be filled.
If the fuel indicator indicates less than full, do not leave without a rental agent noting it.
Gas stations close to your rental site may charge considerably more, so you might refill large amounts
elsewhere.
Some rental sites may ask for a "fill-up receipt" as an indicator the tank has not been used much since
being filled; you might just top-off the tank near their site.
The rental car agency will provide a number to contact in case of problems with the car. Make sure you contact this
number first, because they usually will have agreements with service organisations to fix or move the car. If you
incur costs of towing, etc, without contacting them you may make yourself liable for the cost.
If you have a flat tyre, or similar, and the cost won't be covered by the rental car company, it may just be simpler to
get the tyre fixed then to arrange service through the rental car company, who may end up charging you more.
However, if the repair will be covered by your travel insurance, you may want the rental company to arrange the
repair so the paperwork is complete.
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Returning a car
Normally you return the car to a rental office at your final point in their working hours and have a final calculation
done there.
At smaller locations, sometimes the office will be unattended, and have a lot to park the car, and a drop box for the
keys.
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The rental agency may sue you for the entire amount, plus all court fees and legal costs. If such a
judgment is enforceable where you live, this can result in wage garnishment and asset attachment.
The rental agency may turn the debt over to a collection agency. This could hurt your credit rating.
You may be denied future rentals from that company at any locations around the world in the future by
surprise when you arrive at their counters unless the debt is settled in full. Such denial can extend to other
rental agencies under an umbrella of ownership or that share information with each other, and may
encompass a significant percentage of existing agencies.
The amount required to settle the debt may grow over time, and may ultimately balloon to an amount
unaffordable to most from a seemingly innocent amount. No matter what, the agency will not take no for an
answer in their attempts to collect.
In some countries, laws allow for your arrest and prosecution. A warrant can be issued that will not
disappear with time, and can come back to haunt you if you set foot into or even just transit in another
country with which it has reciprocity.
Some media-reported cases have been quite severe. One American woman was barred from renting a vehicle from
several agencies until she paid of a debt over $4000, all stemming from a $63 parking fine. Another American man
was held in a Norwegian jail for six days after he arrived in the country due to a US $97 fine he received for illegally
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Avoiding citations
The best way to avoid citations is to obey all traffic and parking laws and signs, and to study their meaning in
advance. Avoid leaving your vehicle unattended for even a split-second without feeding a meter; in some places,
there are officers waiting for the very moment you do that, and even if you return quickly, they are still authorized to
write the ticket in your presence, and fleeing quickly and failing to allow them to do so can land you in more hot
water.
Don't park in an illegal parking zone just because numerous other vehicles are parked illegally. Many police
departments love when there are large numbers of illegally parked vehicles in one place, because they can
efficiently write up lots of tickets and make large amounts of money in a short period of time.
Be aware of what the speed limit is at all times. In many places, speed cameras not visible to the naked eye will
catch any and all motorists who exceed the speed limit by just a few miles or kilometres per hour. Motorists will be
Choosing an operator
Major global car rental companies have famous brands that operate in many countries throughout the world, for
example Avis, Hertz, etc. Sometimes the regional operator can be an independent company using the name under
licence, and often the local operator is just a franchisee. These major brands allow bookings through all the
electronic booking services, and there is a seemingly endless amount of internet booking services that allow you to
do comparison searches between them. Alternatively you can visit any car rental comparison or review websites
like kayak.com, travelauto.com, yelp.com or travelocity.com to hire the car at cheaper rates from the right service
providers reading the real-user reviews.
Using a global operator can have advantages. They often have priority "clubs", which record your details in
advance, and can make renting a car as simple as just picking up the keys. You can generally rely on them
operating out of prime locations, such as in the airport terminal, rather than in the shed down the street. They
usually run cars for a short period of time before updating their fleet. However, don't think that because you are
renting from a global operator you can rely on them to do the pre-rental car inspections correctly, or that their terms
and conditions of rental are consistent.
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Appendix 2
Original source: http://www.startups.co.uk/creating-a-partnership-agreement.html
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Level
Learning outcomes
learners will:
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
2.1
2.2
Understand the
importance and use of
internal controls
2.3
2.4
2.5
Title
Level
Learning outcomes
learners will:
3 Evaluate the accounting
system and identify
areas for improvement.
Page / Section /
Paragraph number
Page / Section /
Paragraph number
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3.3
3.4
3.5
4
Conduct an ethical
evaluation of the
accounting system
4.1
Conduct a sustainability
evaluation of the
accounting system
5.1
4.2
5.2
6.1
Make recommendations
to improve the
accounting system.
6.2
6.3
6.4
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