Evidencing unit 9: managing project finances

Introduction

This document will help you to develop ideas for evidencing unit 9: managing project finances, for the AAT L4 Diploma in Business. It is intended to support students and help them to explore ideas rather than to be a definitive guide to evidencing the whole unit. You must agree evidence and sources of evidence with your assessor and adhere to the guidance provided by your assessor.

Each aspect of the assessment criteria must be covered by the evidence; however, a piece of evidence may be used for several assessment criteria, which is known as holistic assessment. You may need several items of evidence for each criterion in order to fully cover the requirements. Overall you will be required to use a range of evidence.

Types of evidence that you might use

Projects

Documents

Witness testimonies

Peer feedback

Screenshots

Video and/or audio recordings

Photographs

Personal statements

Reports

Answers to written questions

Professional discussions

Verbal Q&A with assessor

Top tips for gathering your evidence

Whenever possible use examples. Have you been involved in the finances for a project at work? What can you get involved in?

Remember that organising a meeting for unit 7 (organising and facilitating meetings and workshops), where catering, technical equipment and venues have to be organised, you’ll require a budget. You may be able to use this budget for some of the criteria. If you work in a small company you may find it difficult to evidence aspects of this unit. Here are some ideas for producing evidence outside the workplace.

For example, while it may appear simplistic, the decoration of a room could provide evidence for this unit. If you can demonstrate that you are managing the budget for the school fete then you will be able to evidence much of the unit through this project. Managing a budget is not about how large the budget is, but about following set procedures and knowing what needs to be done.

Let’s look at decorating a room. You will think about the costs of stripping the walls and redecorating them. What about replacing the carpets or the fireplace? How much is the estimate and how far are you going to go? Do you need to replace the fireplace completely?

So the estimate budget is compiled. Now you need to manage the costs against the budget. Do the walls take longer to strip than estimated? Does that mean that more money will need to be spent on the workers’ time?

What cost control are you going to use to ensure that the carpet is within the price range?

Suddenly the plaster above the window is found to be loose – this could be expensive, what is the contingency?

The wallpaper is more expensive than planned – what is the variance?

Perhaps decorating a room may not cover all of the criteria. Hopefully you can see that the procedures can be applied to many projects, large and small. Discuss your project with your assessor to ensure that they are happy that you will meet the criteria, and remember unit 7.