BTEC Business: Finance and Marketing

Most of a BTEC National in Business is coursework. The units that behave like an exam are the externally assessed ones — on the Extended Certificate and the Foundation Diploma, personal and business finance and the marketing campaign, which is what these ten questions cover (the Diploma adds principles of management, and the Extended Diploma business decision making as well).

Four of them are calculations, and each wrong option is the number one specific slip produces. A café that spends three hundred pounds more than it takes in a month still ends March in credit, because it began with one thousand two hundred; the tempting answer is minus three hundred, which is the month's net movement with the opening balance left out. Break-even divides fixed costs by contribution, not by the selling price. A gross margin is taken against revenue, not against cost of sales — dividing by cost gives mark-up, which is a different number with a different name, and the question also offers the net margin so that deducting the operating expenses as well is a live mistake rather than a hypothetical one. Depreciation subtracts the residual value before dividing by the life.

The personal finance questions match a product to a stated need: a guaranteed rate with no access for three years is a fixed-term deposit, tax-free interest with access in an emergency is a cash ISA. The marketing questions give you the research figures or the budget and ask what they support — seventy per cent of members aged eighteen to twenty-five, eighty per cent of those interested in wellness, and a yoga class to place; or a luxury product, a small budget and an audience that mass advertising cannot reach efficiently.

Every business and person named here is invented, and no real bank or product appears. All money is in pounds sterling. Nothing is reproduced from any awarding organisation's specification or assessment materials.

Zestly is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with any awarding organisation, and it is not an exam centre.

• Match a savings or borrowing product to a stated need for access, security and tax treatment
• Calculate a cash-flow closing balance, a break-even output and a gross profit margin, and recognise the wrong answer each common slip produces
• Tell a gross margin from a net margin and from a mark-up
• Calculate straight-line depreciation including the residual value
• Say what a statement of comprehensive income shows and how it differs from a statement of financial position
• Read a set of market research figures and state what they do and do not support
• Choose a promotional mix that fits a stated audience and budget
• Explain why profit and cash are different measures

Halewood Homeware, an invented shop, had revenue of £160,000 last year. Its cost of sales was £120,000 and its other operating expenses were £16,000. What was its gross profit margin? — one of ten questions written for this set, alongside cash flow, break-even, depreciation, savings products and two marketing briefs.