Nick Craggs explains how students should approach switching from the old to the new level 4
qualification.
AAT’s new level 4 qualification, called L4PAT, will launch on 1 September 2026, the association has announced.
There are significant changes: there are no written tasks, no optional units and results will be available within 24 hours. Talking to level 4 students, one of the most common concerns is how they can move onto the new qualification.
This reminds me of a scene from Jurassic Park, where Jeff Goldblum says when talking about bringing dinosaurs back to life: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” The principle applies to moving from the current level 4 Qualifications 2022 to L4PAT.
At the time of writing, you can’t transition anyway; the first date you can do this is 1 September 2026. However, when you can transition there is a lot to consider. The main thing one is AAT’s transitional rules. Some passes will carry directly over, some require a combination of units to carry over, and some simply don’t carry over at all.
The simplest ones are Drafting and Interpreting Financial Statements and Applied Management Accounting units on Qualifications 22. A pass in either of these will give you an exemption from their corresponding units Financial Accounting and Management Accounting units on L4PAT respectively. The percentages you achieved in each unit will carry over as well.
In the new qualification, Audit and Assurance and Internal Accounting Systems and Controls have been amalgamated into one unit called, not surprisingly, Audit and Internal Controls. This means that you must have passed both units to get the exemption from the Audit and Internal Controls unit. If a student moves over having passed only one of these units they will effectively lose that pass.
In terms of what percentage that carries over, it is an average of your results in both the Audit and Assurance and the Accounting Systems and Controls unit.
The two tax units, Personal Tax and Business Tax, units are very similar. These have been amalgamated into a single unit known as Principles of Taxation. This new unit tests you on both personal and business tax, so you need to have passed both units to get the exemption. Likewise, the percentage that carries over is the average of both units. Again, if you have only passed one of these units and transfer you will lose that singular pass and have to take an exam that will test you on both personal and business tax.
Then we have those units that don’t transfer over. There aren’t any corresponding units in the new qualification for both the Credit and Debt Management unit and the Cash and Financial Management units. So, if you have passed either or both of these and transfer to the new qualification you will lose your passes.
Finally, going the other way, the new qualification has a new unit known as Advanced Business Awareness, which doesn’t have a corresponding unit on Qualifications 22.
Any student who transfers will not only have to sit the corresponding units for the exams they haven’t sat on Qualifications 22, but they will have to sit the Advanced Business Awareness as well.
So, what should you do? The worst thing you can do is move over without taking advice or doing detailed research!
AAT have allowed a longer crossover between the two qualifications this time, and the current syllabus will run until the end of July 2028. This means that even if you started level 4 on the current syllabus on the last possible date, 31 August 2026, you still have nearly two years to complete without transitioning. Completing on the current standards by July 2028 is the simplest option.
I would suggest you do this if you have passed Credit and Debt Management or Cash and Financial Management, or you would lose those passes – you would have wasted your time and money.
If you have passed one of the two tax units, or indeed one of Audit and Assurance or Internal Accounting Systems and Controls, I would focus on passing the other unit as this gets you the exemption on the new qualification. For example, if you have only passed Personal Tax, and it is May 2028, you do not want to be studying Applied Management Accounting. You want to do all that you can to pass Business Tax to protect your pass in Personal Tax. Whether you complete Management Accounting on the current or new syllabus isn’t as important as making sure you get that exemption in Principles of Taxation.
Finally, the last thing you need to consider is if you have any level passed that were taken on the previous standards AQ2016. These passes will not carry over onto L4PAT, and so ideally you would want to complete on Qualifications 2022, as this is as far as these passes will carry forward.
And remember Jeff Goldblum – take advice and think before you act, whether that is bringing the T-Rex back to life or transitioning to L4PAT!
- Nick Craggs, AAT distance learning director, First Intuition
