Financial management, planning and reporting, taught alongside strategy, HR and a start-up plan.
Level, credits, hours, units and Ofqual number are taken from the OTHM specification and the Ofqual register. Duration, study modes, fees and intake dates are set by London School of Planning and Management (LSPM), the approved centre.
This diploma is half accounting and half business, and the proportion is exact: three of its six 20-credit units are financial (Financial Management, Financial Planning and Control, Financial Reporting) and three are shared with the general Business Management diploma (Principles and Concepts of Business Strategy, The Management of Human Resources, Business Start-up: Conception to Market). It is 120 credits, 1,200 hours of total qualification time and 600 guided learning hours, regulated under 610/1479/5.
It is not an accountancy qualification and does not by itself give exemptions from professional body examinations. What it does give is the financial literacy that a manager in a small or medium-sized organisation needs: how to read and prepare statements, how to build and hold to a budget, and how to evaluate an investment. Learners who want to go on to a professional accounting route often use it to test whether they enjoy the work before committing to it.
Because half the units are shared, a learner who completes this diploma and later wants the general business diploma would be repeating three units; we advise choosing between them at the start.
Same awarding body, same sector, same Level 5 outcome. The Extended Diploma includes the Level 4 stage; the Diploma assumes you already hold it.
Choose this if you already hold a Level 4 qualification in a related subject and only need the Level 5 stage.
Choose this if your highest qualification is at Level 3 and you want one enrolment that ends at year-two equivalence.
6 of the Level 5 unit titles appear in both programmes. Whichever route you take, you finish in the same credit position: 240 credits across Levels 4 and 5. The Extended Diploma reaches it under one registration and one certificate; the Diploma assumes a separate Level 4 award came first.
6 × 20 credits.
| # | Unit title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Principles and Concepts of Business Strategy | 20 |
| 02 | Financial Management | 20 |
| 03 | Financial Planning and Control | 20 |
| 04 | Financial Reporting | 20 |
| 05 | The Management of Human Resources | 20 |
| 06 | Business Start-up: Conception to Market | 20 |
| Total credits | 120 | |
Unit titles and credit values from the OTHM specification.
How LSPM sequences them. LSPM runs the three finance units consecutively rather than interleaved with the business units, because each builds directly on the last: Financial Reporting teaches the statements, Financial Planning and Control uses them for budgeting, and Financial Management applies them to investment decisions. The three business units then follow, with the start-up plan last so that its financial appendices draw on all three finance units.
OTHM's published criteria, quoted as data. London School of Planning and Management (LSPM) checks each applicant against them before registration.
Source: OTHM specification. The standard route is a Level 4 diploma; applicants are also accepted at 18 or over with equivalent qualifications, and from 21 with relevant experience. For this programme LSPM additionally checks numeracy at interview, not with a test but by talking through a simple set of accounts, because a learner who is uncomfortable with figures will struggle in the first three units, and we would rather redirect such an applicant at enquiry than watch that happen.
Finance units are assessed by worked reports: preparing statements from a scenario, building a budget and variance analysis, appraising an investment with discounted cash flows and a written recommendation. Business units use the analytical assignment format common to OTHM Level 5. Spreadsheets are submitted alongside the written work in the finance units and are marked. See how LSPM teaches and assesses for the marking and verification process.
LSPM's tutors mark and give written feedback. OTHM samples marked work before results are ratified. A referred submission can be reworked after feedback.
OTHM Level 6 Diploma in Accounting and Business, continuing the same split.
Final-year top-up to a BA (Hons) in Accounting and Finance or Business with Finance where the university maps the three finance units.
Entry to professional accounting body study, where the diploma demonstrates commitment but does not itself confer exemptions; check with the body concerned.
Principles and Concepts of Business Strategy, The Management of Human Resources, and Business Start-up: Conception to Market. The other three (Financial Management, Financial Planning and Control, Financial Reporting) replace Marketing for Managers, Business Law for Managers and Management Accounting and Decision Making.
No. Financial Reporting starts from the structure of the statements and assumes a general Level 4 business background. What you do need is comfort with arithmetic and spreadsheets.
The units are about principles, not products. LSPM uses spreadsheets throughout, and demonstrates one accounting package so that learners can see how the principles are implemented, but proficiency in a specific product is not assessed.
Each awarding body sets guided hours per qualification based on the content. The finance units carry more worked-example teaching than the IT units do, so OTHM allocates more contact time. Total qualification time is 1,200 for both.
Tell us what you hold now and we will say whether you are likely to meet OTHM's criteria; LSPM confirms eligibility and the next intake.