Basic Bookkeeping certificate course

Explore books of prime entry, including sales daybook, purchase daybook, cash book, and journal, and follow their flow from source documents to ledgers and the trial balance.

Record credit sales in the sales daybook, track receivables and value-added tax, issue credit notes and apply discount and cash book entries for prompt payment discounts and returns.

Learn how credit purchases are recorded using the purchase day book and cashbook, including purchase returns, discounts for prompt payment, and supplier transactions.

Learn the double-entry system with T accounts, recording debits and credits to keep the general ledger balanced. Identify how assets, liabilities, expenses, income, drawings, and capital are affected.

Explore the first week of trading by practicing double-entry bookkeeping through seven transactions, recording debits and credits to bank, capital, purchases, sales, rent, and rates.

Learn how to balance ledger accounts by comparing debit and credit sides, finding the bigger side, and calculating the balancing figure to transfer to profit and loss or balance sheet.

Learn UK VAT basics by examining output VAT and input VAT, how they create liability or refunds, and how purchases, sales, and discounts affect the VAT control account.

Apply the trial balance to verify ledger accuracy by totaling debits and credits across accounts in a three-column format, ensuring both sides balance.

Develop fluency in bookkeeping fundamentals by practicing general ledger and journal entries, handling debit and credit, liabilities, VAT calculations, daybooks, and ledger balancing.

Explain the pro forma statement of financial position and the balance sheet format, detailing assets minus liabilities equals capital, and distinguishing current and non-current, tangible and intangible assets.

Explore the format of the SPL/income statement, detailing how sales, cost of goods sold, opening and closing inventory, and expenses determine the year’s profit and its placement in capital.

Master the accounting equation by balancing assets, liabilities, and capital through true/false checks and practice calculations to reinforce asset equals capital plus liability.

Implement organizational policies and procedures to ensure timely, accurate, and reliable financial reporting for stakeholders, including income statements and balance sheets, with authorization, segregation of duties, and robust controls.

Explore ethical principles guiding accountants in the public interest, including integrity, objectivity, professional competence, confidentiality, and professional behavior, illustrated through scenarios and accountability.

Identify threats to ethical principles such as integrity, objectivity, competence, confidentiality, and professional behavior. Explain how self-interest, self-review, advocacy, familiarity, and pressure undermine these ethics, including accruals in recording sales.

Classify items as assets, liabilities, capital, income, or expenses and place them in SFP or SPL. Apply the accounting equation and review authorization and written records to reduce fraud.

Master the three-column cashbook for cash and bank transactions, recording money in and money out with debit and credit entries. Manage discounts, transfers, and balancing to track April balances.

Explore how petty cash works and how to record small expenses through an impressed system, using a petty cash book to track receipts, vouchers, and balances.

Identify why cash book and bank statement differ: timing differences, unrecorded lodgments, and unpresented checks, plus bank-initiated items like direct debits, standing orders, charges, and interest.

Update the cash book and perform a bank reconciliation by matching debit and credit items with the bank statement, identifying timing differences and lodgements to reach the adjusted cash balance.

Learn how to prepare a bank reconciliation statement by matching the cashbook with the bank statement, identifying unrecorded lodgement and unpresented checks, and updating the cashbook balance.

Learn to perform a cashbook versus bank statement reconciliation, identify timing differences, and apply adjustments like interest, lodgement, and errors to achieve balanced accounts.

Practice bank reconciliation (BRS) by reconciling cash book and bank statement balances, identifying discrepancies such as unrecorded lodgements, outstanding checks, and entry errors, and applying corrections.

Practice exam-style questions on bank reconciliation, distinguishing bank statement and cash book balances, adjusting items, and true/false statements to prepare for a basic bookkeeping test.

Practice tests bank reconciliation concepts with quick questions on cashbook versus bank statement entries, debit and credit effects, outstanding checks, lodgements, and adjusting cashbook amounts.

Learn how to reconcile control accounts with the sales and purchase ledgers, use day books and cashbook entries, and apply double-entry principles and prompt payment discounts.

Explore how to maintain the receivables ledger control account and its subsidiary ledgers through credit sales, discounts, VAT, and day books, with a step-by-step July example.

Explore how to reconcile the purchase ledger by posting to the payables control account from the purchase daybook, purchases, returns, and discounts, ensuring subsidiary ledgers match the control balance.

Reconcile supplier statements with the purchase ledger by examining invoices, credit notes, discounts, and payments to verify the balance due. Compare the statement to the ledger to confirm the balance.

Explore prompt payment discounts for credit sales and purchases, and learn how discount allowed and discount received affect ledgers, control accounts, VAT, and related income.

Discover how contra entries offset receivables and payables between a customer and supplier, using a contract entry to net the lower balance and pay the remainder in cash.

Practice sales and purchase ledger control account reconciliations, handle contra entries, discounts, returns, and balances to verify August transactions.

Practice long-question style reconciliation of a control account with its subsidiary ledger, applying six adjustments to correct errors and determine impacts on both balances.

Reconcile the purchase ledger control account with its subsidiary ledgers through essential adjustments, correcting errors and omissions to balance the control and subsidiary balances.

Explore payroll concepts from level two and advanced bookkeeping in a concise reminder recap that reinforces payroll processes and related bookkeeping practices.

Learn to balance and adjust control accounts, post ledger entries for sales, purchases, and payroll, and verify payroll and ledger concepts in basic bookkeeping.

Learn how suspense accounts fix trial balance errors through journal adjustments, including accruals, depreciation, and doubtful debts, while understanding omissions and ethical reporting.

Identify errors that can still balance the trial balance, including omission, commission, original entry, reversal, and compensating errors (cop car), with examples.

Identify common trial balance errors that cause imbalance, including equal amount errors, single-entry errors, duplicate postings, and balance transfer errors. Explain how these errors create suspense accounts until corrected.

Learn how to use a suspense account to balance a trial balance by identifying the original entry and making the required adjustments, including opposite entries to correct obvious errors.

Learn to record adjustments on the extended trial balance, including prepaid insurance corrections, travel expenses, doubtful debt allowances, discount adjustments, and transfers to the profit and loss.

Prepare a trial balance extract from year-end ledger balances by placing figures in debit and credit columns, then assess related errors and its link to financial statements.

Practice identifying true/false statements and correcting trial balance errors, including depreciation reversals, omissions of purchase returns, and suspense accounts, in preparation for the extended trial balance.