Bookkeeping I

This is a sound foundation course for anyone working or wishing to work in bookkeeping, including:

• Business owners
• Administration or accounts employees
• Anyone seeking a career as a bookkeeper

ACS Distance Education is an Accredited Training Centre by the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. Students completing this course are eligible to join this institute which is the largest such institute in the bookkeeping industry - world wide. 

• 100 hour, self paced course
• Highly qualified tutors to support you in both Austrtalia and the UK
• Extensive support services
• Recognised by IARC, affiliated with colleges around the world

Lesson Structure

There are 13 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction
   • What are Accounting Systems
   • Uses for Financial information
   • Who Uses financial information
   • Accounting Conventions (Entity Convention, Historical Cost Convention, Accounting period Convention, Going Concern assumption, Matching Principle, Consistency principle, Verifiability, Conservatism)
   • General Accounting concepts , relevance, reliability, materiality, comparability)
   • Accounting Standards in UK and Australia
   • Case Study
   • Doctrine of Materiality
2. Balance Sheet
   • Definition of Balance sheet
   • Assets
   • Liabilities
   • Proprietorship
   • T Form Balance sheet
   • Narrative Style Balance Sheet
   • Classification in Balance sheet (Current Assets, Non current Assets, Current Liabilities, deferred Liabilities)
   • Working Capital
   • Calculating Working Capital
   • Which Items Appear in balance sheet
   • Summary
3. Analysing and Designing Accounting Systems
   • Bookkeeping Cycle
   • Different Approaches to Bookkeeping
   • Simplest Approach
   • Steps in Bookkeeping Process
   • Abbreviations
   • Assets, Liabilities and Proprietorship
   • Designing an Accounting system
   • Ownership of a Business
   • Types of Business
   • Users of Financial Information
   • Flow of Information
   • Financial reports
   • Designing the ledger
   • Naming Accounts
   • Designing a Ledger
   • Source Documents
   • Cash Transactions
   • Credit transactions
   • Returns and Allowances
   • Statement of Account
   • Other business Documents
   • Use of Business Documents
   • Overview of accounting System
4. The Double Entry Recording Process
   • The Ledger
   • Beginning the ledger
   • Entries Resulting from transactions
   • Recording transactions
   • Example
   • Trial Balance
   • Ledger Accounts and Double Entry accounting
   • Analysis Chart
   • Footing and Balancing Ledger Accounts
   • Trial Balance
   • Alternative presentation of Trial Balance
   • Accounting for Drawings
5. Cash Receipts and Cash Payments Journal
   • Nature and scope of Journals
   • Cash Receipts and Payments in journals
   • Cash Receipts Journal
   • Cash receipts Journal –Simple Version, Multi Colum Journal
   • Cash Payments Journal
   • Multi Column Cash Payments Journal
   • Discounts allowed, and Discount Received
6. Credit Fees and Purchases Journal
   • Scope and Nature of Credit Sales
   • Credit Sales Journal
   • Debtors Subsidiary Ledger
   • Debtors Schedules
   • Cash Receipts Journal and Debtors Control
   • Credit Purchases Journal
   • Creditors Subsidiary ledger
   • Creditors Schedules
   • Cash Payment Journal and Creditors Control
   • Multi Column Credit Journals
7. The General Journal
   • Classifying transactions
   • The General Journal
   • Posting a General Journal Entry
   • General Journal and Subsidiary ledgers
   • Debtors Subsidiary ledger
   • Recording Returns of Supplies or materials to Creditors
   • Recording Credit Purchases of Non-Current Assets
   • Recording the Contribution or Withdrawal of Assets by an Owner
   • Contra, or Offsetting, Entries
   • Correcting Recording Errors through the General Journal
8. Closing the Ledger
   • General Journal
   • Process for Balancing a Ledger
   • Posting a General Journal Entry
   • The General Journal and Subsidiary Ledgers
   • Debtors Subsidiary ledger
   • Recording Returns of Supplies or Materials to Creditors
   • Recording Credit Purchases of Non-Current Assets
   • Recording the Contribution or Withdrawal of Assets by an Owner
   • Contra, or Offsetting, Entries
   • Correcting Recording Errors through the General Journal
9. Profit and Loss Statement
   • Two methods of dealing with ledger accounts
   • Final Accounts Closing the general ledger
   • Profit and Loss account
   • Closing the Ledger account
   • The General Journal and Closing Entries
   • The General Journal, Transfer of Net Profit
   • Accounting for Net Loss
10. Depreciation on Non-current Assets
    • Scope and Nature of Profit and Loss Statement
    • Preparing a Profit and Loss statement
    • Link between Profit and Loss and the Balance Sheet
    • Assessing Net Profit figure
    • Rate of Return
    • Return on owners Equity
    • Gearing
    • Net Profit ratio
    • Direct and Indirect Expenses
    • Gross Margin
    • Functional Classification
    • Extraordinary Revenues and expenditures
    • Calculating Cost of Materials Used
11. Profit Determination and Balance Day Adjustments
    • Scope and Nature of Depreciation
    • Depreciation of Non current assets
    • Methods of Calculation Depreciation
    • The Straight Line Method of Depreciation
    • The Reducing Balance Method of Depreciation
    • Production Units (Units of Use) Method of Depreciation
    • Other Methods
    • Asset Registers
    • Disposal of Non current assets
    • Amortisation of Intangible assets
    • Cash Control: Bank Reconciliation and Petty Cash
    • Adjustments to Final accounts
    • Accruals and Pre Payments
    • Bad Debts
    • Depreciation
    • Treatment of Discounts
    • Balance day Adjustments and Profit Determination
    • Cash Accounting
    • The modified cash Method
    • Accrual accounting
    • Prepaid Expenses
    • Accrued Expenses
    • Prepaid revenue
    • Accrued revenue
    • Adjusting for Stocks of Supplies
    • Ten Column Multiple worksheets
    • Alternative approach to Recording Prepayments
    • A More Comprehensive Treatment of Trial Balance
    • Partnerships
    • Companies
    • Clubs and Non Profit Making Organisation
    • Ways of Handling money
12. Cash Control: Bank reconciliations and petty cash
    • Petty Cash book example
    • Bank Transactions and the cash book
    • Bank reconciliation statements
    • Methods of Controlling Cash
    • The Cash Cycle
    • Liquidity and Cash Flow
    • Points of interest for Professional Bookkeeping
13. Cash Control: Budgeting
    • Nature of a Budget
    • Types of Business Budgets
    • Schedules for Collections from Debtors
    • Cash Budgets and Decision Making
    • Budget Performance Reports

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Explain types of balance sheets, assets, liabilities.
• Design an accounting process.
• Utilize ledgers, transaction records, trial balances.
• Define what a business’s liquidity is and the two calculations used to measure it.
• Prepare a credit fees journal
• Prepare a credit purchase journal
• Post a fees journal to the general ledger
• Post a purchases journal to the general ledger
• Describe the GST

What You Will Do

• What is an accounting standard?
• What is an accounting convention?
• Explain the link between the concept of reliability and the principal of verifiability.
• Explain the link between the going concern assumption and accounting period convention.
• Explain the accounting entity convention.
• State the balance sheet equation in two different forms.
• Define the terms, assets, liabilities and proprietorship
• What is the difference between a T-form balance sheet and a narrative form balance sheet?
• Define the difference between a Ledger & Journal?
• Define source documents?
• Explain what a chart of accounts is and why is it used?
• What journals are used in an accounting system.
• Prepare a list of transactions in ledger accounts on double entry principles.
• Explain the purpose of the general journal for a business which uses special journals.
• Describe the benefits achieved by a business through the introduction of multi-column journals.
• What is the purpose of the sundries column in a cash receipts journal?
• What is the difference between credit fees and credit purchases?
• Describe the key sections of a general journal
• State four transactions that would be recorded in a general journal.
• What is a bad debt? What is the role of the general journal in relation to bad debts?
• What is the purpose of the profit and loss account
• What is a current account?
• Outline the basic functions of a Profit and Loss Statement.
• How is gross margin calculated for a service firm?
• What is meant by functional classification and what are the benefits?
• What is depreciation?
• Outline the differences between the cash and accrual methods of determining profit.
• Explain the role played by a ten column worksheet.
• State and describe five different ways of controlling cash receipts.
• What is a bank reconciliation?
• Describe five events which may cause a balance on a bank statement to be different from that shown in a firm’s books.
• What details should be recorded in a petty cash book?
• State and describe four different types of budgets the management of a service firm may prepare.
• What is a cash budget and what is its purpose?
• What is a budget performance report and what is its purpose?

What Does a Bookkeeper Do?

Every job is different, but typically, a bookkeeper may be involved with any of the following tasks:

• Recording cash payments and expenses.
• Recording credit sales and purchases.
• Daily or Weekly Banking
• Calculating recording the payroll
• Accounts Payable (Including paying suppliers and responsibility for petty cash)
• Accounts Receivable (Including invoicing clients and chasing up overdue amounts)
• Bank Reconciliations
• All accounts to trial balance
• Balance day adjustments such as calculating and entering depreciation.
• Preparing some Tax Statements such as the BAS & payroll tax
• General journal entries
• Liasing with customers, suppliers, managers, sales and marketing and all other departments in the organisation
• Chasing up paperwork and authorisations from managers
• Can sometimes include monthly financial reporting under the supervision of an accountant.
• Using accounting software for entering data and producing many different reports.
• Checking for errors and balancing the books.

OPPORTUNITIES

There are many opportunities for Bookkeepers as every business needs one or more. With increasing and stricter business, accounting and taxation laws, the demand for bookkeepers is becoming stronger.

Bookkeepers can either work full-time or part-time for a business, or they can start up their own bookkeeping business. Bookkeepers may also choose to do furthur studies and become qualified accountants.

REMUNERATION

Self employed bookkeepers can earn good money.

Bookkeepers employed in medium or larger organisations may have more job security (than self employed bookkeepers), but they are likely to earn a lower rate of pay. That however can vary depending on the company, how long you have been with them and how happy they are with you.

The great thing about being a bookkeeper is that there are often a lot of jobs available, so you are unlikely to be out of work.

If you open up your own bookkeeping business, there is a potential to earn average to high salaries.

Bookkeepers who do further studies can increase their range of services, and potential to earn above average salaries, as a financial advisor, financial planner, finance company agent through to chartered accountant.