Bookkeeping for Personal and Business Accounting

Week 1 - financial accounting and reporting Week 2 - essential numerical skills Week 3 - double-entry and the balance sheet Week 4 - accounting Most FutureLearn courses run multiple times. Every run of a course has a set start date but you can join it and work through it after it starts. Find out more This accounting course is for anyone wanting an introduction to bookkeeping and financial accounting. It might be of particular interest to small business owners, people who are self employed or those wanting to better manage their own finance. You don’t need any previous experience.

Topics Covered

• The reasons and objectives of management and financial accounting, including stewardship, control and accountability
• Key terminology including income and expenses, assets and liabilities, profit and loss statements and the balance sheet
• Intermediate numerical skills including BODMAS, ratios, percentages, fractions and negative numbers
• The test of reasonableness and the table of equivalencies
• Manipulating equations and formulas
• Business entity and the dual aspect concepts
• The relationship between the accounting equation and double-entry bookkeeping
• Recording transactions in the appropriate ledger accounts using the double-entry bookkeeping system
• Simple balance sheets in a vertical format
• Balancing off accounts at the end of an accounting period
• Preparing a trial balance
• T accounts, debits and credits
• Double-entry and the profit and loss account
• The effect of profit on the accounting equation
• Income and expense accounts
• Accounting for closing stock
• The account equation and double-entry rules
• Trial balance nominal ledger accounts