Accounting

Accounting Summary

“The qualification that counts” Charles Dickens and Monty Python have much to answer for as they have conjured up visions which influence the way in which people perceive the world of accountancy: a world of dreary people peering over massive volumes of paperwork, ensuring that every transaction is meticulously checked, recorded and analysed. The modern reality could not be further from that image. Accountancy is a vital and ever-changing, ever-growing discipline. There is now much less emphasis on the “Bob Cratchit” type of accountant as a keeper of records, and much more on using financial information to inform policy and decision making. Accountancy is certainly more than crunching numbers! Today accountants enjoy some of the highest paid salaries available in the UK job market, and no management team is complete without an accountant. Some 25% of company Chief Executives and Management Directors are accountants. Ask anyone where the power lies within a company, and they will say “with the accountants” 

Entry Requirements

6 or more GCSES at Grade 5-9

Course Duration

2 years full-time

Specification

AQA

How you will study

Accounting is a content based subject perfected through continuous practice of numerical problems to find correct solutions. Each topic is introduced by teacher lead lessons followed by supported exemplar exercises leading to independently working through exam style questions and assessments. Extensive use of past exam papers familiarises students with the demands and requirements of the final assessment and grading. 

Component breakdown

As a linear course all final assessment is based on two three-hour exams at the end of the second year of study. The course does however break down into the two component years in terms of topics covered. 

Year 1: Introduction to double entry bookkeeping, the books of prime entry, bank reconciliation, financial statements of sole traders and limited companies, error corrections and the suspense account, control accounts, accruals adjustments and provisions, types of business organisations, concepts and conventions, financial ratios, budgeting and budgetary control, marginal costing and break-even, decision-making situations. 

Year 2: Introduction to ethics, incomplete records, computer accounting, partnership accounts, changes in partnerships, rights issues and bonus issues, statements of cash flow, investor ratios, accounting regulations, use of budgets, absorption and activity-based costing, overhead absorption, standard costing and variance analysis, capital investment appraisal. 

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