Basic Accounting

Where the marks are

Percentages are the examinable weighting for each area. Revising in this order puts your time where the marks are.

1. Accounting processes

   20%

   Accounting source documents and their uses · Books of original (prime) entry and day books · Trade (quantity) and cash discounts · Cash transactions, cash management techniques and cash control · Principles and practice of double entry bookkeeping · Trial balance, errors and suspense accounts · Accounting for non-current assets (IAS 16) · Simple adjustments affecting financial statements

2. Preparation of simple financial statements

   15%

   Financial statements of sole traders with simple adjustments · Simple manufacturing accounts · Incomplete records and single entry · Accounts for not-for-profit entities

3. Control accounts

   15%

   Receivables and payables control accounts · Banking systems, services and reconciliations

4. Accounting concepts and conventions

   10%

   Entity concept · Fair value basis · Periodicity · Offsetting · Relevance and faithful representation · Going concern · Money measurement · Consistency · Prudence · Materiality and aggregation · Accrual and matching · Objectivity and fairness · Historical cost convention

5. Nature and general framework of accounting

   10%

   Nature and significance of accounting · Regulatory environment and extant laws of accounting

6. Forms and structures of private and public entities

   10%

   Characteristics of private entities · Not-for-profit and private entities compared · Registration process and documentation of private entities · Characteristics of sole proprietorship · Characteristics of partnership · Characteristics of a limited liability company · Sole proprietorship, partnership and limited liability company compared · Characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of public sector entities · Basic features of public sector accounting · Basic features of not-for-profit entities

7. Payroll accounting

   10%

   Importance of payroll accounting and types of payroll system · Preparing payroll and payslips, and incentive payment schemes · Recording payroll transactions and posting to the ledger

8. Computerised accounting systems

   10%

   Features and records of computerised accounting systems · Accessing, inputting and editing accounting information · Processing business transactions and producing accounting documents through IT · Manual and computerised accounting systems compared · Types of accounting packages and their uses

Where candidates lose this paper

The Institute publishes its own past questions. What it cannot give you is an answer to these.

There is not enough time to read the whole study text before the diet.

The official study text condensed and reorganised by examinable weighting, with every claim cited back to the page it came from — so you can check anything you doubt in one click.

You write practice answers for months and never find out whether a single one would have scored.

Write by hand, photograph it, and have it marked against the examiner's own marking guide — with the marks broken down the way the examiner breaks them down, and the reason for each one.

The study text is hundreds of pages and none of it tells you which parts the examiner actually asks about.

Every syllabus topic, ordered by the share of marks it carries, so your revision time follows the marks instead of the page count.

You know the answer but lose marks anyway, and no one ever explains where they went.

The Institute's published solution beside your attempt, with the mark allocation visible — so you can see the marks sitting in the principle and the application, not only the final figure.