Bookkeeping and Double-Entry Accounting Essentials Training Course

Course overview

Inaccurate bookkeeping creates consequences far beyond the accounts team: supplier balances are disputed, cash positions are misstated, month-end closes stall, and managers make decisions from unreliable reports. This five-day course gives finance staff and operational professionals a disciplined way to record routine business activity under the double-entry system. Participants learn how transactions move through journals, ledgers, control accounts and the trial balance, and how to identify errors before they become reporting, tax or audit issues.

The course covers the accounting equation, debit and credit rules, chart-of-accounts design, source-document checks, sales and purchase processing, cash-book management, bank reconciliation, payroll and fixed-asset entries, accruals, prepayments, depreciation, corrections and period-end adjustments. Participants practise posting transactions manually and in accounting software, then trace balances from original evidence to financial statements. They gain practical methods for reconciling control accounts, investigating suspense-account items and producing a structured month-end close file.

Instructor-led explanations are followed by worked examples, guided ledger drills and a running business case using invoices, receipts, credit notes, bank statements and payroll information. Exercises use Microsoft Excel, QuickBooks Online and Xero to show how double-entry principles operate inside modern accounting systems. Each participant leaves with a completed bookkeeping workbook containing journals, reconciliations, adjustment schedules, a trial balance and draft financial statements for a simulated business, plus a personal checklist for applying the process at work.

The programme is particularly useful for accounts staff moving into broader bookkeeping responsibilities, finance administrators who need to understand the records they process, and managers responsible for reviewing accounting information. It is also suitable for professionals who use accounting software but need stronger command of the entries and controls behind the system outputs.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Apply the accounting equation to classify business transactions into assets, liabilities, equity, income and expenses
• Post balanced debit and credit entries to general-ledger and subsidiary-ledger accounts
• Construct a chart of accounts with appropriate account codes, categories and control-account links
• Prepare sales, purchase, cash and general journal entries from invoices, credit notes and receipts
• Reconcile bank statements, cash-book balances, accounts receivable and accounts payable control accounts
• Calculate and post accruals, prepayments, depreciation and inventory adjustment entries at period end
• Investigate trial-balance differences and clear suspense-account items using error-correction journals
• Produce a month-end bookkeeping pack containing reconciliations, an adjusted trial balance and draft financial statements

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Bookkeepers — who need a reliable double-entry process for maintaining accurate day-to-day records
• Accounts Payable Officers — who process supplier transactions and must reconcile creditor balances
• Accounts Receivable Officers — who manage customer invoices, receipts, credit notes and debtor control accounts
• Finance Administrators — who handle source documents and need to understand their accounting impact
• Assistant Accountants — who support journals, reconciliations and month-end close activities
• Small Business Finance Managers — who review bookkeeping outputs and need stronger control over accounting records

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable with basic business arithmetic, including percentages and simple calculations, and able to work confidently with spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel. Familiarity with common business documents—sales invoices, supplier invoices, receipts, purchase orders and bank statements—is helpful. The course assumes participants have encountered basic accounting terms such as revenue, expense, asset and liability, but it rebuilds the debit-and-credit logic from first principles before moving into reconciliations and period-end entries. No accounting qualification, prior use of QuickBooks Online or Xero, advanced Excel skills, or experience preparing financial statements is required.

Training methodology

The programme combines instructor-led demonstrations with repeated transaction-to-report practice. Participants analyse source documents, determine the accounting treatment, post journals and inspect the resulting ledgers in Microsoft Excel, QuickBooks Online and Xero. A single trading-business case develops across the week, allowing participants to reconcile bank and control accounts, process adjustments and produce an adjusted trial balance. Small-group reviews focus on identifying errors and defending accounting treatment. On the final day, participants complete a workplace application plan and a reusable month-end bookkeeping checklist.

Course outline

Day 1: Double-entry foundations and transaction analysis

• The accounting equation and the five account categories
• Debit and credit rules using T-accounts
• Source-document validation for invoices, receipts and credit notes
• Chart-of-accounts structure, numbering and account purpose
• General ledger, subsidiary ledger and control-account relationships
• Cash versus accrual accounting treatment
• Journal-entry narratives and supporting audit evidence

Workshop: Participants analyse a set of business source documents and produce balanced opening and routine transaction journals for a simulated trading company.

Day 2: Sales, purchases and cash-book processing

• Sales invoices, customer receipts and sales returns
• Purchase invoices, supplier payments and purchase returns
• Accounts receivable control-account postings
• Accounts payable control-account postings
• Cash-book entries for cash, card and electronic payments
• VAT or sales-tax coding and transaction treatment
• Processing workflows in QuickBooks Online and Xero

Workshop: Participants enter a week of sales, purchasing and payment transactions, then produce debtor and creditor control-account schedules.

Day 3: Reconciliations and bookkeeping controls

• Bank reconciliation statement preparation
• Outstanding lodgements, unpresented payments and bank charges
• Reconciling accounts receivable to customer balances
• Reconciling accounts payable to supplier statements
• Petty-cash imprest controls and cash-count procedures
• Suspense accounts and common causes of unreconciled balances
• Reconciliation evidence, review sign-off and exception logs

Workshop: Participants reconcile a cash book to a bank statement and resolve discrepancies across customer, supplier and petty-cash records.

Day 4: Adjustments, corrections and the trial balance

• Accrual and prepayment journal calculations
• Straight-line depreciation and fixed-asset register entries
• Inventory adjustments and cost-of-sales recognition
• Payroll journals for wages, deductions and employer costs
• Bad-debt provisions and receivables write-offs
• Error types and correcting-journal methods
• Adjusted trial balance preparation and review

Workshop: Participants post a period-end adjustment pack, correct deliberately planted errors and prepare an adjusted trial balance.

Day 5: From bookkeeping records to month-end reporting

• Profit and loss statement preparation from ledger balances
• Statement of financial position preparation from the trial balance
• Balance-sheet account review and supporting schedules
• Month-end close sequence and ownership matrix
• Materiality, unusual-balance and variance checks
• IFRS Accounting Standards concepts relevant to routine bookkeeping
• Bookkeeping file retention and audit-ready documentation

Workshop: Participants complete the full case by producing draft financial statements, a reconciled month-end close pack and a workplace implementation checklist.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, QuickBooks Online, Xero, IFRS Accounting Standards

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions