The School of Commerce & Enterprise · business, money & management
Accounting & Bookkeeping
Debits, credits, and the discipline of writing down what actually happened.
Journals, ledgers, and the five-hundred-year-old method that still keeps the books.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~16 hours
Unit I — The Accounting Equation
Assets, liabilities, and equity · Why every entry has two sides · Debits and credits without mysticism
Unit II — The Daily Records
The journal: transactions in order · Posting to the ledger · The chart of accounts, kept small
Unit III — Proving the Books
The trial balance · Finding and fixing errors · Bank reconciliation, monthly
Unit IV — Closing the Period
Adjusting entries: accruals and deferrals · Closing entries and the fresh start · From ledger to financial statements
The income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement — built, then read.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~32 hours
Unit I — The Three Statements
The income statement: performance over time · The balance sheet: position at a moment · The cash-flow statement: where money went · How the three articulate
Unit II — Revenue and Expense
Revenue recognition: earned, not billed · Matching and accrual accounting · Depreciation: spreading the cost of things
Unit III — Assets and Liabilities
Inventory methods: FIFO, LIFO, average · Receivables and doubtful accounts · Long-term debt and leases in brief
Unit IV — Equity and Standards
Contributed capital and retained earnings · GAAP and IFRS: who writes the rules · Notes and disclosures: reading the fine print
Costing, budgeting, and variance — the inside numbers managers steer by.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~24 hours
Unit I — Cost Behavior
Fixed, variable, and mixed costs · Contribution margin · Break-even and target profit
Unit II — Costing Systems
Job-order and process costing · Overhead allocation and its politics · Activity-based costing, when it pays
Unit III — Planning and Control
The master budget, piece by piece · Flexible budgets and variances · Standard costs: a useful fiction, managed
Unit IV — Decisions
Relevant costs: ignore the sunk · Make or buy, keep or drop · Pricing floors and special orders
Estimated payments, deductions, and records — staying square with the revenue service.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~10 hours
Unit I — How Business Income Is Taxed
Pass-through versus corporate taxation · Self-employment tax explained · Quarterly estimated payments
Unit II — Deductions and Records
Ordinary and necessary: the deduction test · Home office, vehicle, and meals: the fussy three · Records the auditor will ask for
Unit III — Staying Out of Trouble
Payroll taxes: the ones that hurt · Sales tax and nexus in outline · When to hire a professional
Ratios, trends, and red flags — what the annual report says between the lines.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~12 hours
Unit I — First Pass
The annual report, mapped · Reading the auditor's opinion first · Common-size statements
Unit II — Ratios
Liquidity: can they pay this year's bills · Profitability: margins and returns · Leverage: how much is borrowed
Unit III — Quality and Red Flags
Earnings quality: cash should back profit · Aggressive recognition and channel stuffing · Comparing across firms and across years
Evidence, sampling, and professional skepticism — how outsiders come to trust the numbers.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~18 hours
Unit I — Why Audits Exist
The agency problem and the outside check · Reasonable assurance, not certainty · Independence and its threats
Unit II — The Audit Itself
Risk assessment and materiality · Internal controls: test or distrust · Evidence: inspection, confirmation, sampling
Unit III — Reporting
Opinions: unqualified to adverse · Going-concern doubts · Fraud: the auditor's real but limited duty