About the course
This course gives a practical introduction to accounting, from receipts to VAT and reporting. You will learn how to record transactions correctly and set up good routines.
What you will learn
- Debits and credits in practice
- Receipts and documentation requirements
- VAT codes, rates and return periods
- Bank and ledger reconciliation
- Accruals and fundamental principles
Bookkeeping examples
| Event | Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales invoice | 1500 Trade debtors | 1,250 | 0 |
| Sales invoice | 3000 Sales revenue | 0 | 1,000 |
| Sales invoice | 2700 Output VAT | 0 | 250 |
| Customer payment | 1920 Bank | 1,250 | 0 |
| Customer payment | 1500 Trade debtors | 0 | 1,250 |
Digital ways of working
| Scenario | Nexbal feature | Learning objective |
|---|---|---|
| Manual receipt handling | AI-suggested coding | Evaluate and quality-check automated postings |
| Payment matching | AI-analysed bank statement lines | Reduce discrepancies and ensure traceability |
| Supplier invoices | AI-prefilled entries from emailed invoices | Identify fields that need quality checking |
| Project accounting | Invoices spread over several periods | Identify variances in project margins |
To practise on real software, participants can join the Nexbal beta with a free 30-day trial, upload test receipts and a bank statement, and practise reconciliation. The course also shows how to divide review and posting between roles so that several people can work in the books safely.
Practical exercises
- Set up an opening balance with open items and test bank reconciliation against an uploaded PDF statement
- Prepare the figures for a VAT return period and document the controls in a checklist
- Evaluate coding suggestions from automated bookkeeping and give feedback to the system
- Create a simple KPI report using metrics from the KPI guide
Next steps
- Invoicing, reminders and late fees: see Invoicing course
- Payroll, RTI and employer’s NI: see Payroll course
- Year-end and tax return: see Year-end course