Curriculum
Instruction Pack I: Accounting Services Concepts
Students learn the importance of accounting services in today’s business field. Key accounting terms are defined, and students learn how to use accounting equations. This instruction pack covers the types of accounts businesses use, as well as how to interpret balance sheets and operating statements. Additionally, students learn how to follow a transaction through the entire accounting cycle, including recording transactions in journals, posting transactions to ledger accounts and identifying debits and credits. Students practice arriving at a trial balance and identifying common accounting errors.
Instruction Pack II: Completing the Accounting Cycle
Students practice the detailed procedures of accounts payable and accounts receivable methods. They prepare a worksheet to summarize the entire accounting cycle and as a preparatory step to preparing financial statements. Additionally, students learn how to figure depreciation and sales tax and perform accounting functions for merchandising businesses. Finally, this instruction pack teaches students to post to specialized journals and complete the accounting cycle by preparing a balance sheet and operating statement.
Instruction Pack III: Banking and Payroll Accounting
Students learn how to close the financial books for a set period of time, handle checking accounts, interest, promissory notes and petty cash transactions, as well as reconcile bank statements. They write payroll checks, figure payroll deductions and maintain employers’ payroll records. Students also practice processing payroll documents, including the W-4 and W-2 forms and compute and process tax deductions. Finally, students learn about computerized accounting services, including the importance of spreadsheets in the accounting services profession.
Instruction Pack IV: Tax Preparation
Students practice daily concepts used in accounting and bookkeeping processes. Additionally, they learn to prepare the 1040-EZ and 1040 federal tax forms. Students also consider legal and ethical issues involved with tax preparation.
Instruction Pack V: Accounting Services Simulation
Students learn the differences among partnerships, corporations, non-profit organizations and sole-proprietorships and how each type of business sets up the books. This final instruction pack provides practice keeping financial records for each entity, including a comprehensive accounting services simulation project for a sole-proprietorship.
