Studying Accounting

Record, report and analyse the financial aspects of a business

The purpose of Accounts is to keep a check on the financial matters of a business. In the current climate this is an area of particularly high scrutiny both by government and within the media, as sensible accounting practice becomes ever more vital to a business's survival.

On the A-level or University Foundation Accounting course you will learn how to record, report and analyse financial transactions of a business. There are three types of accountants:

• Financial accountants: their job is to record financial transactions and summarise them at the end of each financial year. Every business – whether sole traders, partnerships or companies – must keep records of their finances, not only for themselves but also to satisfy government regulations.

• Auditors: their job is to make sure that the accounts kept by a business are true and proper, and produced in accordance with rules and regulations.

• Management accountants: their job is to report on the costs involved in running the business, and advise on how these costs can be optimal.

Accounting is a very applied topic and not just theory. Qualified accountants can be employed by firms or they can run their own firms offering accounting services to other businesses.

Accounts can be learnt on a two-year A-level programme or on the one-year University Foundation programme. 

The A-level syllabus is covered in four modules. The first two units are taught in year 1 and success in these units will qualify students at AS level. The following two units are taught in year 2 and completion of all 4 modules qualifies the student in the full Accounting A level.

Did you know...?

Credit cards were predicted in a 19th century novel!

Although Emile Zola wrote a great novel about banking and the Parisian bourse in the 19th century he himself never had a bank account.

Tulips were the cause of the world's first stock exchange crisis.

Two novelists wrote thrillers about a devastating terrorist attack on Wall Street, many years before the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Reading List: Accounting and Finance

Books for study

Introducing Accounting for AS, Second Edition by Ian Harrison
AQA Accounting by Austin & Hailstone

Books for entertainment

Black Market, James Patterson
The Banker, Leslie Waller
Trixie Trader, Helen Dunne
Cosmopolis, Don DeLillo
Good Faith, Jane Smiley
The Informer, Akimitsu Takagi