Leaving Certificate Accounting Courses: Prepare for Your Exam

Considering a Leaving Certificate Accounting Course? 

The leaving certificate accounting course is rather diverse, covering everything from the basic principles to management accounting. There is lots of learning to be done in this topic and the course will help you to prepare for your leaving certificate accounting exam. The course is ideal for those studying accounting for their leaving certificate, who would like to improve or require a bit of extra help. The good news is there are tons of leaving certificate accounting courses currently available to help you ace your exam. 

About Accounting 

Accounting is essentially the process of recording financial transactions pertaining to a business. The accounting process involves summarising, analysing and reporting these transactions to oversight agencies, regulators and tax collection entities. The financial statements used in accounting are a concise summary of financial transactions over an accounting period, summarising a company’s operations, financial position and cash flows.  

Accounting is one of the key functions of virtually every business. It may be handled by an accountant or a bookkeeper at a small firm, or by sizable finance departments with tons of employees at larger companies. The reports generated by various streams of accounting, such as managerial accounting and cost accounting, are invaluable in helping management to make informed business decisions.  

Types of Accounting 

1. Financial Accounting 

This refers to the processes used to generate annual and interim financial statements. The results of all financial transactions that occur throughout an accounting period are summarised into the balance sheet, cash flow statement and income statement. The financial statements of a majority of companies are audited annually by an external CPA firm. For some, such as publicly traded companies, audits are a legal requirement. Although, lenders also generally require the results of an external audit annually as part of their debt covenants. Therefore, most companies will have annual audits for one reason or another.  

2. Managerial Accounting 

Managerial accounting uses a lot of the same data as financial accounting, however, it organises and uses information in different ways. Namely, in managerial accounting, an accountant generates quarterly or monthly reports that a business’s management team can use to make decisions about how the business functions. Managerial accounting also encompasses many other facets of accounting, including forecasting, budgeting and various financial analysis tools. Essentially, any information that may be used to management falls under this umbrella. 

3. Cost Accounting 

Similarly, to how managerial accounting helps businesses make decisions about management, cost accounting helps businesses to make decisions about costing. Essentially, cost accounting considers all of the costs related to producing a product. Business owners, analysts, managers and accountants use this information to decide what their products should cost. In cost accounting, money is cast as an economic factor in production, whereas in financial accounting, money is thought to be a measure of a company’s economic performance.  

Why Do a Leaving Certificate Accounting Course? 

Leaving certificate accounting course students will receive comprehensive notes with all the examination topics covered in great detail, leaving nothing to chance. The courses often do continuous written assignments, which are corrected and graded so you can identify whether you are improving and what topics you require the most assistance in. The tutors of the course will provide you with constructive feedback to increase your determination to succeed and pass your exam. Courses also do written examination practice, helping you to prepare for the day and know your timings, which ultimately gives you an edge.  

What Will I Learn? 

You will explore the basic principles of accounting, trade accounts and correction of errors. In addition, you will learn about control accounts, incomplete records and department accounts. Students will learn about company final accounts, cash flow statements and management accounting. 

Career Opportunities 

After completing your leaving certificate accounting course, you can apply for third level courses in accounting, business and finance.  

If you’re serious about doing a leaving certificate accounting course, check out courses near you in the Nightcourses.co.uk national course finder.