Recommendation for accounting course for small business owners?

[singlemalt]

We employ bookeepers and accountants. But I have long felt I would engage better with them if I had better understanding of company accounting practices and procedures.

Can anyone recommend a course for small business owners that covers accounting and finance?

An on-line course would be fine.

 

[DWS]

AAT would get my vote

 

[Argentum Tax]

Hi Singlemalt.

I am not sure there are any such courses specifically for small business owners. It would be similar to a dentistry course for someone with toothache. You really can’t learn enough in a short course to be of any use.

As previously suggested, AAT do a training course that they say might interest small business owners, called the ‘AAT Access Award in Bookkeeping’. The cost is quoted as £150–£800 depending upon the course provider and they say it is suitable for small business owners. I suspect it will be a foundation course for students of AAT as it is stated to be 6 weeks duration. You might find it overkill.

I suggest you do a search online. Best of luck!

 

[KM-Tiger]

I suggest you do a search online.

If it helps here is my list of things I've learned about over the years and have found useful to know about:-

The principles of double entry and why debits and credits are not the way round you might think.
What is on a Balance Sheet and where the items come from.
What is on a P&L and where the items come from.
What Accruals and Prepayments are.
Capitalisation and depreciation.
VAT
What Aged Debtors and Aged Creditors means.

 

[WaveJumper]

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/free-courses-for-jobs

 

[brucegreig]

I'd second KM-Tiger's list - that is pretty much what you need to know.

This post caught my attention because I run an occasional online course for lawyers, covering some useful maths, spreadsheets and accounting (mathsforsmartlawyers.eventbrite.com). Maybe I could adapt it for general business owners, with less of the maths and more of the accounting. You could pretty much cover everything in KM-Tiger's list in an hour. Maybe two.

Please DM me if you are interested - I'd like to hear a bit more about what you (sample of one) would want from such a course. Ditto anyone else reading this. I really enjoy doing the lawyers' course, but there is only enough demand to do it a few times a year.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

We employ bookeepers and accountants. But I have long felt I would engage better with them if I had better understanding of company accounting practices and procedures.

Can anyone recommend a course for small business owners that covers accounting and finance?

An on-line course would be fine.

Thats a very difficult one to answer as it really depends on how much you want to learn.

If its a more basic understanding of company accounts spending some time with your accountants and getting them to explain the accounts may be what you need.

Something like AAT is great (did it myself a very long time ago) but a lot of the syllabus is going to be topics you probably have no interest in.

I know you mentioned an online course but another possibility is a basic accounts and bookkeeping course by your local college. Some offer basic courses which may be ideal.