Advanced Certificate in Accounting

Everything between a trial balance and finished year-end accounts. You'll work a coffee roaster's year end through accruals, revenue, fixed assets, leases, debtors, stock and the extended trial balance to Section 1A company accounts, then run its first month-end close. The rest of the course covers sole traders, accounts from incomplete records and partnerships, and ends with a capstone client you take from raw trial balance to accounts ready to approve.

Not if you already have what it teaches: double entry, control accounts and a trial balance that balances. The course opens with a quick diagnostic so you can check. If you're unsure, take Accounting Fundamentals first and this course will feel far easier.

No. Your working papers live in Excel or the free Google Sheets, and Xero, Sage and accounts production software are shown so you know what to expect at work. You won't need a subscription to any of them.

Advanced Accounting if you want to prepare the accounts yourself and understand the judgement behind every adjustment. Advanced Xero if you keep books in Xero and want to run its VAT, CIS and month end inside the software. If your practice runs on Xero, the two fit together: this course teaches the why, and Advanced Xero the clicks.

The reporting side, yes: you'll run a month-end close and produce monthly management accounts from it. For budgets, forecasts and variance analysis, Budgeting & Forecasting is the closer fit. The rest of the course is financial accounting: the adjustments and judgements that turn a trial balance into a true set of accounts.

No. Every adjustment is practised on fictional clients, from the coffee roaster to a dog groomer, a florist and a physiotherapy clinic, so you can get the hard calls wrong where it costs nothing. The capstone lets you choose between a kitchen fitter and a homeware importer.

The tax that belongs in the accounts. You'll post corporation tax from a computation, account for deferred tax and pull out the figures a sole trader's tax return needs. Computing the tax itself, tax advice, audit and group accounts sit outside it. Current thresholds and filing dates always come from GOV.UK and Companies House, and the course shows you where to find them.

Yes. Complete the course and pass its final assessment and you get an OBA certificate of completion that an employer can verify online. It isn't a professional qualification such as AAT, ACCA or ICAEW, and it doesn't count towards one. The year-end accounts pack you build is strong evidence in its own right.

Download the free info pack first. It walks you through every module, what you'll build and what you need before you start, so you can enrol knowing exactly what you're getting. If you'd like to talk it through, get in touch and we'll help you choose.