Bookkeeping for Personal and Business Accounting

Get practical financial skills to help you balance the books

Discover how money flows in personal and business environments and develop the skills to manage your finances with this online accounting and bookkeeping course from the Open University.

You’ll master common terms, basic maths and gain the ability to put your knowledge into practice. After this course you’ll be able to perfectly balance your books and understand how concepts of profit and loss lead to revenue or debt.

Develop ideas through conversation

This course is not facilitated. Learners are encouraged to support one another, share personal experiences, and see new perspectives.

This accounting course is for anyone wanting an introduction to bookkeeping and financial accounting. It might be of particular interest to small business owners, people who are self employed or those wanting to better manage their own finance. You don’t need any previous experience.

You can largely work from pen and paper in your notebook, and for more complex tasks use a standard calculator, or if you have a smartphone, the calculator app there. In the second half of the course there is a pre-made spreadsheet template for you to download and work through the exercises in Microsoft’s Excel, or free online software like Google Spreadsheets.

This accounting course is for anyone wanting an introduction to bookkeeping and financial accounting. It might be of particular interest to small business owners, people who are self employed or those wanting to better manage their own finance. You don’t need any previous experience.

• Describe and define bookkeeping and accounting
• Explain the general purposes and functions of accounting
• Explain the differences between management and financial accounting
• Describe the main elements of financial accounting information – assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses
• Identify the main financial statements and their purposes
• Apply the essential numerical skills required for bookkeeping and accounting
• Explain the relationship between the accounting equation and double-entry bookkeeping
• Record transactions in the appropriate ledger accounts using the double-entry bookkeeping system
• Balance off ledger accounts at the end of an accounting period
• Produce a trial balance, balance sheet and a profit and loss account