Accounting (A Level)

This course is ideal for learners who wish to pursue a career in Accountancy. It is also highly valued in careers such as retail, banking and for anyone wanting to start their own business. The course covers all aspects of financial statements and using financial information to inform the making of business decisions.

Click here for our dedicated curriculum intent.

This course is aimed at students who:

• Wish to pursue a career in the accounting or financial sector
• Wish to start their own business and require an understanding of finance
• Enjoy analysing and interpreting data
• Do not want to study Mathematics at University, but would like to pursue a course with a large numerical content

This course is assessed by exams. The Units are:

• Role of the Accountant in business
• Types of business organisations
• The double entry model
• Verification of accounting records
• Accounting concepts in the preparation of accounts
• Preparation of financial statements for sole traders
• Limited company accounts
• Analysis and evaluation of financial information
• Budgeting
• Marginal Costing
• Standard costing and variance analysis
• Absorption and activity based costing
• Capital investment appraisal
• Accounting for organisations and incomplete records
• Accounting for limited companies
• Interpretation, analysis and communication of accounting information
• The impact of ethical considerations

Skills students will develop on this course include:

• Explain the role of the accounting in business
• Evaluate Types of business organisations
• Recognise the source documents and identify their purpose
• Understand the operation of double entry bookkeeping principles
• Explain the purpose of day books
• Explain the process of posting entries from the day books to the ledgers
• Explain the purpose and structure of the day books
• Explain the difference between cash discount and trade discount
• Explain the purpose of the general journal
• Decision Making
• Time Management
• Assess the effect that errors will have on the calculation of profit
• Calculate inventory values based on the application of accounting concepts
• Prepare financial statements of a sole trader that include bad debts recovered and adjustments for income received in advance and due
• Teamworking
• Calculate figures for total revenue and capital expenditure correctly selecting items from a list
• Evaluate bonus issues by assessing the benefits and drawbacks of a bonus issue from the issuing company’s viewpoint and from a shareholders viewpoint
• Communication
• Analyse the performance of a business comparing results over a period of years
• Assess the performance of a business comparing it with other similar businesses or with benchmarks for businesses in the same sector
• Evaluate a business’s performance by assessing strengths and weaknesses in performance
• Calculation and interpretation of break-even point, interpreting break-even charts and the use and limitations of break-even analysis methods
• Make decisions on the following: make or buy, additional orders, scarce resources
• Calculation and interpretation of variances: materials (price and usage), labour (efficiency and rate), sales (volume and price)
• Make recommendations as to how the performance of a business, as revealed by a budget, could be improved
• Develop Resilience
• Problem Solving

There are a variety of different progression routes you can follow with this course. This can include different pathways to achieve numerous careers through Higher Education, Apprenticeships or directly into Employment. Here are some progression routes:

• Accountant
• Finance
• Business Analyst
• Research Scientist
• Statistician 
• Logistics 
• Maths Teacher
• Director
• Manager