Level II Syllabus

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Level II Certificate in Bookkeeping

From April 2014

Course Code L2C

Level 2 Certificate in Bookkeeping syllabus

Introduction

The Level II Certificate in Bookkeeping covers the basic principles of single and double entry bookkeeping and its application to business in both a manual and a computerised system.

Occupational Role: Assistant Bookkeeper

Upon completion of this qualification candidates will be able to carry out the role of an employed assistant bookkeeper under supervision. They should be able to apply postings from the books of prime entry and from source documents to the ledger accounts and produce an initial trial balance. They will also be able to set up a computerised bookkeeping system, enter details of all transactions and produce reports.

Pre requisites

No prior bookkeeping knowledge is assumed at this level but candidates must have basic numerical skills.

Qualification aims

On completion of this level of study a candidate will be able to:

Understand the following areas of underpinning knowledge:

The importance of adhering to a code of professional ethics
The differences between the structure of different types of businesses
The importance of legislation that applies to bookkeepers
The basic elements of a contract
The accounting equation
The concept of reporting on a cash basis for income tax purposes
The concept of business entity, duality and historical cost

Understand banking procedures including the need for security
Understand the purpose and range of business documents, and accurately prepare them
Understand the purpose of, and make entries into, the ledgers and books of prime entry including the use of control accounts
Understand the process of dealing with and accounting for VAT in the ledgers
Understand the purpose and use of the two and three-column cash book, the analysed cash book and the petty cash book
Understand the purpose and use of the trial balance
Understand when to open a suspense account
Set up a business in a computerised system
Process entries into nominal and subsidiary ledger accounts
Print out reports as follows:

Trial balance
Audit trail
Nominal account transactions
Sales and purchase ledger transactions

Assessment and Grading

The testing of knowledge and skills for the qualification will comprise three online assessments, all of which are taken in the candidate’s home or place of work. The first two will test manual knowledge of double entry bookkeeping to trial balance for a variety of types of businesses; the third will test the set up and data entry to trial balance using a computerised system. The content of each assessment is listed below, together with the relevant weighting of each section within each paper.

Paper B1 – Basic double-entry bookkeeping to trial balance

Home /place of work based assessment to include:

Underpinning knowledge (10% weighting)
- terms in bookkeeping (assets, liabilities etc.)
- banking procedures
- understanding the different categories of VAT (standard, reduced, zero, exempt, outside the scope)
Calculation of business documents including calculation of VAT (20% weighting)
Entering transactions into the ledgers including the analysed cash book, cash transactions, credit transactions, discounts, petty cash book, two column cash book and VAT (40% weighting)
Making and receiving payments (20% weighting)
Production and explanation of a trial balance (10% weighting)

Paper B2 – Further double entry bookkeeping to trial balance

Home /place of work based assessment to include:

Underpinning knowledge (10% weighting)
- ethics
- legislation
- types of businesses including simple cash based businesses
- identifying sections of the ledger
- accounting concepts
Further double entry including the following (60% weighting)
- Topics from paper 1
- Day books and control accounts in a double-entry system
- Writing off a bad debt
- Construction Industry Scheme
- Non-sole trader entries (subscriptions, donations, drawings of partners etc)
Making and receiving payments (20% weighting)
- Three column cash book
- The analysed cash book
Production and explanation of a trial balance (10% weighting)

Paper B3 – Data entry to trial balance using a computerised accounts package

Home /place of work based test to include the use of a computerised accounting package to include:

opening entries
entering cash and credit transactions
producing a trial balance
producing reports for debtors, creditors, bank and the audit trail

The three assessments should be taken in the order listed above.

Each assessment will generate an accreditation notification. Successful candidates will need to pass all three assessments to gain the full qualification.

The full qualification will be graded at Distinction with Honours, Distinction, Merit or Pass

Because all assessments are taken at home or at the place of work, each test will be graded as follows:

Distinction	95 -100%
Merit	90 - 94%
Pass	85 - 89%
Fail	0 - 84%

Once all assessments have been successfully completed a final certificate can be applied for which will be graded at Distinction with Honours, Distinction, Merit or Pass. Unit results will be aggregated. To achieve the relevant grade in the full qualification, the following aggregate marks must be achieved:

Distinction with Honours	295 marks and above
Distinction	285 – 294 marks
Merit	270 – 284 marks
Pass	255 – 269 marks

Level of Membership

Successful achievement at the full qualification will lead to the offer to upgrade to Affiliate Member of ICB. Affiliate Members are awarded the designatory letters AfICB.