Many public servants with little or no relevant training find themselves assigned to positions in the accounts sections of their organizations. A basic knowledge of bookkeeping principles including the preparation of ledgers, trial balances, journals and financial statements is important for anyone who is already in or likely to be posted to their accounts branch.

The aim of this course is to provide public sector employees with essential knowledge and skills in public sector bookkeeping practices. The first part of the programme will give participants an understanding of the bookkeeping cycle from ‘Source Documentation’ through to preparing a Trial Balance. Module 2 builds on Module 1 to bring participants to the next stage of preparing Financial Statements from the Trial Balance.

By the end of this programme participants will:

• understand the terms ‘Debit’ and ‘Credit’;
• know the six steps in the cycle of accounting having worked through each one;
• know how to write up manual day books and post them to the various ledgers;
• be able to extract a ‘Trial Balance’ from the ledgers;
• be able to prepare a Bank Reconciliation;
• know the function of the ‘Journal’ and be able to draw up and post various Journal entries;