The course outline for Principles of Accounts to be used from Form 3-5 in secondary schools.

1. PRINCIPLES OF ACCOUNTS
CURRICULUM FORMS 3 - 5
A division of the Caribbean Secondary
Education Certificate Syllabus
Effective September 2010
Based on the following allocation of periods
Form 3 3 – 35 minutes periods per week
Form 4 & 5 5 – 35 minutes periods per week
Business Education Officer
Ministry of Education, Sports, Youth and Gender Affairs

2. Introduction
This curriculum breaks down the content of the CSEC Syllabus over a three year period. It should be
used in conjunction with the CSEC Syllabus.
Purpose
The purpose is to standardize when the content of CSEC Syllabus is being taught in all secondary
schools.
Teaching Strategies
In order to cater for the different learning styles in the classroom, teachers are urged to use various
teaching strategies and styles to meet the individual needs of their students. Besides the usual “chalk
and talk” teachers should try to incorporate as many of the following strategies:
Independent Activities
Cooperative Learning
Visuals
Simulations
Peer Tutoring
Hands-on
Technology Integration
Projects
Games
Along with the different teaching styles there should be a variety of class activities to evaluate your
lessons to include:
 Questions & Answers
 Puzzles
 Quiz
 Games
 Web Quest
 Test
 Book Quest
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer
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3. FORM 3
SECTION TOPIC CONTENT
a) concept of “Accounting” and “Principles of Accounting
b) accounting as a business practice – the purpose of
accounting
c) internal and external users of accounting information and
their needs
d) types of business organizations
Introduction to
e) the accounting cycle with its diagrammatic representations
1 Principles of
Accounts f) accounting concepts and conventions
g) software currently being used in Accounting
h) advantages and disadvantages of using the computer in
Accounting
i) Accounting processes which could be readily performed by
the use of the computer
a)The uses of Books of Original Entry
-general journal -purchases day book
-sales day book -returns outwards day book
-returns inwards day book - cash book
-petty cash book
3 Books of Original b) Cash and credit transaction
Entry The use of;
-cash -cheques
- credit cards - debit cards
c) Source documents and the books of original entry to which they
are related
d)Record transactions in the books of original entry using source
documents
e)Treatment of trade discounts and cash discounts
f) Posting totals of books of original entry to the general ledger.
a)Definition and purpose of a Balance Sheet
b) Definition and examples of assets, liabilities, capital
2 Classified Balance
c) Balance Sheet Equation A= C+L
Sheet
d) Definition and examples of fixed assets, currents assets, current
liabilities, long term liabilities
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer
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4. e) arrangement of assets and liabilities in order of
- permanence - liquidity
f) Effect of transactions on Balance Sheet items – increase and
decrease in items while maintaining the balance sheet equation
a) Different types of ledgers for recording nominal, real and
personal accounts
- General ledger
- Sales/debtors’ ledger
- Purchases/creditors’ ledger
b) Classification of accounts
- Nominal – expenses and revenue
- Real – assets
4 Ledger s and Trial - Personal – debtors and creditors
Balance c) Rules of entry for assets, liabilities, income, capital and expenses
d) Recording transactions in accounts using double entry
e) Posting to general and subsidiary ledgers
f) Balancing accounts
g) Trial balances
h) Uses and limitations of the trial balance
a) The purpose of Financial Statements to satisfy the needs of the
users
Preparation of
5 Financial b) Preparation of Trading and Profit and Loss account for sole-
Statements of the traders including adjustment for return inwards and outwards;
closing stock
Sole-Trader
c) Preparation of Balance Sheets
d) Definition of working capital
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Business Education Officer
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5. FORM 4
SECTION TOPIC CONTENT
a) preparation of classified Balance Sheet showing working
capital
Preparation and b) working capital as a basic tool for solvency; working
Analysis of capital formula
5 Financial c) treatment of net profit or loss on the Balance Sheet
Statements of the
d) trading results: simple ratios such as stock turn, average
sole-trader (cont’d) stock, gross profit percentage, net profit percentage
e) Analysis and interpretation of the financial position of a
business using ratios: current ratio; acid test ratio; return
on investment
a) The reasons for adjustments; application of the
matching/accruals concept
b) Journal entries for prepaid expenses and advanced
revenues
c) Journal entries for accrued expenses and revenues
d) Ledger accounts for expenses and revenues
e) The treatment for prepayments and accruals on the
Balance Sheet
f) The reasons for bad debts; aging debtors: creation of
provision for doubtful debts
End of period
6 adjustment g) Accounting entries for bad and doubtful debts: the
treatment of bad and doubtful debts in the Profit and
Loss Account and Balance Sheet
h) Definition of depreciation: causes of depreciation: factors
to be considered when calculating depreciation
i) Straight line method (using formula) and reducing
balance method of depreciation
j) Journal entries for the provision for depreciation: the
maintenance of the provision for depreciation account:
the treatment of accumulated depreciation on the Balance
Sheet: the determination of Net Book Value
k) The preparation of adjusted Financial Statements.
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer
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6. a) The need for control systems
b) Common control systems
- Suspense account
- Control accounts
- Bank reconciliation statements
c) Types of errors
d) Uses of the suspense account
e) Correction of errors via journal entries
f) Suspense accounts
7 Control System g) The effect of errors on the Trading and Profit and Loss
account and the Balance Sheet
h) Uses of control accounts
i) Sources of information for entries in control accounts
j) Sales ledger control accounts, purchases ledger control
account
k) Meaning (significance) of the balances on control
accounts
l) Identification of the items that cause the difference
between cash book and bank statement balances and
updating of the cash book
m) Uses and construction of the bank reconciliation
statement
a) Definition of partnership: comparison of a partnership
with sole-traders and corporations: types of partners
b) Features of partnership
c) Reasons for formation of partnership
9 Accounting for d) Features of partnership agreement
Partnership e) The capital account of partners
f) Methods of sharing profit/loss
g) The preparation of the appropriation account
h) The current account prepared with items posted from the
appropriation account: columnar form and single
accounts
i) The significance of the debit and credit balances brought
down on the current accounts
j) The treatment of current account balances on the balance
sheet
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer
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7. a) Nature of limited liability companies
b) Advantages and disadvantages of limited liability
companies
c) Methods of raising capital
d) Issue of shares and debentures
e) Types of shares: rights and privileges of owners of
10 Accounting for each type of share
corporations f) Elements of shareholders’ equity share capital,
reserves
g) Calculation of dividend payments
h) Appropriation of profits
i) Final accounts of limited liability companies
j) Calculation and interpretation of accounting ratios
a) Nature of co-operative societies: co-operative principles
b) Types of co-operatives
11 Accounting for c) Raising capital for co-operative society: journal entries to
Co-operative record capital
Societies d) Preparation of Income Statement showing distribution of
surplus
e) Preparation of balance sheet
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer
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8. FORM 5
SECTION TOPIC CONTENT
a) Methods of inventory (stock) valuation: FIFO, LIFO
and AVCO
Preparation and
5 Analysis of b) Calculation of closing inventory (stock) using FIFO,
Financial LIFO, AVCO
Statements of the
c) The effect on profit of different methods of (inventory)
sole-trader (cont’d) stock valuation
a) The meaning and limitation of single entry recording
b) Preparation of opening and closing statement of affairs
from incomplete records
8 Incomplete Records c) Calculation of missing amounts such as sales, purchases,
expenses, depreciation and drawings
d) The use of mark-up, margin and stock turnover to find
missing amounts, such as purchases, sales and gross profit
e) Preparation of Trading and profit and Loss Account and
balance sheet from incomplete records
a) Non-trading and non-profit organizations
b) Accounting procedures for trading and non-trading
organizations
12 Accounting for
Non-Trading c) Preparation of receipts and payments account
organization d) Preparation of income generating accounts: subscription
account, bar trading account, dance account
e) Distinction between capital expenditure and revenue
expenditure
f) Preparation of Income and Expenditure Account treating
transfer form income generating accounts
g) Preparation of Balance Sheets including calculation of
accumulated fund: treatment of deficit or surplus on
accumulated fund
a) Elements of cost: direct materials, direct labour and factory
overheads
13 Manufacturing b) Preparation of manufacturing account showing
Accounts - Cost of raw material consumed
- Prime cost
- Factory overheads
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Business Education Officer
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9. - Work in progress
- Cost of production
c) Calculation of unit cost of items produced
d) Preparation of trading, profit and loss account and balance
sheet of a manufacturer
a) Use of time cards, time books, electronic clock-in cards,
employee earnings records
b) Calculation of gross earnings form employee records
14 Payroll Accounting
c) Preparation of pay roll and wage documents from time
cards, computer records
d) Calculation of statutory deductions and non-statutory
deductions
e) Statutory and non-statutory deductions
Students should be tested using past paper question under exam conditions.
Students should be given clear guidelines on their SBA Projects as outlined in the
Syllabus. The SBA component should begin no later than Term 1 in Form 5.
Term 2 Form 5 should be used for completion of SBA Projects, revision and further
practice of Past Papers.
Prepared by Jacqueline Richardson
Business Education Officer
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