Practice Exercises Every Accounting Student Should Try
If you’re starting your accounting journey, one of the best ways to build confidence is through simple, practical exercises. These exercises help you understand how concepts work in the real world, not just in textbooks. Here are some beginner-friendly practice tasks every accounting student should try—especially if you’re preparing for AAT or starting out in bookkeeping.
1. Create a Basic Trial Balance
A trial balance forms the foundation of financial reporting.
Practice:
- List 10–12 imaginary transactions.
- Record them as debits and credits.
Prepare a trial balance at the end.
This helps you understand double-entry accounting and catch errors early.
2. Classify Expenses and Revenues
Students often struggle with what counts as operating cost, administrative cost or sales income.
Practice:
- Make a list of mixed business items (e.g., fuel, rent, equipment, sales).
Sort them into categories: operating expense, administrative expense, cost of sales, revenue.
This builds your understanding of how real businesses label and track costs.
3. Prepare a Simple Cashbook
Managing cash is essential for bookkeeping and payroll.
Practice:
- Track cash inflows and outflows for a fake business for one week.
Balance the cashbook at the end.
This teaches discipline and highlights the difference between cash and credit transactions.
4. Reconcile a Bank Statement
Bank reconciliation is a core skill in every accounting job.
Practice:
- Take a sample bank statement (you can create one in Excel).
- Compare it with your cashbook.
Identify outstanding cheques, deposits, or bank charges.
This helps you spot discrepancies and understand why reconciliations matter.
5. Prepare a Basic Profit & Loss Account
Once you understand revenues and expenses, this becomes much easier.
Practice:
- Use the classified expenses from exercise 2.
Group them and create a simple P&L statement.
This gives you clarity on business performance, margins and net profit.
6. Create a Balance Sheet from Scratch
This is where all your learning starts to connect.
Practice:
- Use imaginary assets (cash, inventory, equipment), liabilities (loans, creditors) and equity.
Prepare a basic balance sheet.
This develops your understanding of the accounting equation:
Assets = Liabilities + Equity
7. Do Ledger Posting Practice
Posting to ledgers helps you see how individual transactions affect the whole system.
Practice:
- Take 15 sample transactions.
- Post each one to the correct ledger accounts.
Balance each ledger at month-end.
This exercise strengthens your double-entry accuracy.
8. Complete a Depreciation Schedule
Depreciation is essential for financial accounting.
Practice:
- Choose an asset worth £5,000.
- Apply straight-line depreciation for 5 years.
Create a table of annual depreciation and net book value.
This helps you understand long-term assets and yearly reporting.
9. VAT Calculation Practice
Every UK accounting student must be comfortable with VAT.
Practice:
- Take sample sales and purchases.
Calculate output VAT, input VAT and the net amount payable.
This builds real-world tax handling experience.
10. Analyse Financial Ratios
A great exercise for developing analytical thinking.
Practice:
- Create a simple set of P&L and balance sheet figures.
Calculate gross margin, net margin, current ratio, and return on capital employed.
This helps you interpret what the numbers mean—not just record them.
Final Thoughts
Mastering accounting isn’t just about theory. These small exercises help you build the practical skills employers look for. Whether you’re preparing for AAT Level 2 or starting an accounting career, daily practice makes a huge difference.
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