ICAEW ACA Accounting (ICAEW) study plan

Apply the dual-entry rule to record 40 transactions across the full ledger range (assets, liabilities, capital, income, expenses) without referring to notes.

Post 15 compound and opening entries from a trial balance extract, then balance off every account and extract a fresh trial balance that agrees.

Reconcile a bank statement against the cash book over a two-month period, identifying unpresented cheques, lodgements not credited, standing orders and bank errors.

Maintain a receivables and payables control account alongside an analysed list, and clear any difference between the two to nil.

Prepare a journal to correct eight deliberately planted errors, distinguishing errors of principle, commission, original entry, omission, reversal and compensating errors, and state whether each affects the trial balance.

Calculate and post the four standard year-end adjustments (accrual, prepayment, depreciation, irrecoverable and doubtful debts) for a small sole trader and show their double entry.

Restate profit for a scenario where adjustments were omitted, quantifying the effect of each on gross profit, net profit, receivables and capital.

Explain, in writing, why the accruals concept, consistency and prudence drive each adjustment rather than merely describing the mechanics.

Prepare a full set of sole trader financial statements from an adjusted trial balance, including a statement of financial position classified into non-current and current items.

Compute depreciation on both straight-line and reducing-balance bases, including a mid-year acquisition and a disposal with part-year charge, and post the entries.

Build an allowance for receivables schedule that handles a specific doubtful debt, a recovered bad debt previously written off, and a change in the allowance percentage.

Reconstruct a period's figures from incomplete records using mark-up, margin and a statement of affairs, deriving missing purchases or sales.

Draft partnership accounts under both fixed and fluctuating capital structures, correctly separating interest on capital, partners' salaries, interest on drawings and residual profit share.

Journal the admission of a new partner and the retirement of an existing one, including goodwill raised and written off and the revaluation of assets.

Prepare the appropriation account and partners' current accounts for a year containing a mid-year admission and a drawings adjustment.

Distinguish partnership capital from current accounts and explain why drawings are closed to current account rather than capital under the fixed method.

Prepare a company statement of profit or loss and statement of financial position from a trial balance, correctly treating corporation tax, dividends paid and proposed, and the movement in retained earnings.

Journal the issue of shares at par and at a premium, a bonus issue and a rights issue, and show the effect of each on share capital, share premium and reserves.

Present the equity section of a statement of financial position and reconcile opening to closing retained earnings through profit, dividends and any transfer to reserves.

Identify the disclosure differences between sole trader, partnership and company statements for the same underlying transactions.

Prepare a statement of cash flows under the indirect method from a statement of financial position pair and a statement of profit or loss, deriving each adjustment independently.

Reconcile profit before tax to cash generated from operations, adjusting for depreciation, profit or loss on disposal, interest, and movements in working capital.

Classify 25 cash movements into operating, investing and financing activities, including interest and dividends, and justify each classification choice.

Prepare the direct method equivalent for the same entity and reconcile its closing cash to the indirect method total.

Compute and interpret a defined ratio set (gross and net margin, ROCE, current and quick ratios, gearing, receivables and payables days, asset turnover) for two years of data.

Write a structured interpretation that separates profitability, efficiency, liquidity and gearing, and links each ratio movement to a plausible business cause rather than listing values.

Analyse a statement of cash flows to judge whether an entity's growth is funded by operations, debt or asset sales, and identify warning signs.

Apply the ICAEW Code of Ethics fundamental principles to four short scenarios, identifying the threat, the principle at risk and the appropriate safeguard.

Complete two full-length timed mock papers under exam conditions and mark them strictly against the published mark allocation.

Categorise every lost mark from both mocks by domain and by cause (knowledge gap, arithmetic slip, misread requirement, time pressure) and rank the gaps by marks recoverable.

Re-drill the three weakest areas identified, re-attempting the specific question types until each is completed accurately within time.

Build a one-page pre-exam checklist of recurring traps (accruals direction, depreciation part-year, cash flow classification, ratio definitions) and rehearse it against fresh questions.