ATQ Subject Content - Accounting Technician Qualification (KICPAA)
The ATQ subject content (មាតិកាមុខវិជ្ជា) is the technical body assessed in the KICPAA Accounting Technician Qualification. It tests whether a candidate can keep a full set of books, prepare SME-level financial statements and complete Cambodian tax filings without supervision - the daily output of a technician in an enterprise finance team or an audit support role. Questions are practical rather than discursive: you are handed transactions, balances or a document set and must produce the correct entry, the correct figure, or the correct treatment.
Core rules you must apply mechanically
- Double entry always balances. Every adjustment touches at least two accounts, and the trial balance must still agree after posting.
- Recognition follows accrual accounting: revenue when earned, expenses when incurred, not when cash moves.
- Financial reporting for non-public entities applies CIFRS for SMEs; public-interest entities apply full CIFRS. Do not mix captions from the two frameworks.
- Inventory and receivables are carried at the lower of cost and net realisable value; depreciation follows useful life and consumption pattern, not tax allowances.
- Statutory filings follow the Law on Taxation: 10% VAT on taxable supplies, withholding tax deducted at source on specified payments, monthly Tax on Salary, and the annual Tax on Profit - each with its own form and deadline.
Worked example
A trial balance shows profit before adjustments of $20,000. You must accrue unpaid December salaries of $3,000, record depreciation of $2,400 for the year, and write off an irrecoverable receivable of $1,000 that was never recorded.
Adjusted profit = 20,000 − 3,000 − 2,400 − 1,000 = $13,600.
Reasoning: salaries are a debit to salary expense and a credit to accrued liabilities; depreciation is a debit to depreciation expense and a credit to accumulated depreciation; the bad debt is a debit to impairment expense and a credit to receivables. No cash moved for the first two entries, yet the trial balance still balances because each entry is double.
Traps that cost marks
Recording VAT-inclusive amounts as revenue or as cost of sales; treating withholding tax as the payer's own expense rather than a liability collected on behalf of the tax authority; ignoring year-end cut-off for goods received but not invoiced; classifying capital expenditure as repairs; and answering a tax question with an accounting treatment (or the reverse).