Sage Computerised Bookkeeping

ICB Certificate in Bookkeeping

Course Details

Sage is the accountancy software used by over half a million companies in the United Kingdom and the Sage Computerised Bookkeeping course provides the opportunity to attain a universal bookkeeping qualification.

The course will provide an introduction to Sage Instant Accounting and teach you the necessary principles of bookkeeping and key areas.  By the end of the course you should have knowledge on how to edit the nominal ledger, how to input customer and supplier details, how to keep VAT records, how to follow the correct procedures for banking and invoicing and how to record income and expenditure.

Sage provides a large range of solutions to businesses to ensure they can manage their business processes easily.  Sage can tailor solutions for customers be it from financial software to facilitate better cash flow management or HR and Payroll solutions to improve employee performance and legislative compliance.

Upon successful completion of your Sage Instant Payroll course you are eligible to become a member of SAGE.

Members of Sage can benefit from a number of offerings and programs:

 

• A growing range of member benefits
• Student programs, including grants to help fund conference attendance, low membership fees, and a university outreach program
• The Short Topics in System Administration booklet series
• The Recommended Reading list, with links for further information or immediate purchase
• Immediate access to the extensively tabulated results of the annual Sage Salary Survey
• Regional training events and support for SAGE Recognized Local User Groups
• Two annual awards for outstanding contributions to the field and to Sage
• The Sage Sysadmin Toolbox FAQ: what every sysadmin needs to have on hand, and why
• Web-ready versions of the Sage logo to install on your Web site
• Last, but certainly not least, the opportunity to participate in the promotion and growth of the profession

You require no bookkeeping knowledge prior to beginning the course.

Note: Latest Sage computerised bookkeeping software v12 is supplied.

Qualifications

On completion of your course you can sit the following exams:

• ICB Certificate in Basic Bookkeeping Level 1 – sat at home
• ICB Certificate in Computerised Bookkeeping Level 2 – external assessment centre
• Sage Certificate of Competency
  

 

Once you are awarded the ICB Certificate in Bookkeeping you are eligible to upgrade to the status of Associate of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers and use the letters AICB after your name.

The Sage Certificate of Competency exam will need to be sat at a local test centre.  There are 5,200 exam centres around the world.  Eligible students need to book their own exam seats and dates at a time to suit them and subject to availability at the chosen exam centre.

Along with an extra qualification you will be demonstrating your skill and competence as a trained Bookkeeper with a sound working knowledge of Sage. The course doesn’t just cater for those looking for a career in bookkeeping, it will also provide you with the knowledge to keep your own accounts if you run your own business.

Study Plan

• Introduction to Sage computerised bookkeeping
• Recording income and expenditure
• The Bank Account
• The Analysed Cash Book
• Business documents
• Day books
• VAT
• Calculating Profit and Loss
• Double entry bookkeeping
• Cash and credit transactions
• Customers
• Suppliers
• Nominal ledger
• Banking
• Stock
• Invoicing
• Final accounts

 

There are optional assignments at the end of each subject matter.  You can then submit your assignments to your personal tutor to obtain helpful feedback and advice on how you are progressing.

Study Details

The course is made up of five workbooks.  During the course you will have 11 assignments to assess your understanding of the module.  Once you have completed the assignment you should send it to your personal tutor for assessment.  Your tutor will provide you with guidance and advise how you are progressing. 

In order to complete the Bookkeeping course you will be required to sit 3 exams.  The level 1 exam is taken at home and the level 2 exam and Sage Certificate of Competency need to be completed at an external exam centre nearest to where you live.

The average student completes the course within approximately 120 hours of study time.

Note: The minimum computer hardware requirements for this course are:

 

• Your operating system must be at least Windows 2000(SP4), WindowsXP(SP2), Windows 2003 or Windows Vista.
• 1GHz or faster processor
• 500MB RAM or higher
• 400MB of available hard disk space for installation
• DVD-ROM drive

Careers

Not only are the job opportunities interesting, they can be very rewarding too with salaries paying up to £30,246* per annum and sometimes more for specialist Sage Book-keepers.

*Source: www.payscale.com - May 2011

Other example roles include:

Sage Book-Keeper                               Bookkeeper
£27,050                                                    £30,246
Source: IT Jobs Watch                            Source: Average on Trovit