ACA Accounting Fundamentals: topics, exam format and how to revise

Accounting Fundamentals builds the mechanics that the rest of the ACA assumes you already know: recording transactions accurately and turning them into a set of financial statements. It is mostly a numerical, objective exam, so it rewards getting the routine right at speed.

What’s on the exam

• Double-entry bookkeeping and the accounting equation
• Recording sales, purchases and cash through the journals and ledgers
• The trial balance, and finding and correcting errors
• Accruals and prepayments
• Depreciation, and the disposal of non-current assets
• Irrecoverable debts and allowances for receivables
• Preparing a statement of profit or loss and a statement of financial position
• Adjustments for sole traders, partnerships and limited companies

How to approach it

This is a doing module, not a reading one. You learn it by working through journals and period-end adjustments until they are automatic — re-reading notes hides the gaps that questions expose.

Drill the adjustments that always appear (accruals, prepayments, depreciation, irrecoverable debts) until you can post them without thinking, then practise full questions under time pressure so the arithmetic doesn't slow you down.

See the Certificate Level overview for how Accounting Fundamentals fits with the other modules, or try some free practice questions.