Bookkeeping for Small Business

Course Syllabus

Course Description

This course teaches the everyday bookkeeping that keeps a small business healthy and honest. You will separate business and personal money, set up a chart of accounts, keep receipts, record every transaction in a simple cash book, send invoices and track what customers owe, pay bills on time, reconcile the bank account, and read a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet. You will also learn to price for profit, plan cash flow, and prepare for taxes. Every skill can be practiced on paper ledgers, so no device is required.

Faith Integration

Scripture calls us to know the state of our flocks (Proverbs 27:23). Bookkeeping is how a business owner knows the state of hers. In this course we treat honest records as an act of stewardship: we count carefully, report truthfully, pay what we owe, and give an account of what God has placed in our hands.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

1. Explain why accurate records matter for a small business, biblically and practically.
2. Keep business and personal money separate, and record owner contributions and owner draws correctly.
3. Describe the difference between cash-basis and accrual-basis bookkeeping.
4. Set up a simple chart of accounts and organize receipts and documentation.
5. Record income and expenses in a cash book with an accurate running balance.
6. Create invoices, track accounts receivable, and manage bills and payables.
7. Reconcile a business bank account and prepare a basic profit and loss statement and balance sheet.
8. Use break-even analysis, budgets, and cash flow plans, and describe general small-business tax responsibilities.

Course Materials

• This student workbook
• Paper ledger sheets or a columnar pad (provided)
• A basic calculator, if allowed by the facility
• Access to a spreadsheet program during class where devices are permitted (optional)
• Pen and pencil with eraser

Weekly Schedule

How You Will Be Graded

To pass this course: earn 70% or higher overall and attend at least 80% of sessions.

Classroom Covenant

• We begin and end each session in prayer. Participation in prayer is always welcome, never required.
• What is shared in class stays in class. We protect one another's stories.
• We speak with respect, listen without interrupting, and disagree with grace.
• We come prepared, do our own work, and ask for help when we need it.
• We follow all facility rules. Safety and security come first.
• We believe the best about one another and about what God can do.

Support & Accommodations

If reading, writing, vision, hearing, or any other need makes a part of this course harder, tell your instructor privately. Materials can be read aloud, enlarged, or completed orally. Missed sessions can be made up using the module pages. If you are transferred or released, your completed work stays on record and you can finish online.

Welcome

Welcome to the third course of the Christian Business & Entrepreneurship Certificate. This companion walks beside you with a weekly reading, five devotions for the days between sessions, and a Quick Guide of bookkeeping steps to keep with your business papers after release.

How to Use This Companion

• Read the weekly reading after each class session. It takes about 10 minutes.
• Reflect on the questions. These are for you; you do not have to turn them in.
• Meet with God through the five daily devotions between sessions.
• Keep the Quick Guide at the end to carry home after release.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.— Psalm 119:105 (KJV)