Education Business Studies

Personal Accounts is an excellent tool for business studies. Whether you are a teacher or a student, you will find its unique features intuitively show how the flow of money works.

For example, if you have a copy of Personal Accounts, right click here and choose 'Save Target As...' or 'Save Link As...' to download the basic education starter file. Save it wherever you like, then double-click it to run (please note this will only work if you have installed Personal Accounts).

The top window shows the Entries page with a few example transactions. The bottom window shows a very simple chart of Accounts .

Try editing any of the amounts in the Entries window. Watch the balances change as you edit. You get instant feedback, no need for a report, no need to press the Enter key, just an instant update of how transactions affect your account balances.

This is also an excellent tool for what if? scenarios. Edit the amount in the 2nd entry (a sales transaction example). If you increase the amount, the profit will increase in the Accounts window.

As a Sixth Form study tool, students can learn how double-entry accounting works. Using our original concept of from and to instead of credit and debit you intuitively see the effect of double-entry: money flows from one account to another. The from account balance reduces, the to account balance increases.

Now open the Entries tab of the Preferences window, and turn on the double-entry option , and your transactions show credit and debit instead.

Swap the columns around in the Entries window so that the debit column precedes the credit column (put your mouse in any column header and drag it left or right), and you have the traditional double-entry look (with the incredible advantage that the account goes in the debit/credit column rather than the amount, which guarantees a balanced transaction).

To learn more about Personal Accounts Education Edition try the Quick Start Guide .

If you want to learn more about double-entry accounting, take a look at the articles and tools available on the Accounting for Everyone site. The site is also featured in the AQUA accounting resources reference.

If you have any ideas for articles that will help teachers or students in their use of Personal Accounts please contact us on 08700 111747 or email .

An education help forum (click here) is now open for any questions you may have.