Debit/Credit for Foundation Accounting technician - how to explain to a beginner

A2fan

I have been asked to help out an absolute beginner doing a foundation level course for Accounting Technician - so I will need to explain Debit / Credit & all basic accounting - just wondering if there's any good book/guide to explain same.
Any info appreciated
Thanks in advance

Baby4

This post has been deleted.

Mr. Incognito

If you cannot break it into simple terms you don't know what you're doing. Perhaps someone else would be more suited to the task.

A2fan

Thanks for the reply Baby4 - more or less as I anticipated myself and will be investigating it....

SetantaL wrote: »

If you cannot break it into simple terms you
don't know what you're doing. Perhaps someone else would be more suited to the task.

Not sure if you were being smart or not with that comment SetantaL...:rolleyes:That would be more or less my own view too.....however I thought one of the purpose of the forum was to look for the advice of others.......out of curiosity - if you can remember back to your own introduction to accounting - whether at Leaving Cert level or more recent - would your current (presumed qualified) knowledge of accounting be easily related to an absolute beginner as you must have been at some point?

Anything more helpful to offer?

I am a qualified accountant myself, but not a teacher, so I have an idea of what works for me re DR/CR in practice but I was only looking to see what book/guide/methods others have used, particularly if it saves me unnecessary effort of coming up with something.....:)

My plan is to get course outlines for each particular subject and hopefully get to see the relevant textbook/exam questions and proceed from there....

For the moment the challenge will be to bring basic knowledge up to a level where exam questions can be attempted & hopefully sucessfully at that....ultimately that's the only measure of success that really matters to a student.....

Mr. Incognito

Never did a days accounting in my life, well, I lie. I had a two day introduction to accounting that went over my head as the lecturer could not answer any simple questions that dumb old me was asking, like why you debit the credit side and credit the debit side.

Tax and Law are my qualifications. And I wasn't being smart. If you cannot break it down to a simpsons analogy, you don't know what you're doing.

LouOB

Best bit of info a teacher once gave me

always relate it back to bank (and specifically if it was your money)
ie buying car cr bank dr assets

LouOB is correct. Try and walk through the simple transactions of a shop and get them to think in terms of goods being bought and sold.

As in when you are in a shop what is the transaction?
You hand over cash and get a product in return, then how does the shopkeeper see that. Where did he get the product from? If that is the only sale what happens at the end of the year?

foxy06

The way it was explained to me was "follow the bank". Once they understand that money in is DR Bank...money out CR Bank. Once they grasp that then they will be grand.

Kinetic^

foxy06 wrote: »

The way it was explained to me was "follow the bank". Once they understand that money in is DR Bank...money out CR Bank. Once they grasp that then they will be grand.

Aye follow the bank is probably the best way. If you pay for ESB/Phone it goes to your the debit side of profit and loss. If you buy a car it goes to the debit side of the balance sheet. etc etc