firstly it would be best to know what you are attempting to achieve.
Are you looking at bookkeeping or accountancy?
Do you have any history or prior learning in accountancy?
Have you made your mind up yet over which supervisory body you want to affiliate yourself to?
What is your time frame for learning?
Of the books that you mention the first is a better starting place for you but if you're a complete beginner there may be better options for you that I would be happy to suggest.
The woods and Sangster books are excellent but I always found that they should be read in conjunction with Business Accounts for Bookkeeping and Accounting courses by David Cox, (Osbourne press) as that fills out and enhances explanations.
Also take a look at the AAT study texts for papers 1-4 by BPP.
With bookkeeping books it doesn't matter too much if you get older texts as bookkeeping (unlike accountancy) remains pretty much constant. Double entry is double entry, the only difference in texts seems to be fixing typo's from earlier versions.
Hope we get to chat lots during your studies,
good luck,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
for a degree there are two things that you need under your belt.
Firstly a firm understanding of double entry which is the basis of all accountancy. (The books that you already have should suffice for that).
The other is an understanding of financial reporting concepts.
I am firmly UK GAAP but would imagine that most universities have already moved over the International Financial Reporting Standards in preparation for the changeover currently planned for 2012.
Learn ever IAS and IFRS by putting the number on one side of an index card and the name of the standard on the other side and go through them every day (and shuffle them otherwise you just remember them in sequence).
Once you know them all by name then go through each of the standards to get a firm understanding of what it's about.
When you've got the basics start using IFRS books to gain an understanding of the use and idiosyncrasies of the standards in practice.
The combination of the basics of bookkeeping combined with knowledge of accounting standards will set you up ready for your degree course.
Alternatively of course you could sign up with the ACCA and gain your degree at the same time as a recognised qualification. The ACCA are in partnership with Oxford Brookes University and once you have done the first nine ACCA papers you can gain a BSc by completeion of a thesis.
This isn't an easy option by the way. Those nine papers are more difficult than anything thrown at you at university. The good side though is that you will get ACCA status faster than doing the degree and then doing ACCA afterwards... Just something to think about there.
Good luck with the degree, hope that some of what I've written proves useful to you,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
