Hope all is well with you. A question to ask, as I know you have a good collection of accounting books. Can you recommend any good books that cover level 3 in accounting, not the usual ones such as BBP or Kaplan. Many thanks.
The following relates only to the manual side of ICB level III.
appart from the BPP and Kaplan study texts the book that I always swear by (rather than at) for more advanced level studies is Business Accounts for bookkeeping and financial accounting courses by David Cox. Osbourne books, (ISBN 1872962637)
Looking at the ICB syllabus you would need to cover
Trading and profit/loss account and balance sheet-sole trader * Preparing final accounts * Identifying items in the accounts * The trading and profit/loss account * Balance sheet * Adjustments to the accounts * Extended trial balance
Depreciation * Reasons for depreciation * Methods of depreciation * Where depreciation is not for a whole year * Accounting entries for depreciation * Disposal of a fixed asset
Incomplete records * Organisations that use incomplete records * Dealing with incomplete records
Partnership accounts * The partnership act 1890 * Partnership agreements * Partners current accounts * Profit/loss appropriation accounts * Loans from partners * Changes to partnership arrangements * Revaluation of assets and liabilities on admission of a new partner * Goodwill * Retirement of a partner * A change in profit sharing ratio
Manufacturing accounts * Types of cost * Types of stock * Manufacturing account * Trading account of a manufacturing business
Income and expenditure accounts * Clubs, societies and charities * The accounts of clubs, societies and charities
Company accounts * What is a limited company? * Forming a company- an intro * Financing a limited company * The accounts of a limited company * Reserves * Journal entries to record the sale of shares * Redemption of shares and debentures * Cash flow statements
Control accounts, suspense accounts and correction of errors * Control accounts * Suspense accounts and errors * Limitations of trial balance and control accounts
interpreting accounts-accounting ratios * Why use accounting ratios? * Ratios which are commonly used?
stock * Valuation of stock * FIFO and LIFO methods of stock valuation * AVCO method of stock valuation * Continuous weighted average * Retail selling price * Working with stock records * Stocks of consumable stores * Other stock notes
I've just had a glance at the David Cox book and can't see any of the above missing so that one would definitely be my recommendation as even for some of the more complex stuff I've actually found myself referring back to this book that I've had since 2005 whereas my Woods and Sangster books seldom get opened.
Have you already got a BPP or Kaplan Study text or do you just not like them that much? If the latter, rather than looking at the Kaplan text specifically for ICB look at the Kaplan text for ACCA papers F2 (management accounting) and F3 (financial accounting).
You will be surprised at the comminality and impressed at the depth of coverage with excellent examples throughout.
The one's that I still refer to are the BPP texts for the old papers 1.1 (financial Accounting) and 1.2 (management accounting). The predecessors of the new papers F3 and F2 as they seemed to cover stuff that is now not touched upon until later levels (papers F7 and F9).
Anyway, I digress. For my money definitely the David Cox book.
Hope this helps,
kind regards,
Shaun.
__________________
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.
Thanks Shaun for your reply, the Kaplan books are ok as they cover the exam syllabus I was just looking for a book that gives more knowledge will defo get Business Accounts and will also look at ACCA papers, can you still get the BPP texts for the old papers? Kind regards Sue.
I do know what you mean about the ICB text. I did look at a copy as normally I purchase texts for a variety of papers (I've got BPP and Kaplan study texts for CAT, CIMA, AAT and HND texts as well as the ACCA papers) but it just seemed too light reading for me (that only refers to the Kaplan text that covers the levels I and II. I have not looked at the level III text).
I can see why Kaplan have done that as it makes the book more accessible to a wider audience. But I couldn't help feeling that it was just a dumbed down version of the introductory study texts that they produce for the ACCA.
Those BPP ACCA texts that I'm thinking of are pretty timeless as they're not dependant upon current standards. To my mind they are some of the best accountancy texts that BPP have ever produced.
I could have cried when on the ACCA changing to the new syllabus in 2007 BPP dropped their classic format and went more for books resembling Peter and Jane texts for five year olds with big fonts, messy layouts and lots of pictures.
That was when I moved almost entirely to using Kaplan texts although I do still tend to buy the occassional BPP one as sometimes they'll take a different angle on something.
I think though that the major difference now is that I will read a Kaplan text from cover to cover but the newer BPP one's I dip into from the index.
The ISBN's of the BPP ACCA classics are :
Paper 1.1 Preparing Financial Statements 0751702307
Paper 1.2 Financial Information for Management 0751702315
Paper 2.4 Financial Management & Control 0751702358
at least 5 of each of the above are currently available from Amazon resellers (and to my surprise there's even one new copy of paper 1.2!... Sure that's not right, this is a 2002 text).
If you can get good copies of those I guarantee that you will continue to use them throughout your career. They really are that good.
Good call of the David Cox book. You won't regret that purchase either.
All the best,
Shaun.
__________________
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.
Thanks Shaun for giving me the ISBN numbers for the ACCA papers, been on Amazon this morning and they have got all of them. Will be ordering them when I next get paid, add to my growing pile of useful accounting books, once again many thanks for your help you are a star. Sue
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.
just angling for my honory membership of the ICB (and a job) when I'm past all of this silly situation with the ACCA PQ restrictions.
This is only my second dedicated thread on the site. I've noticed that normally it's yourself that gets these sort.
Hope you have a good weekend,
All the best,
Shaun.
__________________
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.
One quick question. After looking at Amazon and using the ISBN numbers you provided there are numerous editions of the study texts. i.e differing years of publication.
In your opinion, does the year carry any relevance or are they all pretty good as reference material?
the versions related to those specific ISBN numbers relate to the 2002 editions (the ISBN's are unique to that version). There are however new versions of every text coming out every year.
Those prior to 2007 relate to the old ACCA syllabus which to my mind had greater scope than the post 2007 syllabus (it's quite normal for the ACCA to move elements between papers)
The version that I recommend is because I know that verion to be an exceptional text where I cannot guarantee the contents of texts published for other years.
For information, paper 1.1 is now paper F3. Both Kaplan and BPP produce study texts. For 1.1 papers I recommend BPP texts. For post 2007 papers (i.e. F3) I recommend Kaplan texts.
All of the BPP and Kaplan texts for F3 and 1.1 are excellent reference material but by choice I would stick with my 2002 version of the text for the 1.1 paper.
One other thing that you can you on is that Amazon shows the depth of each book. All text are A4 size but whilst some are as little as 1.8cm deep, others are 6cm deep! I know that size is immaterial compared to content but where you are looking at the same text for different years it's another indication that you are getting more with one version than another.
All the best,
Shaun.
__________________
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.
