r/Bookkeeping • u/Responsible-Move4058 • 1d ago
Education reviewing and closing books course
hello!! i work at a small full service firm doing the book preparation for our cpa for about 60 monthly clients. i have been doing this for five years and am currently preparing to move into a more review and closing the books, posting financials role but i don’t feel like i have enough practice in this. i know how to read a p&l, would like to be more comfortable in the balance sheet and how to spot discrepancies, i can do journal entries and things like that.
im looking for a course or some supplemental education on this part of the bookkeeping process. i am training alongside my cpa and she is amazing but i feel like shes going to teach me what she knows and how she does it (she’s extremely knowledgeable and i trust her to teach me) but while she is really good at explaining the core concepts when i ask - sometimes i dont know what im not asking if that makes sense. so im looking for something more in depth of the core concepts.
what did you do when you started closing and reviewing books, any supplemental courses i can talk to my manager about ?
thank you!!
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u/Annie-Kelly 1d ago
"Sometimes I don't know what I'm not asking if that makes sense" makes perfect sense. I always hear it as "you don't know what you don't know". And you don't, but you probably know a lot more than you think you do. If you've been bookkeeping for 5 years for this firm, you have absorbed knowledge. Maybe it hasn't all 'clicked' just yet, but it will. Keep doing what you are doing and keep learning from your manager. Experience really is the best teacher.
As for classes, the best option is the first 1-2 accounting courses at your local community college. They would cover the fundamentals. However, it is time consuming, expensive, and not for everyone. I wish I had something better to suggest. I'll keep checking back to see what others come up with.
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u/Responsible-Move4058 1d ago
thank you for responding!
totally agree, i did some data entry on the tax side for some of these clients and it really helped connect the pieces. i’m hopeful this next step goes that way too.
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u/NetStraight556 1d ago
the fact that you know you don’t know what you don’t know puts you ahead of half the people I’ve trained. For the balance sheet, I’d just start with really grubby reconciliations pick a random month, dump the TB into Excel, and force yourself to tie every single number to a source doc.
The discrepancies will scream at you
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u/Adores_Aqua 1d ago
Look for a basic finance, accounting course at your local community college. I am referring more to the adult education or continuing education dept, as they tend to have lower cost, shorter timeframe than a semester. These can be a very good value. Good luck!
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u/No_Discount_1199 22h ago
When I started I asked our CPA to walk me through one full close on a single client, start to finish. That one month taught me more than any course would have.
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u/2daytrending 13h ago
Month end close course with real world balance sheet reconciliation and variance analysis would be a good next step. Those are the areas where hands on practice really helps.
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u/Grand_Fix_8936 1d ago
When I moved into closing, the biggest jump was getting comfortable with the balance sheet telling a story over time instead of just a snapshot, something like the accounting coach's explanations on retained earnings and accruals helped me fill in those "didn't know what I didn't know" gaps.