Accounting Manual: course index

Accounting Manual: course index

This index brings together, in one place, the twenty-six lessons of the Kardex Tauro Accounting Manual for businesses with inventory: a course designed for those who keep the books of a shop, a warehouse, a distribution company or any business that buys and sells merchandise. The lessons move in order, from the fundamentals of accounting to the period close and the financial statements, always with sample journal entries, step-by-step explanations and plain language, with no unnecessary theory. Every article is available in Spanish, English and Portuguese, so you can study in the language you prefer and compare terms whenever you need to.

The course is organized into six modules. Modules one to five explain the day-to-day recording of the business: the fundamentals and the accounting cycle (M1), inventory purchases (M2), sales (M3), cash and treasury, that is, managing money across the cash account, banks and taxes (M4), and fixed assets with provisions and equity (M5). Module six closes the period and shows how the financial statements are built from everything that was recorded. If you are starting from scratch, read the modules in that order, because every lesson uses terms and journal entries explained in the previous ones; if you already have experience, each lesson can be read on its own to solve a specific doubt in your daily work.

After the lessons you will find five blocks of further reading: already published articles that expand on the course topics. There you will find in-depth explanations of inventory valuation and costing methods (average, FIFO and LIFO), physical counts, negative stock and impairment, purchase and sales documents such as invoices, credit notes and purchase orders, the management of cash, receivables and reports, and the tax topics that surround purchases. These readings are not part of the main course path: they are reference material to go deeper into a subject when a lesson calls for it or when the operation of your business demands it.

Every lesson in the manual ends with the practical part: the journal entry, the worked example or the common mistake to avoid. To find your way around the course, this page first presents the six modules with their lessons in order and then the further reading grouped by topic; at the end, a table summarizes the whole journey. Each section links directly to the corresponding lesson or reading, so this index also works as the road map of the full course.

M1. Fundamentals of accounting

• What is accounting and why an inventory business needs it — What accounting records and why it matters
• The accounting equation: assets, liabilities and equity — Assets, liabilities and equity in one formula
• Double-entry bookkeeping: why every record touches two accounts — Why every entry touches two accounts
• Accounts and the chart of accounts: how information is coded — How accounting information is organized and coded
• The accounting cycle: from transaction to financial statement — From transaction to financial statement, step by step
• Source documents: the invoice, the receipt and the voucher behind accounting — The documents behind every accounting record

M2. Purchases and inventory

• How to record an inventory purchase in accounting — The journal entry for an inventory purchase
• Purchase discounts, returns and credit notes — Purchase discounts, returns and credit notes
• Inventory adjustments and how to record them in accounting — When and how to adjust inventory
• Opening and closing inventory: from stock on hand to cost of sales — From stock on hand to cost of sales

M3. Sales

• How to record a sale: revenue, cost of sales and inventory — Recording a sale together with its cost
• Credit sales: the accounts receivable account and how to manage it — Credit sales and managing the receivables portfolio
• Customer returns and credit notes in accounting — How to record customer returns and credit notes
• Sales discounts: trade, early-payment and promotional — Trade, early-payment and promotional discounts

M4. Treasury and cash

• Cash and the cash account: recording, counting and differences — Recording cash, counting it and reconciling differences
• Bank accounts and bank reconciliation — Bank accounts and reconciliation, with examples
• Advances and loans: employees, contractors and third parties — Advances and loans to employees and third parties
• Taxes on purchases and sales: general principles — General principles of taxes on purchases and sales

M5. Assets and results

• Fixed assets and depreciation — Fixed assets and depreciation in practice
• Provisions: doubtful receivables, obsolescence and impairment — Provisions for doubtful receivables and impairment
• Equity: capital, profits and owner withdrawals — Capital, profits and owner withdrawals

M6. Closing and financial statements

• The income statement: from sales to net profit — From sales down to the net profit
• The balance sheet: where an inventory business stands — Where an inventory business stands financially
• Profit vs cash flow: why an inventory business can die while making money — Why profit is not the same as cash
• Closing the accounting period — The steps to close the accounting period
• How an inventory program feeds your accounting — How the inventory program feeds the accounting

Further reading: valuation and costing methods

• Inventory valuation methods: average, FIFO and LIFO
• LIFO Inventory Card (Last In, First Out)
• Inventory valuation methods (kardex)
• How to Do a Weighted Average Kardex: Step by Step
• Kardex and Cost of Sales
• How Does the FIFO Method Work?

Further reading: inventory, counts and impairment

• Difference between accounting inventory and physical inventory
• What Is Opening Inventory?
• Negative stock: what it means and how to fix it
• How to calculate ending inventory: the basic formula every business should know
• Inventory impairment: how to detect it, measure it and record it
• Normal vs abnormal shrinkage: accounting treatment under IAS 2

Further reading: purchase and sales documents

• Purchase invoice vs sales invoice
• What is a credit note?
• Purchase order: what it is, what it includes and how to do it right
• Supplier returns: how to record the outbound movement and the credit note
• What is a customer return?
• Purchase order statuses: from created to received

Further reading: cash, receivables and reports

• Accounts payable and receivable: basic guide
• Markup and margin: how to set your selling price without giving profit away
• Inventory control: the complete guide for small businesses
• Fixed assets register template in Excel: free download
• The history of financial statements: from the estate inventory to the annual report
• What are cash inflows and outflows?
• How accounts receivable and payable are recorded and closed

Further reading: purchasing and tax topics

• How to Connect Purchases and Inventory
• Inventory and Electronic Invoicing in Colombia
• VAT and taxes when buying inventory in Colombia: what you deduct and what you do not
• Purchasing and suppliers: a guide to the supply cycle

The table below summarizes the course module by module: the name of each module, its number of lessons and a representative example of what you study in it.

This manual is part of the editorial project of Kardex Tauro, the inventory program that records purchases, sales and stock on hand and hands you the information accounting needs. If you read the lessons in order and turn to the readings when you need them, you will build a solid foundation for keeping your business books with confidence and for speaking the same language as your accountant. Bookmark this index as the starting point of the course and come back to it whenever you want to resume your study.