Every reliable set of financial statements starts with one thing: accurate journals. Journals are where transactions are first captured, classified, and explained — creating the audit trail that supports your trial balance, VAT returns, payroll reconciliations, and ultimately your annual financial statements. When journals are done correctly, they don’t just “record” information — they protect the business from errors, misstatements, and compliance risk.
Essential Bookkeeping Journals is a practical, real-world course designed to help bookkeepers, accountants, finance administrators, and business owners confidently record and manage the journals that drive day-to-day accounting in South African businesses. You will learn how each journal works, when it should be used, what supporting documents are required, and how to ensure each entry is complete, correctly classified, and easy to trace during SARS reviews, management reporting, or audits.
By the end of this course, you won’t only know what to post — you’ll understand why it is posted that way, how to keep control accounts balanced, and how to build journals that create clean, defensible financial records.
TOPICS DISCUSSED:
Module 1 – Introduction and Basic Concepts
Module 2 – Share Capital and Shareholder’s Loans
Module 3 – General Journals
Module 4 – Customer Journals
Module 5 – Supplier Journals
Module 6 – VAT Control Journals
Module 7 – Payroll Journals
Module 8 – The FAR and depreciation and amortization journals
Module 9 – Stock Journals
• Annexures Included:
o Annexure A – Salary Control Account Journals Template
o Annexure B – Fixed Asset Register Journals Template
o Annesure C – VAT Adjustments and Corrections Journal Template
o Annexure D – Interest accrued on debit loans Journal Template
