Applied Accounts Clerk Training

Course Overview

The Applied Accounts Clerk Training Course is a practical professional programme covering bookkeeping, payroll, and taxation. It is not based on a traditional academic accounting syllabus. Instead, students learn through tasks commonly performed in an accounts department, such as processing documents, calculating deductions, recording transactions, and meeting compliance deadlines.

The course focuses on Mauritius-specific laws, tax rules, and regulatory requirements, with filing requirements and deadlines covered within the relevant tax and payroll modules.

No previous accounting qualification or work experience is required. The programme consists of 14 modules, starting with business structures and the legal framework, followed by bookkeeping, taxation, and payroll. It concludes with practical accounting software training, preparation of a complete set of management reports, and an introduction to management accounts.

Who is this course for?

The programme is designed for:

• School leavers. No prior accounting qualification or work experience is assumed. The course starts from first principles and builds towards competence in the tasks an employer will expect from an accounts clerk on day one, making it a direct route from school into employment in an accounts department.

• Working adults. Those already in employment who want to move into accounts work, or who have drifted into handling the books without formal training and want to put their practice on a proper footing. The content is structured so that each module stands on its own and maps to a task the learner will recognise from the workplace.

• Those entering a bookkeeping or accounting job who need practical, job-ready competence rather than academic theory. The emphasis throughout is on doing the work correctly — processing the document, computing the deduction, posting the entry, meeting the deadline — not on examinable theory that has no immediate application at the desk.

• Administrative staff, small business owners, and entrepreneurs who maintain their own books and must meet MRA obligations, or who simply want to understand what their accountant is doing and why. The course covers the payroll, VAT, TDS, and corporate tax obligations that a business must meet, together with the record-keeping that supports them, so that the owner can either handle the work directly or supervise it with confidence.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, learners will be able to:

•  Identify the main business structures in Mauritius and explain how the choice of structure affects the accounting records kept.

•  Classify business transactions correctly and work confidently with the source documents that support them.

•  Apply the accounting equation and the double-entry principle to record transactions accurately.

•  Compute a Mauritian payroll in full — CSG, NSF, PAYE, Training Levy and PRGF — and record it in the books.

•  Apply the general principles of VAT and Tax Deduction at Source, and meet the associated MRA filing obligations.

•  Process loans, bank reconciliations, accruals, prepayments, receivables, payables, and fixed assets.

•  Prepare a corporate tax computation and understand the related filing and payment deadlines.

•  Operate accounting software end-to-end and produce a complete set of management reports.

•  Read and interpret a set of management accounts, and use them to support decisions about the business.

Learning Outcomes

Learners completing the Applied Accounts Clerk Training course will be able to:

•  Maintain a complete and accurate set of books for a Mauritian business, from source document through to trial balance.

•  Prepare and record a monthly payroll in compliance with Mauritian statutory requirements, and calculate the total cost to the employer.

•  Determine the net VAT position, identify a valid VAT invoice, and meet VAT return deadlines.

•  Calculate Tax Deduction at Source, record it in both the payer’s and the recipient’s books, and remit it on time.

•  Reconcile a bank account and post the resulting adjustments.

•  Apply period-end adjustments — accruals, prepayments, and depreciation — correctly.

•  Produce and interpret debtor and creditor aging reports.

•  Prepare a corporate tax computation, distinguishing allowable from non-allowable expenditure and applying capital allowances.

•  Set up and operate a business in accounting software and generate a Profit and Loss Statement, Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flows, and aged debtors and creditors reports.

•  Assemble a monthly management accounts pack, compare actual results against budget, and explain the variances in plain language.

Syllabus Coverage

The syllabus is built around fourteen practical modules:

 1. Business Structures and Legal Frameworks in Mauritius

•  The six main business structures: sole trader, general partnership, private limited company, public company, Global Business Licence (GBL) company, and authorised company

•  Legal personality, liability, and tax treatment of each structure

•  How the choice of structure affects the way accounting records are kept and whether audited accounts are required

•  The primary legislation governing business registration and company operations in Mauritius

• The four main regulatory bodies: the Corporate and Business Registration Department (CBRD), the Financial Services Commission (FSC), the Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA), and the Financial Reporting Council (FRC)

2. Business Transactions and Documentation

•  The thirteen types of business transaction: cash and bank, credit sales, credit purchases, returns, income and expenses, asset transactions, loan transactions, VAT, payroll, discounts, contra transactions, and adjusting entries

•  The source documents used in business: the invoice, credit note and debit note, quotation, purchase order, goods received note, payment voucher, and remittance advice

•  The document chain for a credit sale and for a credit purchase, and why a complete audit trail matters

•  The three-way match: purchase order, goods received note, and supplier invoice as the basis for approving a payment

•  The distinction between a trade discount and a cash discount, and how each is treated in the accounts

•  A full appendix of ten worked sample documents following two complete transaction chains

3. The Accounting Equation and Double-Entry Principle

•  The accounting equation in its basic form: Assets = Liabilities + Equity

•  The expanded accounting equation, including share capital and retained earnings

•  How business transactions affect the equation: starting a business, purchasing assets, making sales, and settling liabilities

•  The double-entry system and the duality concept

•  Debit and credit rules, and the normal balance of each account type

•  Ten worked examples, from share issues and bank loans through to dividends paid

•  Preparing T-accounts and a basic trial balance

4. Payroll Computation

•  The five components of a Mauritian payroll and the distinction between employee deductions and employer costs

•  Contribution Sociale Généralisée (CSG): rates and computation for employee and employer

•  National Savings Fund (NSF): the monthly ceiling and its effect on the deduction

•  PAYE under the MRA cumulative method: tax rates, the Employee Declaration Form (EDF), and the five-step monthly computation

•  Worked examples across four salary levels and dependent counts, over two consecutive months

•  Employer-only contributions: the Training Levy and the Portable Retirement Gratuity Fund (PRGF), including the PRGF exemption

•  Preparing a complete monthly payroll summary: gross pay, deductions, net pay, and total cost to the employer

•  Recording payroll in the books: gross wages and deductions, and employer social contributions

•  MRA filing obligations: the joint monthly return, the PRGF monthly return, and the consequences of late filing or late payment

5. General Principles of VAT in Mauritius

•  What Value Added Tax is, and following a product through the VAT chain step by step

•  Types of supply: standard-rated at 15%, zero-rated, and exempt, and why the difference between zero- rated and exempt matters

•  VAT registration: the Rs 3 million compulsory threshold, the specified professions that must register regardless of turnover, voluntary registration, and the registration process

•  Output VAT, input VAT, and calculating the net VAT position

•  Circumstances in which input VAT cannot be claimed

•  The mandatory particulars of a valid VAT invoice, and the common mistakes that invalidate it

•  Filing VAT returns with the MRA: frequency, deadlines, and penalties

6. Tax Deduction at Source (TDS)

•  What TDS is and how it operates as an advance payment of the payee’s tax liability

•  Payments subject to TDS and the rate applicable to each category, including the distinction between resident and non-resident payees

•  Key rules for the payer: when to deduct, when to remit to the MRA, and annual obligations

•  The minimum threshold and the turnover exemption

•  Recording TDS in the payer’s books, with a worked example on rent: computation, the payment entry, and the remittance entry

•  Recording TDS in the recipient’s books, and applying the TDS credit at year end

•  Consequences of non-compliance: penalties and interest

7. Loan Amortisation: Processing and Recording

•  Key terms: principal, interest, installment, and outstanding balance

•  How an amortisation schedule works, and why the interest portion falls while the principal portion rises

•  The reducing balance formula, and verifying the figures in a schedule

•  A full worked amortisation schedule

•  Recording the journal entry when the loan is received

•  Recording monthly repayment entries, correctly splitting principal and interest

8. Bank Reconciliation

•  Why the bank statement balance and the bank account in the books differ

•  Timing differences: unpresented cheques and deposits not yet credited

•  Preparing a bank reconciliation statement, adjusting from both directions

•  Updating the bank account in the books for bank charges, standing orders, and interest received

9. Accruals and Prepayments

•  The accruals concept and why income and expenses are matched to the period they relate to

•  Accrued expenses: recognising the expense, reversing the accrual when the bill arrives, recording the invoice, and settling it

•  Prepaid expenses: recording the payment and releasing the monthly portion at each month-end

10. Accounts Receivable and Payables Management

•  What accounts receivable and accounts payable represent

•  The accounts receivable cycle: raising a sales invoice, receiving customer payment, and issuing a credit note

•  The accounts payable cycle: receiving a supplier invoice, paying a supplier, and receiving a credit note

•  Aging analysis: preparing and interpreting a debtor aging report

•  Aging analysis: preparing and interpreting a creditor aging report

11. Corporate Tax Computation

•  Company residency for Mauritius income tax purposes

•  Sources of taxable income

•  Allowable and non-allowable expenses

•  Capital allowances and the annual allowance

•  Computing company income tax, with a full worked example

•  Filing obligations and deadlines: the company annual return and the Advance Payment System (APS)

•  Penalties for late filing and late payment

12. Fixed Assets and Depreciation

•  The distinction between capital expenditure and revenue expenditure

•  What qualifies as a fixed asset

•  Maintaining the fixed asset register

•  Depreciation and the straight-line method: annual and monthly computation

•  Recording depreciation in the books

•  How depreciation is presented in the financial statements

•  Accounting for the disposal of a fixed asset

13. Accounting Software Practice and Management Reports

•  Setting up: creating a new business from scratch in a commercial accounting package, building and configuring a Chart of Accounts, and posting opening journal entries

•  Daily transactions: processing supplier invoices with and without VAT, raising customer sales invoices, recording cash receipts and debit card payments, and processing bank transfers and standing orders

•  Payroll and statutory deductions: posting a full monthly payroll journal, recording PAYE, CSG, NSF and Training Levy, processing TDS on rent, and handling a director’s current account entry

•  Period-end adjustments: running depreciation on fixed assets, releasing a prepayment over its amortisation period, posting an accrual for an unbilled expense, and splitting a loan repayment between interest and principal

•  Management reports: performing a bank reconciliation against the bank statement, and generating a Profit and Loss Statement, a Balance Sheet, a Statement of Cash Flows, an aged debtors report, and an aged creditors report

•  Delivered as a hands-on module in which learners work directly in accounting software, processing a full month of real business transactions for a newly incorporated Mauritian company

14. Introduction to Management Accounts

•  The distinction between financial accounting and management accounting: purpose, audience, frequency, and the absence of a prescribed format

•  What a monthly management accounts pack contains, and how it is assembled from the trial balance

•  Comparative reporting: current month against prior month, year-to-date figures, and comparison with the prior year

•  Cost classification: fixed and variable costs, direct and indirect costs, and why the distinction matters

•  Contribution, break-even point, and margin of safety

•  Gross margin and net margin analysis by product, service, or customer

•  Preparing a simple annual budget and phasing it across the months of the year

•  Budget against actual: calculating variances, identifying the cause, and writing clear variance commentary

•  Cash flow forecasting and monitoring working capital

•  Key performance indicators for a small business: debtor days, creditor days, stock days, and the current ratio

•  Presenting management accounts to owners and managers: what to highlight, what to explain, and what the numbers do not tell you

Benefits:

•  Assumes no prior accounting knowledge, so it is equally accessible to school leavers, career changers, and those already handling the books without formal training.

•  Builds job-ready competence in the work carried out every day in an accounts function, rather than abstract theory.

•  Grounded entirely in Mauritian legislation, MRA practice, and local compliance deadlines.

•  Combines bookkeeping, payroll, and taxation in a single programme, so learners see how the pieces connect.

•  Includes hands-on accounting software practice on a full month of real business transactions.

•  Takes learners from the source document through to a complete set of management reports and the ability to interpret them.

•  Gives business owners the knowledge either to keep their own books correctly or to supervise the person who does.

Practical Applications:

On completing the course, learners will be equipped to undertake work such as:

•  Processing supplier invoices, customer invoices, receipts, and payments in a live accounting system.

•  Running a monthly payroll and preparing the joint monthly return and PRGF return for the MRA.

•  Preparing and filing VAT returns and TDS remittances within statutory deadlines.

•  Performing monthly bank reconciliations and posting period-end adjustments.

•  Maintaining the fixed asset register and computing depreciation.

•  Managing debtor and creditor ledgers and chasing overdue balances using aging reports.

•  Supporting the preparation of the corporate tax computation and annual return.

•  Producing a monthly management accounts pack and reporting performance against budget to owners and managers.