OxfordAQA 9215 · Section 3.2
Verification of accounting records
Trial balance, error types, control accounts, bank reconciliation and the effect of errors on profit.
What the specification requires
These are the requirements for this section, paraphrased from the official specification.
- Prepare, correct and use a trial balance, and explain its benefits and limitations.
- Know errors a trial balance does not reveal (commission, complete reversal, compensating, omission, original entry, principle) and errors it does reveal (addition, partial omission, transposition, unequal posting).
- Prepare trade payables and trade receivables control accounts as memorandum records, including contra entries, interest on overdue accounts and balances on the opposite side.
- Prepare bank reconciliation statements and update the cash book for charges, interest, direct debits, standing orders, credit transfers and errors.
- Correct errors with the general journal and suspense account and adjust profit for corrections.
How it is examined
This section is assessed in Paper 1, which lasts 1 hour 45 minutes and carries 75 marks, worth 50% of the qualification.
Sources: OxfordAQA International GCSE Accounting (9215) specification (FT Sept 2024) (Version 1.2), page 9. See all sources.
Slips our teachers see most in this section
These come from marking student work in lessons, not from the board.
- Filing a transposition error under errors the trial balance cannot show.
- Posting control account items to the real ledger instead of treating the account as a memorandum record.
- Forgetting to update the cash book before reconciling.
If these slips look familiar, a teacher can go through your child's answers on verification of accounting records and fix the habit behind each one. Book a trial class.
A teacher's note
OxfordAQA lists the errors a trial balance does reveal as well as those it does not, which is a slightly broader treatment than some other boards. Our teachers teach both lists as a pair and then ask students to sort a set of mixed errors, so the split becomes automatic.
Where this sits on the other boards
Our teachers' map of the same ideas in the other documents (an editorial mapping, with the official reference shown):
- The trial balance: Cambridge 3.1 (p. 13); Edexcel Topic 3, item 1 Trial balance (p. 17).
- Correction of errors: Cambridge 3.2 (p. 13); Edexcel Topic 3, item 3 Correction of errors (p. 17).
- Bank reconciliation: Cambridge 3.3 (p. 13); Edexcel Topic 3, item 4 Bank reconciliation statements (p. 17).
- Control accounts: Cambridge 3.4 (p. 13); Edexcel Topic 3, item 2 Control accounts (p. 17).
Keep going
Official reference: OxfordAQA International GCSE Accounting (9215) specification (FT Sept 2024) (Version 1.2), page 12. See all sources.
Verification of accounting records: questions
Which paper tests verification of accounting records?
How do our teachers approach this part of the course?
Get help with verification of accounting records
The trial class works through OxfordAQA International GCSE Accounting questions with a teacher, so you see how the paper is approached. One-to-one and online, from RM75/hr.
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