10 FREE accounting courses to sharpen your skills this September

Being back-to-school ready can mean many things, but for business owners, it’s also the perfect time to learn how to do small business accounting.

You’re probably groaning at the thought, and we don’t blame you. Business accounting is never an easy task, but it’s something that you can’t ignore and staying on top of it can save you time, stress, and costly mistakes down the line.

However, it can be even harder when you’re a new entrepreneur or business, and don’t have a clue about how accounting works, or have the funds to gain a costly qualification.

Luckily, there are plenty of free online courses that can teach you the essentials and give you the practical skills you need to keep your finances on track — all without spending a penny.

To save you time, we’ve rounded up 10 of the best free accounting courses in the UK that you can start today.

1. Open University (OpenLearn): Introduction to bookkeeping and accounting

• Level: Beginner
• Specialism: Bookkeeping and accounting

If you’re totally new to accounting and have little to no experience in how it works, then the Open University’s introductory course is the perfect starting point. 

Offered by the university’s OpenLearn platform, this free online course walks you through the basics of accounting, including the essential numerical skills, how to keep track of financial records, and measuring profit and loss. 

Whether you’re interested in becoming an accountant or just need basic accounting skills for your small business, this course is a great way to pick up the essentials.

2. Oxford Home Study Centre (OHSC): AI for Financial Analysis Course

• Level: Beginner and professional
• Specialism: AI in accounting

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the game for business accounting, with the top free accounting software, including Sage and Xero, implementing AI features to make it easier than ever to handle bookkeeping and manage cash flow.

But understanding how to utilise these features can be a challenge. That’s why the Oxford Home Study Centre (OHSC) is offering a free course for both beginner and professional-level candidates to learn how AI can streamline financial operations, improve decision-making, and offer real-time insights.

The course covers three main modules: introduction to AI in financial analysis, using AI for data collection and pre-processing, and using AI for financial forecasting and trend analysis.

3. Activate Learning Adult Education: Computerised Payroll Level 1

• Level: Beginner
• Specialism: Payroll

Paying your employees properly is essential when running a business, yet 48% of SMEs have admitted to calculating wages incorrectly.

If payroll is something you’re new to, then Activate Learning’s free course on computerised payroll offers everything you need to learn about managing payroll. It includes entering employee details correctly, calculating gross pay, processing the first payroll, and running those all-important reports (e.g. payslips).

4. Alison: Accounting for Inventory

• Level: Intermediate
• Specialism: Inventory management

If you’re a retail business or starting an ecommerce store, then you should know that inventory management is a crucial part of your business operations.

Alison, a free online learning platform, offers multiple accounting courses for all levels (beginner to advanced) for free. This free online course teaches you the essentials of keeping your inventory in check.

In this course, you can expect to learn several areas of inventory accounting, including how to identify and analyse accounting transactions, how a company uses Last In, First Out (LIFO) or First In Last Out (FIFO) to calculate inventory cost, and how to use efficiency metrics to monitor inventory.

5. ACCA: Introduction to Bookkeeping

• Level: Beginner
• Specialism: Bookkeeping

Much like the Open University, ACCA’s free bookkeeping course is ideal for new businesses and entrepreneurs looking to get a solid grasp of bookkeeping, understand their finances, and set up reliable systems from the start.

This course covers several important topics, such as business transactions, double-entry bookkeeping, payroll and ledger accounts, and reconciliation. There are also no entry requirements, and you can start the course whenever you want. 

6. Oxford Home Study Centre (OHSC): Profit and Loss Accounts

• Level: Beginner
• Specialism: Profit and loss accounts

A significant part of accounting is calculating your profit and loss statements. These show exactly how much money is coming in and going out, and whether your business is actually making a profit.

As part of OHSC’s variety of free online accounting courses, this curriculum is all about teaching you everything you need to know about measuring your profits and losses.

Covering essential topics like measuring income, preparing profit/loss accounts, and foundational terminology, it’s designed to give you a clear understanding of how to manage your business finances.

7. Open University (OpenLearn): Fundamentals of accounting

• Level: Beginner
• Specialism: Accounting and bookkeeping

As the title suggests, OpenLearn’s four-week course is all about teaching you the essential concepts and skills of bookkeeping. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics the course will cover:

• Week 1: Introduction to the key differences between financial accounting and management accounting.
• Week 2: Essential skills for accounting, including manipulating equations, using percentages and ratios, and understanding rounding.
• Week 3: The concepts of double-entry accounting, including the accounting equation and the rules for recording transactions in ledger accounts.
• Week 4: How to prepare a trial balance and balance sheet, and how your income statement fits with the accounting equation.

8. Alison: Cash Flow Management Basics

• Level: Beginner
• Specialism: Cash flow management

Another fundamental aspect of managing your business accounts is your cash flow. Knowing how money moves in and out of your business helps you stay on top of bills, plan for growth, and avoid any nasty surprises when expenses pile up.

Alison’s Cash Flow Management Basics course helps you understand cash flow management, including liquidity, efficiency, profitability, and leverage ratios. It’ll also teach you the most important types of financial ratios (and how to apply them), and the relationship between the value of sales, costs, expenses, assets, liabilities and equity to get a better understanding of your financial position and your business’s performance in the future.

9. Alison: Understanding and Managing Tax in the UK

• Level: Advanced
• Specialism: Taxes

Income tax, corporation tax, value-added tax (VAT) — all of these terms can be a huge headache if you don’t understand what they are or how to calculate them.

This is where Alison’s free tax management course can come to the rescue. Designed to give you a better understanding of tax systems in the UK, this free course covers a range of fundamental areas, including how it impacts the economy, VAT rates, the different types of National Insurance Contributions (NICs), and important dates for reports.

10. KBM Training & Recruitment: Practical Self-Assessment Tax Return Training

• Level: Beginner
• Specialism: Self-Assessment Tax Return

KBM Training & Recruitment offers several government-funded short courses for those looking to learn or improve their accounting skills. And for sole traders and freelancers specifically, the course on Self-Assessment tax returns is useful if you’re new to self-employment.

In this 8-hour course, you can expect to cover a variety of core subjects. This includes the meaning of Self-Assessment tax returns, the different types of income (e.g. employment, self-employment, rental, investments), how to calculate income, deductions and allowances, and how to file and submit your first tax return.