Course Overview
A simulator-ready training course for universities, colleges, charities and UK small business learners.
Who This Is For
- University accounting, finance, business and social enterprise students
- Small business founders, sole traders and directors
- Charity trustees, treasurers and volunteer finance administrators
- Bookkeeping and accounting trainees learning cloud finance workflows
What Learners Will Be Able To Do
- Set up UK organisations in CherryBank using the correct organisation type and onboarding path.
- Create customers, products, quotes, invoices, payments, credit notes and recurring sales records.
- Capture expenses, receipts, purchases, mileage, fixed assets, grants and restricted fund records.
- Use AI-assisted suggestions responsibly while preserving review, audit and approval controls.
- Prepare VAT breakdowns, expense packs, payroll summaries and compliance checklists.
- Explain how plan, role and organisation type affect feature access.
- Complete a simulated month-end and quarter-end finance cycle.
12-Week Teaching Syllabus
This schedule can be used directly for a semester course, or compressed into an intensive bootcamp by combining two modules per day.
Week 1
Orientation, login and safe AI use
Navigate the dashboard, compare Quick and Expert mode, identify AI review responsibilities.
Week 2
Account creation and verification
Create training accounts, resend verification, complete admin manual verification.
Week 3
UK identity and onboarding
Set up sole trader, limited company and VCSE profiles with filing dates.
Week 4
Clients, products and templates
Create customer records, product records and invoice template checks.
Week 5
Quotes and invoice creation
Create quote, convert to invoice, create direct invoice and preview documents.
Week 6
Getting paid and corrections
Record payments, partial payments, overdue invoices and credit notes.
Week 7
Expenses, purchases and receipt capture
Manual expenses, CSV import, duplicate checks, mileage and fixed assets.
Week 8
AI-assisted bookkeeping
Approve, fix and ignore smart coding suggestions with audit evidence.
Week 9
VAT and compliance
Check VAT Boxes 1-9, EU goods sale treatment and compliance due dates.
Week 10
Payroll and reporting packs
Prepare payroll summary, expense report and period review pack.
Week 11
Charity, VCSE and governance
Track restricted fund, grant, donor report, roles and audit controls.
Week 12
Capstone simulation
Complete an end-to-end month-end and quarter-end finance cycle.
Full Curriculum
Each module has classroom teaching, guided demonstration, simulator practice and assessment evidence.
Module 1
2 hours
Orientation: CherryBank, Cloud Accounting And AI
Introduce CherryBank as a practical accounting workspace and explain how AI supports, but does not replace, review and judgement.
Module 2
2 hours
Creating Accounts, Login And Verification
Train students to create accounts, choose organisation type, verify email, recover passwords and understand admin manual verification.
Module 3
3 hours
UK Identity And Organisation Onboarding
Teach students how different UK organisation types affect records, statutory fields, people records and filing reminders.
Module 4
2 hours
Clients, Products, Services And Templates
Build the master records that make invoice and quote creation accurate and fast.
Module 5
4 hours
Quotes, Invoices And Getting Paid
Run the full sales cycle from quote to invoice, sending, payment tracking and correction.
Module 6
4 hours
Expenses, Purchases, Receipts And Data Intake
Capture expense and purchase records through manual entry, receipt capture, CSV import and review controls.
Module 7
3 hours
AI-Assisted Bookkeeping And Review
Use AI suggestions to classify records while keeping review, correction and audit controls.
Module 8
4 hours
VAT, EU Goods Sales And Compliance Checks
Prepare VAT reviews, understand VAT boxes, check EU goods sale treatment and use compliance prompts.
Module 9
2 hours
Payroll Summary Packs
Prepare payroll review packs where the plan includes payroll features.
Module 10
4 hours
Charity, VCSE, Grants And Restricted Funds
Teach fund accounting concepts through charity and VCSE workflows.
Module 11
3 hours
Governance, Roles, Audit And Admin Controls
Control access, review user verification, use bulk admin actions and understand audit trails.
Module 12
6 hours
Capstone: Month-End And Quarter-End Simulation
Students complete a full finance cycle from setup to reporting using seeded simulator data.
Google Cloud Simulator Plan
The simulator will let learners practise inside a safe Google Cloud VM with seeded demo data, test users and guided tasks.
Training VM Design
Environment
- One training tenant per student or team.
- Seeded organisations: sole trader, limited company, CIC and charity.
- Demo clients, products, invoices, receipts, expenses, grants, donors and VAT records.
- No real customer emails, real bank data or live HMRC submissions.
Practice Roles
- Student operator: completes daily workflow tasks.
- Reviewer: checks outputs, VAT breakdowns and reports.
- Trainer admin: resets data, unlocks exercises and reviews evidence.
Simulator rule: students must never use real customer emails, live HMRC submissions, real bank accounts or real personal data in training environments.
Student Workbook Rules
These rules turn simulator work into assessable learning evidence instead of simple screen clicking.
Student Checklist
- Before each lab, write down the organisation type, role and plan you are using.
- For every invoice, check client, due date, line items, VAT treatment and preview before sending.
- For every expense, check date, supplier, amount, category, duplicate warning and project or fund tag where relevant.
- For every AI suggestion, record whether you approved, fixed or ignored it and the reason.
- Before every VAT or compliance output, check the date range and source records.
- After each module, export or screenshot the required evidence before resetting the simulator.
Instructor Delivery Notes
- Start each class with a five-minute recap of the accounting concept before opening CherryBank.
- Use one trainer demo account projected to the class and one separate student account for each learner or team.
- Keep a visible mistake in the dataset so students practise review rather than simple data entry.
- Mark students on reasoning and evidence, not only screen completion.
- For AI modules, require students to explain why the suggestion is right or wrong.
- For VAT modules, require students to trace figures back to source records before accepting totals.
Assessment Framework
The course is designed so universities can mark both technical accuracy and accounting judgement.
| Assessment Area |
Evidence |
| Course requirement |
Formative quizzes after each module. |
| Course requirement |
Simulator task evidence: screenshots, exported PDFs or CSV files, and short written reflections. |
| Course requirement |
A capstone assessment where learners run a complete finance cycle from setup to reporting. |
| Course requirement |
Pass criteria: accurate records, correct VAT treatment, clear audit trail and plain-English explanation of decisions. |
Detailed Marking Rubric
Use this rubric for module portfolios and the capstone assessment.
| Area |
Weight |
Standard |
| Accounting accuracy |
40% |
Records are entered in the right place, values are correct, VAT treatment is appropriate and corrections use credit notes where needed. |
| Workflow completeness |
25% |
The learner completes the full workflow rather than isolated steps: setup, record creation, review, export and evidence. |
| Evidence quality |
20% |
Screenshots, PDFs, CSV files or report exports clearly prove the task was completed in the simulator. |
| AI review judgement |
10% |
The learner explains when AI suggestions were approved, fixed or ignored and why. |
| Professional communication |
5% |
The learner explains outcomes in plain English suitable for a client, treasurer, founder or trustee. |
Capstone Scenario Bank
Universities can assign different scenarios to students or teams so final work is comparable but not identical.
Sole Trader Launch Month
A new consultant must set up clients, issue invoices, record expenses, review AI coding and prepare a simple month-end pack.
Two invoices
One payment record
Five expenses
Expense report
AI review note
Limited Company VAT Quarter
A small company has UK sales, EU goods sales, purchases and a credit note. Students must prepare a VAT breakdown and explain Boxes 1, 4, 6, 7 and 8.
VAT breakdown
EU goods invoice proof
Purchase evidence
Credit note reversal
Compliance checklist
Community CIC Grant Project
A CIC receives restricted grant income, spends against a project and reports to trustees and funders.
Grant record
Restricted fund expense tags
Donor or stewardship report
Governance role matrix
Accounting And CherryBank Glossary
Plain-English definitions students can use while learning accounting workflows through the software.
| Term |
Definition |
| Client |
A customer or organisation that receives quotes, invoices or payment requests. |
| Product or service |
A reusable invoice line item with description, price and tax assumptions. |
| Quote |
A proposed price or scope document created before billing. |
| Invoice |
A customer-facing request for payment with line items, dates, totals and VAT treatment. |
| Credit note |
A correction document that reduces or reverses an issued invoice or purchase record. |
| VAT breakdown |
A trace from VAT Boxes 1-9 back to source invoices, expenses, purchases and credit notes. |
| Restricted fund |
Charity or VCSE money that must be used for a specific purpose. |
| Audit trail |
A record of important actions, approvals, corrections and report publication. |
| AI suggestion |
A system recommendation that must be reviewed before being accepted. |
