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It was a pleasure again for me, as examiner, to see a number of scripts prepared to such a high standard of excellence.

Overall the quality of the examinees' work demonstrated competence in many fundamental principles.

Question 1: The major 30 mark question was overall well answered. However there are some areas of weakness that need to be addressed. Postings to the Sales Account, the Purchases Account, the Sales and Purchases Returns Account; and the VAT Account from the day books must be in the form of batch totals and not individually as some candidates showed.

Also the posting of returns against both the sales and purchases account and ignoring the returns in and out accounts is fundamentally incorrect.Likewise some candidates posted the drawings directly to the Capital Account, these should be posted to the Drawings account and at the end of the year when final accounts are prepared the Capital Account is then adjusted for drawings and or profit/loss.

The trial balance was overall well constructed, however we continue to see the ill-prepared candidates with debit and credit postings in reverse.

Question 2: The Bank Reconciliation Statement. This was, as in previous papers well answered, although the presence of a bank overdraft caused some students difficulty.

Question 3: Correction of Errors and Suspense Account. This type of question requires the candidate to have a full command and understanding of double entry procedure and it is clear that some candidates could identify the type of error but failed in the entries required to correct them and their ultimate effect upon, if any, on the suspense account.

Question 4: Final Accounts. Again a popular question with most candidates. However I continue to see two types of fundamental error, the omission of both the opening and closing stocks from the cost of sales in the trading account and Drawings shown on the face of the profit and loss account as an item of revenue expenditure!

Question 5: Most candidates successfully prepared the VAT account but again, as in previous examinations there were common errors on the VAT return. Some candidates continue to post the totals on the VAT account this is incorrect, others ignore the basic instruction on the form regarding the use of the term "None"