The short answer
If a job advert names a package, learn that package. Ledger Drill teaches none.
If you want to know what a package does when you press save, and to notice when it has been told the wrong thing, learn the double entry.
Neither replaces the other. A package records an entry for you. It cannot tell you whether it was the right entry.
What learning on the software is better for
- The real tool. Where each screen is, and how to raise an invoice, enter a supplier's bill, match a line from the bank and run a report.
- What an advert asks for. An employer that names a package wants someone who has used it.
- Automatic features. Bank transactions that arrive by themselves, rules that code them and invoices that repeat have no version on paper.
- Speed in the job. Knowing the package is what makes a day's entries quick.
Ledger Drill does none of this. It shows no screen from any package, and it will not teach you where a button is.
What practising the double entry is better for
- Seeing the entry. A package posts the debit and the credit for you and keeps them out of sight. Here you post both sides yourself.
- Putting things right. When a bank reconciliation will not agree, or an amount sits in a suspense account, the fix is a journal. You have to know which accounts and which sides.
- Checking the result. A package will not post an entry that does not balance, so its trial balance agrees. The errors that are left are the ones a trial balance hides: the wrong account, the wrong figure, an entry left out.
- Moving on. Double entry is the same in every package and in every job.
Who should pick which
- A job you want names a package: learn that package, and practise the double entry beside it.
- You use a package at work and do not know why it posts what it posts: practise the double entry.
- You are starting from nothing: the double entry first. Each screen in a package makes more sense once you know what it records.
- You run a small business and only want to send invoices and see who owes you: your package. Come here when you want to understand its reports.
What Ledger Drill is not
Ledger Drill is independent. It does not award a qualification, it has no tutor, and no awarding body or professional body has approved its content. Finishing a path gives a certificate of completion, not a qualification, and it is not proof that you can use any package.
It is in beta, and an answer can be wrong. Every question has a Report a mistake link.
It is practice, not tax or accounting advice. Some rooms are free and the rest need Premium or a topic pack. The pricing page has the current prices.
Side by side
| What you learn or get | Learning on accounting software | Ledger Drill |
|---|---|---|
| The screens and buttons of a package | Yes, for that one package | No |
| The debit and the credit behind each entry | Kept out of sight. The package posts them for you | Yes. You post both sides yourself |
| Automatic features, such as bank transactions that arrive by themselves | Yes | No. A bank reconciliation here is ticked by hand |
| Correcting an error with a journal | The package has a screen for it. It does not say what to enter | Yes. Journals, errors and the suspense account have rooms of their own |
| Marking | None. A package records what it is given | Every answer, at once |
| Carries over to another package | In part. Each package has its own layout | Yes. Double entry is the same everywhere |
| Something to show an employer | Experience of the package the advert names | A certificate of completion, which is not a qualification |
| Best for | Doing the job in that package | Understanding and checking what the package does |
Practise it
Questions
Does Ledger Drill teach accounting software?
No. It teaches no package and shows no screen from one. It teaches the double entry, the documents, the reconciliations and the checks that a package records.
Do I need double entry if the software does it for me?
The software posts both sides of an entry, but it posts what it is told. Double entry is how you choose the right account, read the reports and correct a mistake with a journal.
Should I learn bookkeeping or the software first?
Either order works. With the double entry first, each screen in the package has a meaning when you meet it. If a job you want names a package, learn that package as well.
Will Ledger Drill help me get a job that asks for a named package?
It gives no experience of that package, and it does not promise a job. It gives practice in the bookkeeping the package is used for.
Does Ledger Drill cover spreadsheets?
Yes. The path Spreadsheets for the office covers formulas, lookups, dates and pivot tables. Each question shows a small table of cells and asks what a formula returns, or which formula does the job.