Active learning ideas
Club and Society Accounts shift the focus from profit-making businesses to non-profit organizations like local GAA clubs or community centers. Students learn that while the goal isn't profit, these entities still need to track their 'Surplus' or 'Deficit.' The terminology changes: instead of a Profit and Loss account, students prepare an Income and Expenditure account; instead of Capital, they calculate the Accumulated Fund.
Activity 01
Students act as treasurers for a local sports club. They are given a list of receipts and payments and must present a simplified Income and Expenditure account to the 'members' (the rest of the class), explaining why a surplus occurred.
How do club accounts differ from sole trader accounts?
Activity 02
Groups are given a messy list of member payments, including some who owe for last year and some who paid for next year. They must use a T-account to calculate the exact subscription income for the current year.
What is an accumulated fund?
Activity 03
Students are given a list of a club's assets and liabilities at the start of the year. They must individually calculate the Accumulated Fund, then pair up to check each other's work before the teacher reveals the answer.
How are subscriptions treated in the accounts?
A few notes on teaching this unit
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
The Receipts and Payments account is the same as the Income and Expenditure account.
Receipts and Payments is just a summary of the cash book (cash in/out), while Income and Expenditure follows the accruals concept (income earned/expenses incurred). Peer-to-peer explanation of 'cash vs. accrual' helps clarify this.
Life Membership is treated as immediate income.
Life membership is usually treated as a long-term liability and released to the Income and Expenditure account over several years. Using a 'timeline' visual helps students see how this income is spread out.
Methods used in this brief