NO TUITION · NO SITTING FEE · NO RENEWAL CHARGE

Train, qualify, and get found
as a Certified Bookkeeper

A self-paced course in running a real set of books, closed out by a timed exam and a credential number anyone can look up. Around six hours end to end, and you pay nothing at any stage.

Enrol now Browse qualified bookkeepers

Checking someone's credentials? Look up a certificate number

28LESSONS
5.5 hrsOF STUDY
60 minEXAM
24 moVALIDITY

Judgement, not button-hunting

Plenty of software vendors hand out certificates for completing a product tour. The trouble is that a badge earned by clicking through menus tells a prospective client nothing useful — locating the invoice screen and knowing which period the revenue belongs in are entirely different skills.

We built this course to test the second one. Each unit opens with the accounting principle at stake — how a customer deposit is a liability rather than income, what makes an accounts receivable aging report quietly untrustworthy, where the line sits between a deductible repair and a capitalised improvement — and only then covers how Kantivo handles it. The exam is written the same way: situations to reason about rather than definitions to recall.

There is no charge because a well-trained practitioner community is worth considerably more to us than exam revenue. We would rather back a thousand bookkeepers who can genuinely close a month than sell a few dozen certificates.

Course syllabus

Seven units, twenty-eight lessons, studied whenever suits you. Nothing expires while you are working through it and your place is kept between sessions.

UNIT ONE

Foundations of Double-Entry

What the accounting equation guarantees, how normal balances follow from account type, converting a described transaction into a balanced entry, and the errors a trial balance is blind to.

45 minutes
UNIT TWO

Standing Up a New Company File

Building a chart of accounts you can actually read, picking a reporting basis and standard, choosing a fiscal year end, and converting a client mid-life without wrecking the current period.

45 minutes
UNIT THREE

Money Coming In

Quotes, invoices, receipts and deposits; applying payments so the aging report stays honest; reversing an invoice properly instead of deleting it; and separating genuine bad debt from a billing error.

50 minutes
UNIT FOUR

Money Going Out

Choosing between a payable and an immediate expense, ordering and receiving goods, deciding what gets capitalised, and staying ready for contractor reporting instead of scrambling every January.

45 minutes
UNIT FIVE

Bank Feeds and Reconciling

Why downloaded transactions are evidence rather than entries, grouping receipts so your deposits mirror the bank's, chasing down a reconciliation variance properly, and repairing a prior month that has drifted.

50 minutes
UNIT SIX

Closing the Month

A close checklist you can repeat, accrued and prepaid items, choosing a depreciation method that reflects reality, and articulating why a profitable month can still drain the bank balance.

55 minutes
UNIT SEVEN

Working Across Many Clients

Granting the narrowest workable permissions per client, treating the change log as your own protection, a dependable onboarding routine, and the requests a professional declines.

40 minutes
FINAL ASSESSMENT

The Certification Exam

Thirty-five scenario questions sampled from every unit, one hour on the clock, and 80% required to qualify. Unlocks once all seven units are marked complete.

60 minutes

What qualifying earns you

A certificate that stands up to checking

Every qualification carries a unique reference such as BCB-2026-K7M4QP. A prospective client types it into our public lookup and sees instantly whether it is genuine and still current — far harder to fake than an image file.

🔎

A profile prospects can find

Choose to appear in our searchable register and owners looking for help can filter by city, sector or remote working. Your entry is yours to write and yours to pull down whenever you like, with no effect on the qualification itself.

📈

Ongoing referral income

Because enrolment sits inside our partner programme, any client you introduce to Kantivo pays you commission year after year while they remain a subscriber. The training is the free part; the recurring revenue is the part that grows.

From sign-up to certificate

1

Open a free partner account

Two minutes of details. Holding an account is what admits you to the programme, and it is also what pays you on referrals later.

2

Study the seven units

Read whenever you have time. Each unit is marked off as you finish it and nothing is lost if you step away for a fortnight.

3

Take the assessment

Thirty-five questions, sixty minutes, answers saved continuously so a dropped connection costs you nothing.

4

Publish your profile

Your certificate is issued the moment you qualify, and appearing in the public register is entirely your call.

Assessment specification

Question formatMultiple choice, one correct answer
Questions per sitting35, sampled from 56
Unit coverageAll seven represented
Duration60 minutes
Qualifying mark80%
Sittings permitted3, spaced 24 hours apart
Option orderingRandomised per candidate
Certificate validity24 months, renewed at no cost
FeeNone

Who tends to take it

Self-employed bookkeepers after a qualification that describes something concrete, plus a route that puts enquiries in front of them rather than relying on referrals from existing clients.

Practices training new staff. The seven units work perfectly well as an in-house training programme, and the assessment gives you an honest read on whether a new hire absorbed it.

Practitioners arriving from QuickBooks whose accounting is already solid and who mainly need the platform-specific material. Expect units one and six to be revision; two, five and seven are where the real differences sit.

Newly qualified bookkeepers holding the theory from study but who have never taken live books through a full close. Closing that particular gap is what the whole course is organised around.

Common questions

Is there genuinely nothing to pay?

Correct — no tuition, no sitting fee, no renewal charge and no pitch at the end. Enrolment requires a free partner account, which doubles as the mechanism that pays you commission on referrals.

Must I already be a Kantivo user?

Not at all. A good half of the material is general bookkeeping that travels with you to any platform. You will get more from units two onward with the software open alongside, and a free trial is enough for that.

What if I do not qualify first time?

Three sittings are allowed, a day apart. Afterwards you are shown every question with the right answer, the reasoning behind it, and a breakdown of which units cost you the most marks — so the retake is targeted revision rather than guesswork.

Can I refer to notes during the assessment?

We do not invigilate, and the questions were written knowing that. They ask you to work through situations — a negative balance on an aging report, a contractor paid partly by cheque and partly by card — so a glossary is of limited use. Answer options are reordered for each candidate, which also removes any value in comparing notes.

Why does it lapse after two years?

So the public register reflects people still practising. Renewal costs nothing; the expiry simply stops the directory silting up with certificates earned long ago and left behind.

Can I qualify without being listed publicly?

Absolutely. Listing is opt-in and independent of the certificate. Many bookkeepers are already at capacity and want the qualification without the enquiries that come with a public profile.

How long will it take me?

Roughly five and a half hours of study plus the hour-long assessment. Most candidates spread that over a week or two, and there is no deadline once you have enrolled.

Qualify this month

Open a free partner account, study seven units at your own pace, and finish with a certificate clients can verify and a profile that brings work to you.

Enrol in the programme