Accounting Technician

If a tidy ledger and a balanced payroll give you satisfaction, accounting support could be your trade. Lakeland College’s Accounting Technician certificate is a one-year, 36-credit programme taught at the Lloydminster campus that prepares you to keep a business’s books accurate from the first transaction to the tax return.

Accounting Technician students begin with AC 130 Accounting I and AC 230 Accounting II, learning the full accounting cycle and financial statements. AC 201 Payroll Administration covers deductions and remittances, AC 260 Introduction to Taxation explains how Canadian tax rules affect individuals and businesses, and AC 235 Computerized Accounting moves your bookkeeping into software. CU 248 Business Computer Applications, CO 131 Communications I and CO 231 Communications II complete the core, alongside two 3-credit electives you choose with Lakeland’s academic advisor.

Accounting Technician classes rely heavily on software: you record transactions in the cloud-based QuickBooks Online and work through Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Access so you can build spreadsheets, reports and small databases for a finance office. Because the courses overlap with Lakeland’s business diplomas, you can stay a second year to earn the Business Administration diploma with an Accounting Major, then continue towards a degree through Athabasca University.

Graduates of the Accounting Technician certificate work as accounting technicians, bookkeepers, accounts receivable clerks, accounts payable clerks and payroll clerks, either on their own in small and medium-sized businesses or within large companies and public practice firms. It suits careful, numerate people who want a quick route into bookkeeping and the option to keep studying accounting later.