← Erudite Africa Center of ExcellenceFinancial ManagementSME Financial Management ProgramBeginner · Certificate
Financial Management for SMEs: Financial Literacy for SMEs
Set up your business finances, keep clean books and run a simple Excel bookkeeping system you can trust
Register and set up your business finances the right way, learn the basics of money flow and bookkeeping, then build and use a complete Excel bookkeeping workbook for one month at Bereket Printing and Stationery PLC: daily sales, income and expense trackers, cash, bank and petty cash, and a monthly review.
0 of 6 modules completed
What you will be able to do
- Choose a business form under the Commercial Code No. 1243/2021, and complete registration, licensing, TIN, VAT registration and a business bank account in the right order
- Keep business and personal money apart and set simple financial governance rules: who approves, who pays, who records and who checks
- Explain money flow, revenue, costs, expenses and profit, and why cash in the bank is not the same as profit
- Use source documents, receipts, vouchers and a chart of accounts, and keep records as Ethiopian tax law requires
- Build a complete Excel bookkeeping workbook with data validation, SUM, SUMIFS, VLOOKUP and running balances
- Record daily cash receipts, cash payments, bank transactions and petty cash, reconcile the bank, and run a monthly review of sales, expenses and cash
- For
- Owners and managers of micro and small businesses, startups, cooperatives and NGO projects in Ethiopia, and the bookkeepers, cashiers and finance or admin staff who keep their records. No accounting background needed; basic Excel (typing, copying, simple sums) is enough.
- Study time
- About 7 hours online, in 6 modules (4 days in the classroom version)
- Each module
- Short lessons, animated visuals, Ethiopian examples, decisions to make, the laws and directives that apply and worked calculations, then a quiz
- Assessment
- A 20-question final exam; pass mark 70%
- Certificate
- Erudite Africa Center of Excellence Certificate
- Access
- Module 1 free for registered users; the full course, exam and certificate for subscribers
The 6 modules
- Module 01Free previewSetting Up a Business Financial SystemChoose the right business form, register and license it, get a TIN and VAT registration, open a business bank account, and set the basic money rules before the first sale.7 lessons · 65 min · quiz
- Module 02Introduction to Financial ManagementUnderstand how money flows through a small business, the difference between revenue, costs, expenses and profit, why cash is not profit, and what owners are responsible for.6 lessons · 60 min · quiz
- Module 03Basic Bookkeeping PrinciplesLearn the bookkeeping cycle, the source documents and vouchers behind every entry, how to build a chart of accounts, and how long and how well Ethiopian law expects you to keep records.6 lessons · 60 min · quiz
- Module 04Building a Simple Excel Accounting SystemBuild the nine-sheet bookkeeping workbook step by step: worksheets and layout, a chart of accounts with data validation, the income tracker and the expense tracker, and SUMIFS summaries.6 lessons · 70 min · quiz
- Module 05Daily Financial Data EntryRecord a full day of money: counter sales and the cash count, cash payments, bank deposits and transfers, petty cash, and the month-end bank reconciliation.6 lessons · 70 min · quiz
- Module 06Monitoring Your Business PerformanceUse the workbook to read daily sales, monitor expenses against budget, track the cash balance week by week, keep on top of amounts owed and run a monthly review that leads to decisions.6 lessons · 65 min · quiz
- Workplace simulationA month as bookkeeper at Bereket Printing and Stationery PLCWork as bookkeeper: 11 real-life items, decisions with consequences and a hand-over note. Pass with 70% to qualify for the certificate.
- Final examFinal exam and certificate20 applied questions across all 6 modules. Pass with 70% to download your certificate.
Practical exercise
My first month's bookkeeping workbook
Using the SME bookkeeping workbook, build a complete set of records for one month: either Bereket Printing and Stationery PLC's first month (Hidar 2019) from the course's sample documents, or your own business or project's latest month. Set up the chart of accounts and drop-down lists, enter every day's sales and every payment, keep the cash book, bank book and petty cash book, reconcile the bank, and finish with a monthly summary in which every control check shows 0 and a one-page review with your decisions.
- 1Download sme-bookkeeping-workbook.xlsx, read the Instructions sheet and enter your business details, the month's start and end dates on Summary, and your own chart of accounts (or keep Bereket's 28 accounts)
- 2Set up the drop-down lists and date rules with Data Validation, and check one row of each formula by hand (for example the VAT on ETB 5,980 is ETB 780)
- 3For each trading day, complete one DailySales row after the cash count, the two counter sales rows in Income, and the cash and transfer lines in CashBook and BankBook
- 4Enter every payment in Expenses from its document and in CashBook, BankBook or PettyCash, and clear every message in the Check column
- 5At month end count the cash box and petty cash, record bank charges, enter the statement balance and timing items on BankBook, and enter the payroll figures on Summary
- 6Make sure all six control checks show 0, then complete the budget, cash position and amounts owed, and write a one-page monthly review with two or three decisions
What you hand in
- The completed workbook for the month, with every control check on the Summary sheet at 0
- A signed bank reconciliation and petty cash count for the last day of the month
- A one-page monthly review: sales, profit estimate, budget variances, cash position, amounts owed with due dates, and two or three decisions with owners and dates
Templates and tools
- SME bookkeeping workbook
A ready-to-use, nine-sheet workbook with a chart of accounts, daily sales report, income tracker, expense tracker, cash book, bank book and reconciliation, petty cash book and a monthly summary with budget, weekly cash position, amounts owed and control checks, filled with Bereket's Hidar 2019 sample month.
How to earn the Certificate
- Complete all six modules and their quizzes
- Pass the workplace simulation with 70% or more
- Pass the 20-question final exam with 70% or more
- Blended and classroom cohorts: submit the practical exercise, assessed by an Erudite facilitator against the deliverables above
- Classroom delivery: attend all four training days in full
Built on
- Erudite Africa training curriculum: Financial Management for SMEs, Level 1 Beginner, Financial Literacy for SMEs (October 2026)
- Commercial Code Proclamation No. 1243/2021; Commercial Registration and Business Licensing Proclamation No. 980/2016 as amended by No. 1150/2019, and Regulation No. 392/2016 as amended by No. 461/2020
- Income Tax Proclamation No. 979/2016 as amended by No. 1395/2025; Federal Tax Administration Proclamation No. 983/2016 as amended by No. 1434/2026
- VAT Proclamation No. 1341/2024; VAT Registration Directive No. 1104/2025; Electronic Invoicing System Administration Directive No. 1142/2026; Council of Ministers Regulation No. 139/2007 on sales register machines
- Financial Reporting Proclamation No. 847/2014; Private Organization Employees' Pension Proclamation No. 1268/2022
- Investopia's verified Ethiopian tax and business law fact sheet (October 2026), based on the laws above and summaries by PwC, KPMG, EY, Grant Thornton, the IFRS Foundation and Ethiopian law firms
Examples and companies are fictional. Tax rates and rules are shown as they stood when the course was written; always check the current proclamations, directives and guidance from the Ministry of Revenues before filing, and take professional advice for your own case.