INVENTIONS / PRODUCTS : ‘Cheat Sheet’ Helps Accounting Students Keep Records Straight

Even the best and the brightest of accountants can sometimes forget what the profession’s more arcane terms mean. For an accounting student, however, it can be like learning a new language.

A former Cypress College instructor has devised a laminated “cheat sheet” to help frustrated students and fledgling bookkeepers remember all the facts.

Norman Lieberman of Lake Forest said that before the sheet, his students “would have to page through books, looking for the basic answers. They didn’t know how to find them.”

The sheet, called Fast Accounting Answers, is a tool for answering questions such as when to debit or when to credit, and when accruals are reversed.

The sheet places the accounting tips in boxes with accounting categories such as “Common Closing Entries” and “List of Transactions.” The product also features a sample balance sheet, work sheet and income statement.

“It’s a reference guide, not a learning guide,” he said. “It gives you a lot of the meat of accounting, the basics.”

About 1,000 cheat sheets have been sold through the mail and at college and university bookstores in the last year, Lieberman said. But most college instructors probably wouldn’t allow it to be used during a test, so it will have to make do as a study tool, he said.