PERDISCO FREELANCER ACCOUNTING SIMULATION

STUDENT COMPANION & HELPFUL HINTS

STUDENT COMPANION & HELPFUL HINTS

Freelancer Accounting Simulation, AU Edition

This student companion to the Freelancer Accounting Simulation provides you with information about how
the simulation works. It describes what you will experience when you complete your simulation and provides
some helpful hints to get you through. This companion is based on the experiences of, and feedback from, the
thousands of students who have completed our accounting simulations before you.
Taking the time to read and understand the information provided here will enhance your overall experience
and help you avoid the common mistakes that students make when completing the simulation.

This STUDENT COMPANION & HELPFUL HINTS contains the following sections:

1 What is this accounting simulation? .................................................................. 2

2 About the Freelancer Simulation ....................................................................... 3
3 The integrated Learning Centre ......................................................................... 4
4 What you will experience ................................................................................... 5
5 Helpful hints to ensure your success ................................................................. 9
6 Grading guide .................................................................................................. 11
7 Conclusion and how to get support ................................................................. 12

This student companion is not a detailed set of instructions for how to undertake the simulation. It is just a
simple overview of what you will experience. The detailed instructions you need are provided online on every
page of the accounting simulation and you should read and follow those instructions carefully.

1 What is this accounting simulation?

This accounting simulation is a real-world recreation of a single month in the accounting cycle of a small
business that is using the internet and its existing connections to seek freelance work within the gig economy.
This Freelancer Accounting Simulation is an automatically graded accounting activity, that requires you to
complete the accounting cycle of a fictional business using a particular small business accounting software
package that has been chosen by your instructor.
You will use that small business accounting package to create your new business, record transactions,
complete a bank reconciliation, enter adjusting entries, and generate financial reports. To allow your progress
to be monitored, you will be required to answer questions about the accounting cycle and to transcribe your
results from the accounting package into the simulation website on an ongoing basis. Our regular feedback
will help you identify and fix your mistakes as early as possible to prevent those mistakes being carried forward.
By the end of this accounting simulation, you will have obtained experience in using the accounting software
package to implement the accounting cycle and will be able to perform many activities in that software that are
commonly performed by professional bookkeepers and accountants.

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2 About the Freelancer Simulation

2.1 Details of the accounting cycle being tested
The Freelancer accounting simulation is designed for introductory bookkeeping and accounting courses. You
are expected to be familiar with using a web browser and to have studied (or be studying) the accounting cycle
at a level typically associated with a first course in bookkeeping or accounting. You are not required to have
experience using any small business accounting software package. The accounting cycle implemented in the
Freelancer accounting simulation is:

During the process of completing this one-month accounting cycle, you will:
• create a company from scratch in the small business accounting software of your choice
• become familiar with the screens and functionality of that software
• work with a business that is set up as a sole trader
• accept an opening Owner’s Contribution and, in due course, pay Owner’s Drawings
• receive a small business loan and pay interest on that loan
• purchase an asset and depreciate that asset
• apply the accrual basis of accounting
• record one month of cash and credit sales, and cash and credit expenses
• create bank deposits for the cash and cheques collected from customers
• manage simplified inventory where goods are purchased and immediately onsold without holding them in inventory
• complete a bank reconciliation with deposits in transit, unpresented cheques, bank interest and bank fees
• make end of month adjusting entries
• prepare financial statements and analyse those statements.

2.2 Sole traders and Equity accounts

The business structure used in this Freelancer simulation is a sole trader. Traditionally, many financial
accounting textbooks and introductory bookkeeping and accounting classes teach students that the equity
structure of a sole trader involves only a single Owner’s Equity account. If that is the case with your class, then
it is worth noting that most small business accounting software packages take a different view that typically
includes three accounts – being Owner’s Contributions, Owner’s Drawings and Retained Earnings. It follows
that the Freelancer accounting simulation also uses these three accounts because its primary aim is to teach
you the default functionality of small business accounting software packages.

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2.3 Why is this accounting simulation online?

Delivering this computerised accounting simulation online allows:
• our AutoGrade functionality to score your attempts automatically
• our VirtualTutor functionality to provide you with real-time feedback
• our Back-On-Track functionality to prevent you from carrying forward mistakes, and
• our InfiniteAlgorithm functionality to deliver a different version of the simulation to every student.

3 The integrated Learning Centre

The integrated Learning Centre is specifically designed to help you learn how to complete the accounting cycle
in the small business accounting software that your instructor has selected. It is an optional additional feature
of the accounting simulation that your instructor may have selected for you to use. If it has been made available
to you, then you can access our extensive learning resources at any time to learn the software at your own
pace. Video tutorials, screen illustrations and detailed step-by-step instructions explain key software features
so that you do not feel overwhelmed if you have never used an accounting software package before.

Perdisco’s authors and instructional team have specially designed the Learning Centre as a fully integrated
learning resource built directly into the Freelancer simulation. This means you will be able to access the
Learning Centre from within your accounting simulation as and when you require the support that it affords.
Further, since the same authoring team (of academic, instructional, editorial, and IT experts) worked together
to create the accounting simulation, the grading algorithms and the Learning Centre, the instructional design
of the unified resources extends deeply into every aspect of their coordinated operations.

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4 What you will experience

4.1 Division of the accounting simulation into sections
Unlike a traditional paper practice set in a printed book that students historically submitted as a single unit of
work, the Freelancer accounting simulation is divided into many sections that are submitted to our website as
separate units of work. Each of the sections provides activities that you must perform in the accounting
software and contains reports and/or questions to verify that those activities have been understood and
performed correctly. This structure allows our AutoGrade and Back-on-Track functionality to operate.
As each section is submitted, Perdisco’s AutoGrade functionality determines your score and our VirtualTutor
technology provides feedback on your attempt to date. If errors are made, you will be prompted to correct
those errors to ensure the mistakes are not carried throughout your entire simulation. Of course, our Back-on-
Track functionality does not change the score you have achieved so far. But it does ensure that an early
mistake is simply a learning experience that does not continue to unduly lower your overall score:

4.2 Introduction to the company and its accounting policies

You will commence your accounting simulation with some initial exercises that are not scored but that introduce
how the accounting simulation works. The company is then presented (the company in the following illustration
is ‘Dependable Deliveries’), along with its industry and its accounting policies and procedures. Here is an
example of the accounting policies and procedures that you are asked to read and implement during your
recording of transactions:

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PERDISCO FREELANCER ACCOUNTING SIMULATION
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4.3 Creating the new company

You will then login to the accounting software package that your instructor has selected and create your new
company from scratch. The fictional business assigned to you has only just commenced and has no financial
history. The business is also designed to be compatible with the default chart of accounts offered by most
accounting packages. These two facts will simplify your set-up process by ensuring that the company has no
opening balances and that you will only have to make a minimum number of edits to the initial chart of accounts.
You will also set up your suppliers and customers ready to begin transacting with those entities.
Some accounting software packages will allow your instructor to login remotely to view your work. It follows
that, to distinguish your company file from the many others your instructor may be able to view, you will be
required to put your own name and attempt number after the company’s name. For example, if your name was
“Chris Smith” and this was your first attempt at a company called “Dependable Deliveries”, then your full
company name would be “Dependable Deliveries Attempt 1 (Chris Smith)".
Sometimes your instructor might prefer that you use your Student ID in the company title rather than your
name. If this is the case, the accounting simulation instructions will clearly state so. As is the case for all tasks
in the simulation, simply read and follow the instructions on screen.

4.4 Rebuilding a lost company

What happens if you are unable to retrieve your login credentials to the accounting software or if some other
limitation of that accounting software, or action taken by you, prevents you from accessing the work you have
completed to date? Do not worry. Fortunately, all accounting simulation pages are designed to ensure that you
can recreate all of the work you have completed from the very beginning of your accounting simulation. You
can, and will be expected to, recover from a software disaster using the existing information on your current
accounting simulation page. For example, if you have lost all access to your existing software, you could open
a new account with the same software provider and reenter all of the work you had completed so far without
needing to start a whole new simulation activity. This approach ensures that your score to date is intact and
that the integrity of the overall assessment cannot be compromised.

4.5 Recording the month of transactions

You will be taken through a number of initial transactions each in separate sections of the practice set. This
will help you practice and learn how to use the accounting software if you are not yet familiar with it. If your
instructor has chosen to include the integrated Learning Centre, then it will be there to help you. After
completing the initial transactions, you will be provided with longer transaction lists for both the mid-month and
late month periods and asked to record those transactions into the accounting software package. After
recording your transactions, you will be instructed to generate a trial balance using the accounting package
and input your results into our simulation website for grading and feedback. Here are some sample transactions
but please understand that the actual transactions for each student, the items involved, the dates, suppliers,
customers and amounts are all changed by our InfiniteAlgorithm functionality:

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4.6 Tracking progress

This accounting simulation is a large activity with most
students expected to take up to 10 study hours to
complete it over multiple days or weeks. The accounting
simulation will remind you of this early and often. You should
not expect to complete the accounting simulation the night
before it is due – it may take longer than you think to finish.
The progress “puzzle map” on the right provides a visual
image showing you what you have done (the outlined
completed pieces), where you are right now (the highlighted
active piece), and what still remains to be completed (the
light puzzle background with its directional arrow).
Below the puzzle map, you are shown the percentage of your
accounting simulation you have completed so far based on
the estimated study hours for each section. You are also told
how many study hours the current section might take, and
how many study hours are likely to remain before the
accounting simulation is fully completed.
You also receive information on your progressive score. You
are made aware of the points available on each page as well
as the points you have earned from prior pages so you know
how well you have performed so far. You are also advised of
the points remaining to be earned on following pages so you
can realise the opportunity that remains to improve your final
score!
Please refer to the grading guide section of this document
for more detail on how our AutoGrade functionality operates
and an explanation as to how points are allocated to different
sections of the accounting simulation.
Note that you can only move in a forward direction. Once a
page is submitted, it is not possible to return to that page (or
to change the answers submitted on that page). It is,
however, possible to bookmark the current page (prior to
submitting it) and to return to that page at a later date. This
allows you to complete your accounting simulation over
multiple sittings.

4.7 Information from previous pages

Every page of the accounting simulation provides links to all
of the information required to complete the current page as
well as all of the information from previous pages. This
includes the background information on the company and its
accounting policies, how to set up the software from the very
beginning, the transactions to be recorded, and so on.
While you cannot literally go backwards to previous pages,
all of the information on those pages is always available.

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4.8 Varied interactive activities

In addition to engaging with the accounting software that your instructor
has chosen for you, the accounting simulation will also engage you with
many and varied different interactive activities to guide you through the
process, test your knowledge and receive your answers.
In completing the accounting simulation, you will write emails to your virtual
mentor, receive and respond to texts from your virtual mentor, set out a trial
balance, write a slide pack presentation, reconcile your bank statement,
and assemble your financial statements.

4.9 End of month tasks

At the end of the month, you will complete a bank reconciliation, enter adjusting entries and use your
accounting software to generate a Profit and Loss statement and a Balance Sheet. The balance sheet is
pictured below with the chart of accounts shown as a pop-up over the top. You will use the output of your
accounting software to construct the financial statements on our accounting simulation website:

4.10 Keeping a permanent record of reports

At the end of your simulation, you will be asked to keep a permanent copy of your work. Please refer to your
course outline to find out whether you are required to perform other tasks at the end of your simulation.

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5 Helpful hints to ensure your success

5.1 Our main advice
Almost all concerns and misunderstandings would never arise if all students applied one piece of advice:
“Please read and follow all instructions provided!” Almost without fail, every student query that reaches
our support team is because that student has not read the instructions we provided to them.
The simulation has been carefully designed so that all the information you require is on the page when you
need it. If you read and follow our instructions you will significantly increase your chance of performing well.
We have thousands of students across the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia regularly completing the
various titles in our catalog. Our design approach coupled with ongoing feedback from so many students,
means we can assure you that all of the information and instructions that you need really do already exist. If
you do not understand an instruction or if you find the information provided to be ambiguous, our experience
shows us that it is likely your own academic preparation is incomplete and you should review your course, or
your textbook and/or any other study materials before proceeding.
We try to help you to help yourself by asking you to read some simple instructions, all of which are designed
to help you succeed – we even ask you to agree that you have read them:

Despite this, many students choose not to read the instructions. Please do not let this be you! As a result, the
biggest hint to ensure your success is:

“Please take the time to read all of the instructions, seek

to understand each one and then apply it when
completing your simulation.”

5.2 Ensure you allow yourself enough time

This is one of the most common hints for any and all of your study activities at
university, college and school. Don’t leave it to the last minute!
The accounting simulation is a large activity that is expected to take up to
10 study hours to complete over multiple days or weeks. Pace yourself. Do
not expect to complete the simulation the night before it is due – it may take you
longer than you think to finish it. Note that the later pages require you to enter
many transactions so you should allocate enough time to complete them
accurately. Each section of the simulation suggests how many study hours may
be needed to complete that section but, subject to any due date set by your
instructor, you should proceed through the simulation at your own pace.

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5.3 Read and apply the exact policies and procedures provided
While some aspects of accounting are governed by principles and standards, there remain many different
ways of undertaking the day-to-day accounting activities that comprise the accounting cycle. This includes
different policies for recognising revenue and expenses, recording transactions and so on.
In the accounting simulation, you are the owner and accountant for a specific
company and you are required to apply the policies and procedures that you
have been given for that particular company. It is likely you will refer to your
textbook or to your prior experience to guide you as to how to enter information in
the simulation. When you do this, note that the accounting policies and procedures
for the company you are allocated are likely to differ from those in your textbook
and from those of other companies you may have worked in. Be careful that any
examples you review, or memories you call on, are appropriate for the simulation.
If you apply an accounting policy that is different from the one you were instructed to use (even if your approach
is reasonable or valid in some other context), you will be graded as incorrect.

5.4 Being accurate will earn you points

Like any accounting activity, the simulation requires you to manipulate numbers with precision. Unfortunately,
incorrect dates, transposition errors, transcription errors and calculation errors are common mistakes that
students make in their simulation. These errors will be treated as incorrect and points will not be scored. This
is reasonable for an activity (and a profession!) that demands accuracy.
To ensure you don’t miss out on points, check and double check all of your work before you submit it.

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6 Grading guide
6.1 You will be graded out of more than one hundred points
The simulation assigns 430 points in its grading scheme and achieves a very fine grained control over
grading outcomes. As a result, there is no need to become concerned about a minor mistake you may make
such as a wrong total because the depth of our AutoGrade algorithms ensure that your final grade will be a
genuine indication of the overall trend of your performance in the simulation as a whole. It is unlikely that your
score will be materially impacted by just a single mistake.
The study times shown in the points table are only approximate and may not reflect your own study experience.
They are estimates of the maximum time likely to be required and are designed to give guidance as to the
relative size (in terms of study hours) of each section to help you manage your study. Stronger students will
complete the simulation in less time and all students are at liberty to spend longer on each section – the times
are not set limits. The only time limit is the submission deadline set by your instructor and, subject to that
deadline, please take as much or as little time as you need.

Section names Study time Points

Welcome, instructions and sample exercises 50 min 0
Accounting policies and procedures 20 min 0
Accounting software setup 50 min 26
Chart of accounts 35 min 26
Critical advice 5 min 0
Initial capital 30 min 20
First outlays 45 min 30
First revenues 30 min 20
Mid-month transactions and first deposit 1 hrs 20 min 62
Late month transactions and second deposit 1 hrs 10 min 64
Paying yourself 10 min 10
Bank reconciliation 50 min 62
Adjusting entries 40 min 43
Reports 40 min 67
Record keeping and finish 15 min 0
TOTAL 9 hrs 30 min 430*

* At the end of your simulation, you will be asked to keep a permanent record of your reports. Your instructor may, or may not, request
you to submit some of this material at the end of your activity. Please refer to your own course outline for guidance.

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6.2 Points are not deducted for incorrect answers

If you are not correct, our AutoGrade algorithms will award no points for your response. Incorrect answers
never result in points being deducted from that student’s aggregate score.

Implication: A red cross shown against a response indicates that the response is not correct and that no
points have been awarded for that response. However, such a red cross never means that points have been
deducted from your score.

6.3 Not every check mark or cross is equal

Not every check mark or cross is of an equal value. Instead, points are weighted to reflect:
• the academic difficulty of the concept (or transaction) being tested
• the relative difficulty (or importance) of the concept compared to other concepts and transactions
• the extent to which we have provided guidance on the concept in the Learning Centre
• whether this is the first or a subsequent instance of this particular concept or transaction
• the amount of study time and effort required to perform any calculations or consequential totals, and
• the dependence of that response on any prior responses (to reduce the impact of follow-on errors).
The point penalty associated with follow on errors is minimised. For the most part, our VirtualTutor functionality
provides feedback on the outcomes that you should get if the given tasks are performed correctly. If you make
mistakes, our back-on-track functionality will prompt you to fix those errors as soon as possible to avoid those
mistakes being carried throughout the rest of the simulation.

7 Conclusion and how to get support

Good luck with the completion of your accounting simulation.
If you encounter technical difficulties with the simulation, our customer support team is available to help you
with computer related issues. We respond to all emails within one business day and often much sooner.
Email us at support@perdisco.com
Please understand that our customer support team members are not accounting instructors and cannot help
you with academic queries. If you have any questions that are of an academic nature, you will need to see
your instructor. Our customer support team is also unable to provide time extensions or additional attempts at
the simulation – such special considerations can only be granted by your instructor.
Of course, please be aware that the accounting package your instructor has asked you to use with our
simulation is third-party software written by a company not associated with Perdisco in any way. Other than
the guidance built into our Learning Centre, Perdisco cannot provide installation or technical support for that
software. Should you need customer support or technical assistance that goes beyond the help in our Learning
Centre, then that support may be able to obtained from the manufacturer of the accounting software.
Best wishes for all of your studies this semester from the team at Perdisco.

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