Bookkeeping Reset for a Lisbon Specialty Coffee Roaster
Overview
What this challenge is about.
Post journal entries from a CSV, adjust trial balances, and build financial statements for a Lisbon coffee roaster. End with a verifiable certificate.
The scenario
Café Atlântico is a two-location specialty coffee roaster in Lisbon whose revenue mixes café sales, wholesale beans, and bagged retail coffee, set against supplier invoices, rent on two premises, payroll, and a financed roasting machine. Small Portuguese hospitality businesses like it routinely seek bank financing while still keeping records informally, so a credible first set of books is the gating step to a loan.
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
How can the founder convert one quarter of disorganised transaction records into a reliable, internally consistent, bank-ready set of financial statements?
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Translate raw, mixed business transactions into correct double-entry journal entries.
- Post entries to a general ledger and assemble a trial balance that proves debits equal credits.
- Compute and apply standard period-end adjustments for depreciation, prepaid expense, and accrued wages.
- Prepare a coherent income statement and balance sheet that reconcile to the adjusted trial balance.
- Document classification choices and assumptions so an external reviewer can audit the work.
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Aligned coursework coming soon.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- Double Entry Bookkeeping
Apply double entry bookkeeping to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Journal Entries
Apply journal entries to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Trial Balance
Apply trial balance to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Financial Statement Preparation
Apply financial statement preparation to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Excel
Use advanced formulas, pivot tables, and macros for business analysis and reporting.
Careers
Career paths this challenge builds toward
Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles:
Junior Bookkeeper
This challenge mirrors a bookkeeper's core daily loop: turning messy source documents into balanced journals, ledgers, and a trial balance. Completing it shows you can own the full accounting cycle for a small business without supervision.
This challenge sharpens
- double-entry-bookkeeping
- journal-entries
- trial-balance
Accounting Assistant
Accounting assistants prepare period-end records and draft statements for review by a senior accountant. Producing a quarter's income statement and balance sheet that tie out demonstrates exactly the support work these roles depend on.
This challenge sharpens
- journal-entries
- trial-balance
- financial-statement-preparation
Small Business Finance Analyst
Finance analysts at small firms must read and rebuild informal records into statements stakeholders can trust. This loan-readiness exercise bridges directly into producing the structured, traceable financials that lenders and owners rely on.
This challenge sharpens
- financial-statement-preparation
- double-entry-bookkeeping
- excel