Accounting concepts

What students must be able to do

• Explain and recognise: business entity, consistency, duality, going concern, historic cost, matching or accruals, materiality, money measurement, prudence and realisation.

Official wording: Cambridge IGCSE Accounting 0452: syllabus for 2027-2029 (Version 1), page 19; Cambridge IGCSE Accounting 0452: syllabus for examination in 2026 (Version 2, December 2025), page 18. See all sources.

How our teachers teach it

Ten concepts sound like a memory task, but each one is just the reason behind a treatment students already use. Inventory at the lower of cost and net realisable value is prudence. The same depreciation method every year is consistency. The owner's car is not an asset of the business because of business entity. Our teachers pair each concept with the treatment it explains.

If any of these slips sound familiar, we can help. A teacher can mark your child's answers on accounting concepts line by line and show where the marks go. Book a trial class.

How the wording changed for 2027

Titled accounting principles in 2026 and accounting concepts in 2027-2029. The ten items listed are the same; matching is written matching or accruals in 2027-2029.

Where it is examined

Accounting concepts can appear in either paper, as a short question or as part of a longer task. Cambridge bases both papers on the whole syllabus. See the guides to Paper 1 and Paper 2 for the format.

Sources: Cambridge IGCSE Accounting 0452: syllabus for 2027-2029 (Version 1), pages 9, 22. See all sources.

Practise it

• Key terms: Business entity concept, Going concern, Prudence concept, Matching concept, Materiality concept, Consistency concept, Duality concept, Realisation concept, Money measurement concept, Historical cost concept
• One-to-one Cambridge 0452 tuition

Other sub-topics in topic 7

• 7.2 Ethical considerations
• 7.3 Technology and sustainability