Free Accounting for Kids - Achieve your Goals and Learn how to Manage your Money

Good money management is the starting point for a lasting investment for your financial well-being. That is why it is important to acquire this skill at a young age. In order to save money and have more resources in the future, you will learn to plan how you will spend your money, trying to correct the wrong habits and avoiding unnecessary expenses. 

Banana will guide you in this new learning through simple steps.

The addressees of this model and its benefits

• Parents and teachers: Money management is a skill that is often not taught at school but can be very useful in children's lives. Banana becomes an excellent tool for parents and teachers who want to guide the new generations in managing their pocket money or their first earnings. The aim is to raise young people's awareness of money and make them conscious and responsible for their expenses. In this way, young people will be able to self-discipline and become independent in managing small income, money received as a gift or the salaries of the first summer jobs.

• Kids are the main recipients of this model. They can easily keep track of their income and expenses without having to constantly ask their parents for more money. Learning the art of saving has never been so easy with Banana Accounting: thanks to the Budget function you can plan your expenses, such as a holiday with friends, and make sure in advance that your savings are enough to achieve your goals.

Increase your digital skills

Digital skills help to master new technologies in a conscious way.

Besides learning the basics of accounting and thus managing one's money, Banana Accounting will enable you to increase your digital skills. You will learn how to use a new software, to work with documents and digital links, saving paper and time. You will be able to transfer these skills into various areas of your life, for example work and private life.

How to use Banana Accounting

• Open the template with Banana Accounting's WebApp
• Using the File → File properties command, set the period, family name, and base currency (you can budget and do accounting in any desired currency). 
• Using the File → Save As command, save the file. It's helpful to indicate the family name and the year in the file name. For example, "Giuseppe-Rossi-20xx.ac2". 

ATTENTION: If you close the browser without saving, you will lose your file. Always save the file to your computer.

To reopen the saved file, click on File > Open.

Basic functions: How to use Banana Accounting in a few simple steps

Cash

The cash register shows your current balance, which indicates how much money you have at the moment. This will allow you to check your financial availability at any time. 

To start managing your money, the first thing to do is to open your Cash Account. Then click on the Accounts table and the "Cash" item will appear. In the Description column you can add your personal notes. Then click on Opening and enter your balance.  

Categories

To the right of the table Accounts you will find the Categories Table. In this section there are both income and expenses, i.e. the money you receive or earn and the money you spend. Categories are included for both income and expenses and are useful to immediately recognize the nature of your movements. On the template that you can download on this page by clicking on download template, we have inserted some entries that will guide you. For example, in the income we have: Pocket Money, Family/Gifts and the income from the summer job, while for the expenses some examples are: Food, Clothing, Going Out, etc. ...

You can also change the categories and their descriptions as you like or add others simply by inserting some lines.

Transactions

The transactions are simply registrations of your earnings and outgoings. To make the transactions, click on the Transactions table. Now enter the date, description, e.g. "Pizza with friends", and enter how much money you spent in the Expenses column. Do the same with the income but put the amount in the Income column. Then enter the category and, typing only the first few letters, the program will display a list of suggestions (autocompletion) with the words you had previously entered.

At this point the program will do everything for you. You can go back to the Accounts table to check your updated balance, or go to the Categories table and check your income and outgoings in the various categories.

Final Check

If you want to be sure you haven't made any mistakes, Banana Accounting helps you with a very useful check function. It reports errors and shows you the lines where exactly they are located (for example if you forgot to record a category or an amount). 

To check your accounting, go to the menu Actions > Check accounting.

In a nutshell: Why Banana? 

• Free downloadable without installation
• Quick and easy
• Planning to set goals
• Learn the art of saving and become an entrepreneur

References

Peachery, Kevin. How much pocket money should we give our kids? (bbcnews.com, 2019)

Raisiningchildren. Pocket money. (Raisingchildren.net.au, 2018)

Ubs. Why pocket money is important for your child. (ubs.com)