Accounting Simulations Your Students Will Remember: An Introduction to the Crunched Education Program
By Colin Parks
“We believe every student's future should contain the knowledge to be more assertive when met with financial tasks.”
As the mission states, the Crunched Education Program helps students achieve financial confidence by providing real-world accounting experiences through guided simulations and cloud accounting technology. With aspiring entrepreneurs on the rise, a main goal of Crunched is to help bridge the gap between what students are learning in the classroom, and the accounting tasks they will face in the real world. While realizing that not every student dreams of pursuing a career in accounting, money management is and always will be a vital part of their lives no matter which vocation they choose.
The Crunched Education Program currently offers Brooke's Books: Intro and Advanced Accounting Simulations. High schools and universities are able to purchase these simulations on a per-student basis and provide their business classes with a real-world accounting journey. Here is just one example of the success instructors are seeing while using Brooke’s Books in the classroom:
“My students were very successful with the simulation. It was user-friendly, and they felt comfortable with directions and working on their own. Every feature in the simulation is vital to my students' lifelong financial skills,” says Debbie who has been using the Crunched Education Program since 2019.
The three major components that makeup Brooke’s Books are as follows:
A hard copy guided workbook for each individual student
Real source financial documents (i.e. Bank statements, deposit slips, Payroll transactions)
100% cloud-based accounting software used to enter transactions, balance checkbooks, and analyze various financial reports.
These three components along with a real-world accounting scenario give students the opportunity to apply their knowledge to small business accounting tasks and objectives.
Now, what do instructors want to see while administering simulations?
1. Well, ease of implementation is a huge factor. Brooke’s Books is a supplemental simulation and is meant to be incorporated into an already established curriculum. Designed to take between 8-14 hours of class time to complete, the simulations are able to easily fit into any teaching style and many schools have utilized them as a midterm, final, or fun capstone project. The 100% cloud-based accounting software can be accessed from any computer connected to the internet. Nothing needs to be downloaded or installed so as long as students have a computer, they will be able to participate in Brooke’s Books simulations from anywhere.
2. Resources. Brooke’s Books comes complete with a full teacher’s edition that contains all answers and teaching points. Within the teacher’s edition, a Welcome Packet is provided with a class roster sheet, grading rubric, and access to the online teacher portal. Also, live support is a must! Within the teacher portal, all necessary resources and documents are included and our live team is always available for questions and support.
3. Student success. Setting them apart, the Crunched Education Program strives for the software to be seen as a tool and not the main learning objective. When students complete Brooke’s Books, they will have a better understanding of real-world accounting tasks and feel confident utilizing a variety of accounting systems. In fact, based on anonymous student feedback surveys, 94% have found success with the program, meaning they have a much better understanding of how accounting works in the real world.
The Crunched Education Program is up and coming and is now working with over 5000 students in more than 100 schools across the country and internationally. Out of 88 teacher ratings, 97% would highly recommend Brooke's Books to other business instructors. The Crunched Education Program looks forward to bringing Brooke’s Books into every school that aims to generate greater student interest in their business education program.
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