How the problems are made
Each problem is an invented South African business with its sales by month and a list of information, as in the NSC papers, in rand with deficits and overdrafts in brackets. Level 1 is the debtors' collection schedule, level 2 the creditors' payment schedule, level 3 a three-month cash budget, level 4 sorts items into the cash budget and the projected income statement, and level 5 has missing figures and a budget against actual.
Check marks every box. Cells that should stay empty are part of the schedule too, so a figure in the wrong month is marked. The slips the chief markers report each get a hint of their own, and a total that is wrong only because a figure above it is wrong is marked as following your figures.
An example from set CBK7T4
Ngcobo Sports sells 25% for cash, so January's credit sales are R164 000 × 75% = R123 000. Debtors pay 30% in the month of sale less a 3% discount, 45% in the month after and 20% in the month after that. In January it collects R40 800 from November's credit sales (R204 000 × 20%), R128 925 from December's (R286 500 × 45%) and R35 793 from January's (R123 000 × 30% × 97%): R205 518 in all. The other 5% is never collected, so R286 500 × 5% = R14 325 of December's sales is written off in March. Open set CBK7T4
Questions
How do you prepare a debtors' collection schedule?
Work out each month's credit sales, then share them out over the months the debtors pay in. A discount comes off only the share that gets it: if 50% pay in the month of sale less 10% discount, you collect 50% × 90% = 45% of that month's credit sales. Mind the Gap puts it as "50% − 10% is not 40%". Cash sales never go in the schedule.
How do you work out credit purchases from cash sales and a mark-up?
Go back to total sales first, then to cost. In the November 2024 NSC Paper 2, cash sales of R103 200 were 60% of total sales and goods were sold at a 25% mark-up on cost: R103 200 × 100/60 × 100/125 = R137 600. With a base stock, purchases equal cost of sales.
What does not go in a cash budget?
Anything that moves no cash: depreciation, bad debts, discount allowed, discount received and stock taken by the owner. The November 2023 NSC paper put discount received, bad debts and depreciation in a cash budget for candidates to find. They belong in the projected income statement. Loan repayments, drawings and fixed assets bought are payments but not expenses.
How do you calculate loan interest after part of the loan is repaid?
Interest is on what is still owed, for one month. In the November 2024 marking guideline, (R300 000 − R60 000) × 14% × 1/12 = R2 800. The Eastern Cape chief marker's 2024 report names two slips: interest for 12 months instead of one, and interest on the repaid amount only.
How do you find a fixed deposit from its quarterly interest?
Turn three months' interest into a year's, then divide by the rate. In the November 2025 marking guideline, R5 440 × 12/3 × 100/8 = R272 000. The Eastern Cape chief marker's 2025 report says many candidates multiplied by the rate instead.
How do you work back to the salaries before an increase?
Take out anything new first, then divide by 100% plus the increase. In the November 2022 NSC marking guideline, (R55 595 − R14 840) × 100/104,5 = R39 000: the new salary of R14 840 comes off before the 4,5% increase is removed. Taking 4,5% off the new total does not undo the increase.
What is different in a company's cash budget?
The Grade 12 examination guidelines add directors' fees, audit fees, provisional tax, interim and final dividends paid, and shares issued or bought back. Shares and dividends move cash but are not income or expenses, so they stay out of the projected income statement.
Sources, checked 29 October 2026: DBE CAPS Accounting, FET Phase, Grade 12 Accounting Examination Guidelines 2021 and Mind the Gap Grade 12 Accounting (PDFs); NSC Accounting Paper 2 question papers and marking guidelines for November 2022, November 2023, November 2024, May-June 2025 and the November 2025 marking guideline, and the Eastern Cape Grade 11 November 2025 paper and memo, from the Eastern Cape past papers; Eastern Cape chief marker's reports for Accounting Paper 2, 2024 examination and 2025 examination.