The Accounting Residency
Close the books. Three times. For real.
Work as the staff accountant of a simulated manufacturing company — inside real accounting software, with real workpapers, and the messy data real jobs are made of.
Enroll — $350 →The experience paradox
Every entry-level accounting posting asks for experience. Internships — the traditional way to get it — are competitive, frequently unpaid, and tied to whatever employers happen to be near your campus. If you're a career changer, they're often not available to you at all.
The credential that unlocks your first job is the one thing your first job was supposed to give you.
Hiring managers aren't looking for a line on a resume. They're looking for evidence you can close a month — not just post a transaction; that you've worked in an actual accounting system; and that you know what to do when the data doesn't match. The Residency exists to produce exactly that evidence.
Break the loop — Enroll →You are the staff accountant
You're placed as the staff accountant of Lakeshore Precision Components, Inc. — an 18-employee make-to-order manufacturer with customers who buy on terms, vendors on payment cycles, two bank accounts, payroll, and a chart of accounts you finish standing up yourself. Over three complete monthly closes — January, February, March — you do the whole job: invoices, receipts, bills, payments, payroll entries, and bank reconciliations to the penny, every month.
Real software
Wave Accounting — a real cloud accounting system, not a classroom mock-up. You configure the chart of accounts, enter every transaction from its source document, and learn the system the way a first week on the job actually goes.
Real workpapers
A structured Excel Close Package for each month — your tie-out workbook, the way a close checklist and workpapers work at a real company. Trial balance paste, AR/AP tie-outs, both bank reconciliations, and a close memo.
Real problems
Six anomalies are planted the way they occur in real operations: an unrecorded bank fee, a customer short-pay, a duplicate vendor invoice, a bounced check, a transposed number, a voided-and-reissued check. Finding and resolving them is the job.
Self-verified
Each month ships with an Answer Key — the expected trial balance, agings, reconciliation results, and a written explanation of every anomaly's correct resolution. You do the work, run your own tie-outs, then check yourself. No waiting on a grader.
What you'll learn
Set up a chart of accounts from a partial conversion — rename, archive, and create accounts without breaking the data already loaded, and learn the crosswalk between a company's numbering and the software's fixed system accounts.
Run the full monthly cycle — customer invoicing from shipment packets, applying payments (including one payment across multiple invoices), vendor bills and check runs, payroll journal entries from provider reports, loan payments split between principal and interest.
Reconcile bank accounts to the penny — bridge the statement to your books with deposits in transit and outstanding checks, isolate statement-only items, and drive the difference to 0.00 — six bank-account-months in total.
Work messy data like a professional — spot the short-pay, catch the duplicate before entry, work an NSF check through re-payment, hunt a transposition by the divisible-by-9 signature, and net a void/reissue correctly.
Close and defend a quarter — produce monthly statements that tie end to end, and walk the quarter's story the way you would in a close review or an interview: "I closed three months for a manufacturer in Wave, with full tie-out workpapers."
How it works
Enrollment to quarter-close, as a pipeline. Each month is less scripted than the last — January walks you through, February guides you, March is yours.
What you need
A computer with Microsoft Excel (the Close Package workbooks are Excel files) · an internet connection (Wave is cloud-based; your student account is provided) · introductory accounting knowledge — debits and credits (the program teaches the job, not the definitions) · roughly 12 weeks of self-paced material; go faster or slower as life allows. No prior accounting software experience required.
Who it's for
Accounting students
Walk into your first interview with close experience instead of coursework.
Recent graduates
Compete with the candidates who landed the internships — on substance.
Career changers
A credible, concrete answer to "what accounting work have you actually done?"
Bookkeepers stepping up
You can post transactions all day. This teaches you to own the close.
Using the Residency for a school-sponsored internship
If you complete the Residency and your school offers internship or practicum credit through sponsored work experiences, Mayalena Financial is glad to support you: for students who complete the full program, we will review your work and complete the host-site or supervisor sign-off paperwork your school requires.
Every school defines eligible host sites and experiences differently. It is your responsibility to confirm with your program advisor — before enrolling — that Mayalena Financial and a remote, simulated work experience can qualify under your school's requirements. Mayalena Financial cannot guarantee that any school will accept the Residency for credit, and completing the program does not constitute employment with Mayalena Financial.
What's included
Your own Wave company, pre-loaded with opening balances, customers, vendors, and products
The Program Narrative — your week-by-week work assignment
The LPC Wave App Manual — click-by-click reference
Three monthly Close Package workbooks
A full set of source documents — shipment packets, vendor invoices, remittances, bank statements, payroll reports
Three Answer Keys with written resolutions for every anomaly
Questions
Is this a video course?
No. There is nothing to watch. You are handed source documents, a company, and a job — and you do the work, checking yourself against the answer keys.
Do I need to buy Wave or Excel?
Your Wave student company is provided as part of the program on Wave's free plan. You supply your own copy of Microsoft Excel for the Close Package workbooks.
How long do I have access?
The program files are yours to keep, and your Wave company remains available for the duration of your work through the program. There is no expiring subscription.
$350. One purchase. Three closes. Experience you can defend in detail.
Enroll — $350 →