If I were you I'd install the package gnucash and read their Tutorial and
Concepts Guide here http://gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?doc=guide . Then set up
a set of accounts to organise your personal finances and run them for a bit
just to get familiarity with the basics of double entry accounting.
See the guide's section on migration for discussion of the main proprietary
file format for small business accounts.
AIUI these basics are the same the world over. However, when you consider
that accounting also involves knowing what are the legal accounting practices
in a given country and what is the best legal way of paying less tax there
you'll see that a typical working accountant for an SME has large body of
knowledge specific to the country they're in. However, multinationals etc.
have accountants whose job it is to extract every last cent out of
international money arrangements.
