HSAS syllabus: all 9 papers of Part I and Part II explained

Checked 23 September 2026. The paper structure has been stable for years. The rule books it cites have changed (HCSR 2016, Companies Act 2013) — check HIPA’s current syllabus PDF for the edition in force.

Where other pages get this wrong

Half of most SAS papers is compulsory practical work — pay fixation, pay bills, budget forms, final accounts — not rule-quoting.

Commonly published instead: Most syllabus pages list the rule books and stop there, which leaves candidates revising theory for papers where 75 of 150 marks are computation.

The Treasuries & Accounts Department’s criteria for the SAS papers fix a practical-to-theory split of 75 / 75 in every 150-mark paper except Company Law, and 50 / 50 in Book Keeping and Local Rules. In the with-books papers, the theory questions are also capped per book. That structure, more than the book list, decides how you should prepare.

Read this before using any SAS syllabus — including this one

• The question-by-question structure below comes from the Treasuries criteria document posted in November 2020. It is the most detailed official statement of how each paper is set.
• Its rule references are older than the rules now in force. It cites the Punjab CSR volumes, the Revised Pay Rules 2008 and the ACP Rules 2008; the Haryana Civil Services Rules 2016 replaced the Punjab CSR from 19 July 2016, with Revised Pay and ACP Rules of 2016.
• For Company Law it lists the Companies Act 1956. HIPA’s own 2023 SAS-II books list names the Companies Act 2013 and adds two Acts.
• So: trust the structure, and take the current rule book for each topic from HIPA’s syllabus PDF and books-allowed list.

HIPA’s current SAS-I and SAS-II syllabus PDFs are scanned images. We link them in the sources below rather than transcribe a document we could not read in full.

• English: drafting an official letter, circular or D.O. letter (25); active/passive voice, 5 of 6 (10); direct/indirect speech, 5 of 6 (10); administrative terms into Hindi, 10 of 12 (10); punctuation (5); Hindi sentences into English (5).
• Hindi: précis of a roughly 300-word passage into 100 words (25); Hindi administrative terms into English, 10 of 12 (10).

The official criteria call this paper "English & Hindi"; most coaching material calls it Précis & Drafting. Same paper.

• Q1, compulsory: a balance sheet with 6-7 adjustments (30).
• Two of three practical questions (20): bank reconciliation or correction of errors; depreciation account or cost statement; average due date or account current.
• Three of four theory questions (45): trial balance disagreement, errors not disclosed by the trial balance, cash books, subsidiary books and journal, depreciation methods, bill of exchange versus promissory note.
• Definitions of commercial terms, 5 of 7-8 (5).

• Q1, compulsory (30): a pay fixation case under a named rule.
• Three of four practical questions (45): stoppage of increments, qualifying service for increment, subsistence allowance, leave account, joining time, pension and leave salary contribution, pensionary benefits including commutation, DCRG and family pension, and GPF interest.
• Five of six theory questions, 15 each (75): no more than two from any one volume of the rules.

This is the paper most affected by the rules change: every volume it tests now lives in the Haryana Civil Services Rules 2016. See our HCSR 2016 guide for the nine volumes and their official PDFs.

• Q1, compulsory, 4 × 10 (40): a pay bill; classification of charges and deductions with the treasury pay order; annual salary income for TDS; an income tax computation.
• Q2, compulsory (15): eligibility for a loan or advance, or interest on an advance and its classification, or a State-Centre settlement classification.
• Q3, compulsory (20): classify 10 of 12 transactions down to minor head, with at least two each from revenue, capital, loans and suspense, and debt.
• Five of seven theory questions, 15 each (75): drawn from An Introduction to Indian Government Audit & Accounts, the Government Accounting Rules 1990 and PFR Vol I, with no more than three per book.

• Q1, compulsory (20): a cash book — ten entries each side, opening and closing balance, cash verification.
• Q2, compulsory (20): a contractor’s bill, works ledger or contractor’s ledger.
• Q3, compulsory (10): a ten-day T.A. bill.
• Five of seven theory questions, 10 each (50): from the DFR, Account Code Vol III and PWD Code, with at least one from the T.A. rules.

• Q1, compulsory (15): an excess and surrender statement on form BM-32, 15 primary units.
• Q2, compulsory (30): a budget estimate on form BM-2 with up to 10 object codes (20), plus an explanatory memorandum (10).
• Q3, compulsory (30): a reappropriation statement with up to 20 object codes.
• Five of seven theory questions, 15 each (75): three from the Budget Manual, three from the Treasury Rules and STR, and at least one from PFR Vol II (Appendix 6, destruction of records; Appendix 9, stamps).

HIPA’s 2023 books list excludes parts of these books from the exam hall — for example Budget Manual appendices B, C, D, E and K. See the books guide for the full exclusions.

• Six of seven questions, equal marks, one from each Act.
• HIPA’s 2023 list of permitted bare Acts: Companies Act 2013, Indian Contract Act, Payment of Gratuity Act, Payment of Wages Act, Minimum Wages Act, Workmen’s Compensation Act, EPF Act, Maternity Benefit Act 1961 and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016.
• The 2020 criteria list only seven Acts and still name the Companies Act 1956 — the HIPA list is the more recent of the two.

• Q1, compulsory (40): final accounts of a joint stock or government company, at B.Com level.
• Q2, compulsory (15): hire purchase. Q3, compulsory (20): branch or departmental accounts.
• Five of seven theory questions (75): accounting concepts, statements and books, depreciation, sinking and reserve funds, bills and promissory notes, account current and average due date, self-balancing ledgers, manufacturing accounts, the double account system and terminology.

• Q1, compulsory (30): a cash flow statement.
• Q2 (20): a cost sheet, contract, job or batch costing statement. Q3 (15): cost-financial reconciliation or an inventory statement (FIFO/LIFO). Q4 (10): inventory levels and EOQ, economic batch size, depreciation or working capital.
• Five of seven theory questions (75): elements of cost, job and batch costing, financial management, sales budgeting, working capital, arranging finance, inventory control and cash flow.

Three things follow directly from how the papers are set

• The compulsory questions are predictable by type. Every Civil Services Rules paper opens with a pay fixation; every Budget paper with BM-32, BM-2 and a reappropriation statement; every Cost paper with a cash flow statement. Practising these formats is the highest-return work in the syllabus.
• Open-book does not mean easy. The theory questions are capped per book precisely so you cannot rely on one volume. You need to find the rule fast — which is a tabbing and indexing skill, not a memory one.
• The no-book papers are B.Com-level accounting. Book Keeping, Advanced Accountancy and Cost Accounts reward candidates with a commerce background and punish those without one. Plan the order in which you take subjects around that.

These are our conclusions from the official structure, not statements from HIPA.

Practise on ProSyllabus

Past SAS-I and SAS-II papers (with the official solutions HIPA released for the practical papers), plus topic-wise practice quizzes for both parts, are on the Haryana SAS exam page. The first quiz in each topic is free.

Sources

• official — Treasuries & Accounts Dept — Criteria/Guidelines for the paper of SAS Examination Part I & II (posted Nov 2020)
• official — HIPA — SAS Part-1 (Ordinary Branch) syllabus PDF
• official — HIPA — SAS Part-2 (Ordinary Branch) syllabus PDF
• official — HIPA (hipaco.in) — Examination page: syllabus, books allowed, datesheets, roll numbers, past papers
• official — HIPA — Books allowed in SAS-II (OB) 2023 examination
• reported — Finance Dept letter No. 14/30/2021-IFA (16.07.2021), as forwarded by DG Higher Education on 18.08.2021
• official — Finance Dept Haryana — Haryana Civil Services Rules, 2016

official = a Haryana Government or HIPA document. reported = a news or coaching site's transcription, which we could not check against the original. Where sources disagree this page says so rather than picking a winner.

The rest of the Haryana SAS series

• Pass marks, exemption and result calculator — the 45 / 50 / 60 rules
• Previous year question papers — what exists, and which have official solutions
• HSAS 2026 notification — what has been issued, and how to apply
• Eligibility — who can sit SAS, and the direct-recruitment route
• Books list — every rule book, and where to download it free from the government
• Preparation strategy for working employees — with or without coaching
• SAS Related Instructions — the Treasuries circulars page, explained
• Section Officer salary, posting and promotion after SAS
• Haryana Civil Services Rules 2016 — all nine volumes, official PDFs

Every page carries a "checked on" date and stamps each source as official or reported. Spotted something out of date? These pages are rebuilt from one file, so a correction fixes it everywhere at once.