What is a journal entry? This is an entry that shows all the results of a business transaction, taking into account its reflection on the debit and credit, and explains this operation. Accounting posting is the registration of business transactions through the use of two different but economically interrelated accounts in equal amounts.
The accounting transaction should have a description of the debited and credited transaction entry, as well as indicate the numerical characteristics used, for example, cost and quantity. The sequence of a compilation of a journal entry:
- The economic content of the entry is determined;
- It is recognized as related to accounting;
- The debit and credit entry is reflected in the respective accounts.
There can be two types of journal entries. Here are journal entry ideas:
- Simple journal entry – only two accounts of the account are used.
- Complex journal entry – the operation affects more than two accounts.
Journal entry ideas for successful work
Journal entry can be based on carefully verified primary documents; therefore, the registers acquire value when the indicators are used for analyzing the economic activity of the enterprise, monitoring, and recognition of results the management achieved.
It is useful to know how to start a journal entry. Here is a list of requirements for recording journal entries:
- records in journal entries shall be made based on the issued, checked documents.
- each business transaction, confirmed with a document, should be reflected in the journal entry.
How to write a journal entry
You should know how to make a journal entry in Quickbooks. A journal entry example can be found on the internet. There are some requirements for Journal Entry:
- documentaries;
- timeliness;
- shortness;
- accuracy;
- clarity.
The uppers management will surely care about these rules being followed to be confident that bookkeeping is done right. So, it is necessary to know these rules and to follow them.
Journal entry should be kept in the following order:
- if documents do not have a mass character, the record of economic operations is made directly in the logbook;
- for bulk documents, business transactions are grouped in different statements before being recorded in the logbook.
Before recording the journal entries, consolidated documents are subjected to additional accounting processing – according to the markup and content of simple individual documents, a general markup on the consolidated document as a whole is made, which serves as the basis for entries in the journal entries. Now, you know how to write a journal entry.
Methods and techniques of calculations in the Journal Entry, data collection are determined by their content, construction, and establishment of the relationship between them. However, there is a general rule that counting of records is carried out provided that all documents of the reporting period are reflected in the journal entries, and the necessary transfers of amounts from one register to another are made.The sum of the totals is calculated for each column of Journal Entry and recorded in the specially designated rows and columns of registers. One of the tasks of counting the results is to check their correctness. Various methods of verification are based on the system of mutual linkage and mutual control of data of journal entries.