Real Life Online Seminars. HEART of Accounting. The. John W. Day, MBA. A 4-hour course for non-accountants!

Transcription

1 Real Life Online Seminars The HEART of Accounting TM A 4-hour course for non-accountants! John W. Day, MBA

2 Real Life Online Sem i nars Pres ents The HEART of Account ing A 4-Hour Step-By-Step Course That Teaches How to Pre pare Finan cial State ments Using the Double-Entry Method of Account ing Includ ing a Bonus Sec tion of 100 Prac tice Gen eral Jour nal Entries Related to Sole Pro pri etor ships, Part ner ships, Cor po ra tions, and Non-Profit Orga ni za tions Writ ten by John W. Day, MBA Author of Real Life Account ing for Non-Accoun tants A 20-hour online course in account ing basics.

3 The HEART of Account ing First Edi tion Copy right 2006 John W. Day With out lim it ing the rights under copy right reserved above, no part of this pub li ca tion may be repro duced, stored in or intro duced into a retrieval system, or trans mit ted, in any form or by any means (elec tronic, mechan i cal, pho to copy ing, record ing or oth er wise), with out the prior writ ten per mis sion of the above pub lisher of this book/course. The scan ning, uploading, and dis tri bu tion of this book/course via the Internet or via any other means with out the per mis sion of the pub lisher is ille gal and pun ish able by law. Your sup port of the author s rights is appre ci ated. Real Life Online Sem i nars Sommette Drive Sonora, CA jday@reallifeaccounting.com Phone: Fax: Website: Printed in the United States ISBN 10: ISBN 13: Cover and Inte rior Design: The Printed Page

4 Con tents Intro duc tion 1 Part 1: Double-Entry Account ing 4 Accounting Framework....4 Accounting Equations...5 Review...6 Part 2: The Gen eral Ledger 7 Assets...7 Liabilities...8 Equity...9 Income...10 Expenses...11 Chart of Accounts...12 Review...13 Part 3: Finan cial State ments 15 Sample Finan cial State ment...15 Reservoir Anal ogy...18 Review...19 Part 4: Debits & Cred its 20 Complete Accounting Model...21 Part 5: The Gen eral Jour nal 26 Trans ac tion (a) through (p)...28 Part 6: Post ing to the Gen eral Ledger 44 Part 7: Pre par ing a Trial Bal ance 45 Part 8: Pre par ing the Finan cial State ments 47 Part 9: Con clu sion 48 Course Ques tion naire 50 iii

5 The HEART of Accounting Forms Sec tion 51 Chart of Accounts...52 The Gen eral Jour nal T-Accounts...54 The Trial Bal ance...57 Financial Statements...60 The Account ing Model...61 Answer Pages 62 T-Accounts...63 Trial Bal ance...66 Financial Statements...67 Bonus Sec tion 70 Practice Journal Entries...71 Bonus Forms 80 Chart of Accounts...81 Account ing Model...86 General Journal Template...87 Gen eral Jour nal Entry Answers...88 About the Author 101 Order Form 103 iv

6 Introduction Wel come to The HEART of Account ing, a four-hour course designed for non-accountants. You are about to embark on a brief jour ney into the world of account ing. You will be trav el ing into the heart of the double-entry account - ing system. I like the use of the word heart because what you will be learn ing are the essen tial ele ments that make account ing work. It makes no dif fer ence whether it is the small est busi ness or the larg est multinational cor po ra tion, both busi ness enti ties require and use these core account - ing con cepts to orga nize and pre pare their finan cial state ments. This is the heart of account ing and serves no less impor tant func tion than the heart in a human being. You must set aside your pre con ceived ideas and open your mind to a new kind of logic, i.e., account ing logic. It is a new way of think ing about finan cial events that have occurred in a busi ness. In the begin ning, just as learn ing a new card game, you have to trust that there are good rea sons behind the rules. After you ve played a few hands, you ll get the hang of it and it will all make sense. That s when the fun starts. The beauty of double-entry account ing is that every thing has to bal ance. This means there are no loose ends and messy fin ishes. Every thing gets tied up in nice, neat little pack ages so that you expe ri ence a sat is fac tory sense of com ple - tion. There is a good and reward ing feel ing when the books are done. Folks often wonder why some people just love account ing. They don t real ize that accoun tants are like detec tives. They solve mys ter ies con stantly. They have their bag of tools, a set of clues, and off they go. It is intrigu ing to watch how the mind makes con nec tions from bits and pieces of infor ma tion as it moves closer to a solution. Don t believe me? Okay, then let s put together a little mys tery with this short-course and per haps you will get a taste of what I mean. It will be best if you can find a quiet place where you will not be inter rupted. You are going to need a pencil and a cal cu la tor. Look in the Forms Sec tion and make sev eral copies of the blank Gen eral Jour nal pages before you begin. The course is short enough to 1

7 The HEART of Accounting do in one set ting. If you can, it s best to do it this way so you don t have to inter - rupt your train of thought. At the end, I have pro vided a course ques tion naire for you to com plete and send back to me if you will. I would appre ci ate any feed back from you because it will help me to con tin u ously improve the course. After you have com pleted the course you will have an oppor tu nity to hone your Gen eral Jour nal entry writ ing skills. Look for the 100 Prac tice Jour nal Entries in the Bonus Sec tion. Before we get started let s do a quick pre con cep tion test. Do you have any pre con ceived ideas about account ing? Many people do, and they can hamper your abil ity to learn. Let s iden tify the main cul prits. Here are some typ i cal exam ples as to how the mind tries to make learn ing account ing unnec es sar ily dif fi cult: Complicated I would guess that the big gest obsta cle is the pre sump tion that account ing is com pli cated and there fore hard to learn. If you start with that pre sump tion, you will likely not believe that the con cepts could be as simple as they are being pre sented. Your mind will be look ing for some thing that does n t exist. This is a frus trat ing expe ri ence. Impatience If you are impa tient and jump ahead in the text with out learn - ing the con cepts in the pre ced ing study sec tions, you can end up chas ing your self around in cir cles. In account ing, it is best to walk slowly along the path and leave no stone unturned. Accoun tants know that this is the fast est way to the finish line. Having to retrace your steps to find mis takes from care - less ness is time-con sum ing and tedious. Skepticism There are cer tain people who have the type of mind that chal - lenges the whys and wherefores of any field of knowl edge. In almost every sem i nar I have taught there will be at least one person who can t accept why a cer tain account ing rule or prin ci ple was chosen. There is noth ing wrong with this other than it takes a while for the indi vid ual to trust that there is a solid basis for the rule. For instance, why are the words debit and credit used? We could spend hours debat ing the pros and cons of this issue, but then we are no longer learn ing how to pre pare finan cial state ments. Self-doubt Instead of con cen trat ing on how to under stand a simple con - cept being pre sented, you find your self lis ten ing to that little voice inside your head that is saying, It s too hard, I m not smart enough, I m no good with num bers, Every body is smarter than I am, I ll just hold back every body in the group, I m going to embar rass myself if I ask a ques tion 2

8 that every body else knows, etc. Focus ing your thoughts on self-doubt instead of learn ing account ing is like trying to drive a car down the road when you are not paying atten tion to the road. This, of course, becomes a scary, dif fi cult prop o si tion! False Con fi dence Some people think they know more about account ing than they really do. Yet, when some one asks them how to write a gen eral jour nal entry for an account ing trans ac tion, they still have to guess whether it s a debit or a credit. It s best for them to swal low their pride and start at the begin ning, even though they are famil iar with some of the account ing rules. You may or may not fit into any of these cat e go ries. But, if you do, usu ally just being aware of them will help to coun ter act any neg a tive influ ences that may poten tially obstruct the learn ing pro cess. So if any of these neg a tive influ ences or ten den cies arise in your mind, don t iden tify with them. Simply tell them that they don t apply in this sit u a tion and that you will be happy to dis cuss their con cerns after you are fin ished with the course. Time to begin. Introduction 3

9 The Lan guage of Busi ness is Account ing Part 1: Double-Entry Account ing As you know, there are sev eral types of busi ness oper a tions such as: Retail; Whole sale; Ser vice; and Man u fac tur ing. In addi tion, there are var i ous types of busi ness enti ties: Sole Pro pri etor ships Part ner ships C & S Cor po ra tions Lim ited Lia bil ity Com pa nies Non-Profit Orga ni za tions Because sole pro pri etor ships are the eas i est of the busi ness enti ties to under - stand, I have chosen a small sole pro pri etor ship, retail store called Tommy s T-Shirts, as the prac tice exam ple for this course. The exam ple I use is over sim pli - fied because I want to make it easy for you get a feel for how double-entry account ing is used to pre pare a finan cial state ment. To begin, you must first become famil iar with what is called the Account ing Frame work. The two most common finan cial state ments in account ing are a Bal ance Sheet and a Profit & Loss State ment (P&L State ment). There are three pri mary sec - tions to a Bal ance Sheet and two pri mary sec tions to the P&L State ment that make up five pri mary sec tions. For exam ple: Balance Sheet: P&L State ment: (1) Assets (2) Lia bil i ties (3) Equity (4) Income (5) Expense There are only five. There are not fif teen or fifty sec tions, just five. This is impor tant to remem ber. Noth ing com pli cated so far. Let s move on to the next account ing con cepts you need to learn. These are called the Account ing Equations. 4

10 Part 1: Double-Entry Account ing There is an account ing equa tion for the Bal ance Sheet and one for the P&L State ment. These equa tions estab lish the func tion of the five sec tions. If you know how to add and sub tract then you will have no prob lem under stand ing the nature of the equa tions. Balance Sheet: (1) Assets Lia bil i ties = Equity (restated) Assets = Lia bil i ties + Equity or or 4 2 = 2 4 = You might be sur prised by the fact that you are already famil iar with this equa - tion if you have ever pur chased a home. For exam ple: House (Asset) = $150,000 Mort gage (Lia bil ity) = <100,000> Home Equity (Equity) = $ 50,000 $150,000 $100,000 = $50,000 Notice that the house asset is stated at its pur chase price. When you sell your home, the mort gage is paid off first and the rest goes to you. In other words, the dif fer ence between the Assets and the Lia bil i ties is what is yours. This is called your Equity. This all may seem very obvi ous, but don t over look this most impor tant con cept: The Bal ance Sheet bal ances because it has to. It is the same with the P&L equa tion: (2) Income Expense = Net Profit or <Loss> Income = $10,000 Income = $ 7,000 Expense = < 7,000> or Expense = <10,000> Net Profit = $ 3,000 Net Loss = $<3,000> If you gen er ated $10,000 from sales, but had to spend $7,000 to do it, then all you have left is the dif fer ence of $3,000. Or, if you gen er ated $7,000 from sales, but you had to spend $10,000 to do it, then you are short $3,000 and there fore have sus tained a loss. It s simple arith me tic: 4 2 = 2 or 2 4 = 2 So far this is second grade math that should not be dif fi cult. Let s expand this con cept to include a ledger page. What is a ledger page? It is noth ing more than a blank page with a big T drawn on it. 5

11 The HEART of Accounting L R Note that I have placed the let ters L and R on either side of the middle line. L stands for Left Side and R stands for Right Side. There are only two sides of the ledger page, left and right. This brings us to another rule in account ing: The Left side of the ledger must always equal the Right side of the ledger. Review This con cludes Part 1 of the course. Review what you just learned by answer ing the fol low ing ques tions: 1. What are the names of the two most common finan cial state ments? 2. Name the five pri mary sec tions that make up the account ing frame work of the finan cial state ments. 3. State the two account ing equa tions. 4. Why does a Bal ance Sheet bal ance? 5. What is a ledger page? 6. How many sides to a ledger page and what are they called? 7. What is the rule regard ing a ledger page? If you have dif fi culty answer ing any of the above ques tions, I highly rec om - mend that you review Part 1, before con tin u ing on with the course. 6