Appendix A
Journal Entries
This appendix contains a list of the most common journal entries that a bookkeeper is likely to deal with. The emphasis here is solely on the most common journal entries, not on those that will only crop up on rare occasions.
The journal entries are listed in alphabetical order and include explanatory text. This text may be sufficient for you to copy into actual journal entry descriptions, with slight modifications. The text makes additional explanatory notations where necessary, but their main focus is on presenting a brief summarization of each entry.
A set of accounts are listed for each sample journal entry, which may vary somewhat from the titles of accounts used in your company. If there are a wide range of possible entries to different accounts, then this is noted with an entry in brackets, such as “[Salaries—itemize by department].” A triple “x” is noted under the debit or credit heading for each entry, denoting the most likely entry that would be made. If there is a reasonable chance that either a debit or credit entry would be made, then this is noted in the description.
There are a few instances where journal entries should be reversed in the following accounting period. When this is necessary, a warning note is attached to the bottom of the relevant journal entries.
Cash
Bank reconciliation: To adjust the accounting records to reflect differences between the book and bank records. The cash entry is listed as a credit, on the assumption that ...
