Fabm SG 11 Q3 0903
Fabm SG 11 Q3 0903
Fabm SG 11 Q3 0903
Lesson 9.3
Accounting Cycle for Service-Type Businesses:
Ledgers and T-Accounts
Contents
Introduction 1
Learning Objectives 2
Quick Look 3
Case Study 22
Keep in Mind 23
Try This 24
Challenge Yourself 29
Bibliography 31
Unit 9: Analyzing Business Transactions: Service Type of Business
Lesson 9.3
Accounting Cycle for Service-Type
Businesses: Ledgers and T-Accounts
Introduction
Did you know that some businesses struggle to determine how much money they make or
lose? However, a business owner who is well-versed in management and accounting can
evaluate the current state of his business, allowing him to foresee potential problems and
assess opportunities that may arise in the future.
Learning how to post business transactions from the general journal to the general ledger
and knowing how to post transactions to a T-account is a few of the many steps in preparing
financial statements. Management can use these financial reports to evaluate its current
financial position and check its financial performance. The interpretation of financial reports
will help management make better business decisions that lead to higher profits.
Quick Look
A business may use a manual or a computerized accounting system to record its business
transactions. Companies using a manual accounting system record business transactions by
hand. Although manually keeping records takes time, some businesses prefer to use a
manual accounting system because it is simple and they are already familiar with the
process. In addition, businesses that prefer doing it manually have fewer transactions to
record.
On the other hand, companies that use a computerized accounting system keep financial
records using accounting software. By doing so, recording business transactions is done
automatically. However, the data may be exposed to viruses and may be targeted for
hacking, resulting in data loss.
Seth Fedel Business Management Services is a business that uses a manual accounting
system, and recently, the accountant of Seth Fedel Business Management Services resigned.
She was supposedly tasked with preparing the financial statements for the current year.
However, she was only able to journalize the company's transactions. The business hired a
new accountant, France Diaz, to continue the remaining tasks. France was handed the
Statement of Financial Position of the previous year and the general journal containing
entries of the current year, which is as follows:
Assets
Current Assets
Cash ₱10,500
Accounts Receivable 20,800
Office Supplies 3,200
Prepaid Expenses 5,000
Current Liabilities
Accounts Payable ₱7,600
Unearned Services 18,500
Income Taxes Payable 20,400
Long-Term Liabilities
Notes Payable ₱20,000
Owner’s Equity
Seth’s Capital ₱76,500
Total owner’s equity 76,500
Jan 20x2
10 Cash 8,000
Cash 3,500
Questions to Ponder
1. How will France post the transactions from the general journal to the general ledger?
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2. After posting the January transactions, how much is the Cash Balance?
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3. If the business only has the general ledger and financial statements, can France still
make the necessary journal entries? Explain.
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In the previous lesson, you learned how to record transactions of a service business in the
general journal. These recorded transactions are then posted later onto the general ledger.
This process is called posting.
Posting refers to transferring the recorded transactions from the general journal to the
general ledger. The ledger balances of a company’s accounts are updated through this
process. These balances will then be used to prepare a trial balance. The accountant can
prepare a 10-column worksheet and the financial statements from the trial balance.
Essential Question
A Chart of Accounts is a listing of all accounts with their corresponding account numbers.
The accounts are presented according to their order in the financial statements—assets are
listed first, followed by liabilities, owner’s equity, income, and then expenses.
The account numbers in a chart of accounts may be two-digit or three-digit numbers. The
general rule with the account numbers is that Assets should start their account number with
1, Liabilities with 2, Owner’s Equity with 3, Income with 4, and Expense with 5.
When analyzing and recording transactions, the accountant may refer to a company’s Chart
of Accounts. If an appropriate account is not listed in the Chart of Accounts, an account title
may be added.
101 Cash
103 Supplies
The T-Account is the simplest form of an account. It is called T-Account because it looks like
the letter “T.” The T-account serves the same purpose as the General Ledger. It also
summarizes business transactions but with less information compared to the latter. In
addition, when transactions are complex, the accountant can use T-accounts to help
visualize the effect of double-entry accounting.
Cash
Beg. bal. xxx
In the Philippines, accounting records, including the General Ledger, are preserved for ten
years for filing to the tax authorities. In contrast, businesses need not to keep T-accounts
because it is an informal tool used by accountants to assist them in preparing financial
statements.
1. Write the column headings. The column heading of a General Ledger consists of the
following:
a. Account title and its account d. Post Reference
number e. Debit
b. Date f. Credit
c. Description g. Balance
2. Copy the beginning balances of the account from the previous period.
3. Copy the date from the General Journal to the General Ledger.
4. Write the journal entry number from the General Journal to the Post Reference
column of the ledger.
5. If the journal entry is a debit, copy its amount to the Debit column of the general
ledger. If the journal entry is a credit, copy its amount to the Credit column of the
general ledger.
6. Go back to the Post Reference column of the general journal and write the account
number of the account being posted.
7. Repeat steps 2–5 until all transactions have been posted.
8. Foot the debit amounts and credit amounts of each account.
9. Compute the ledger balances, and determine if it is a debit or a credit balance.
a. If the debit total is greater than the credit total, the account has a debit balance.
b. If the credit total is greater than the debit total, the account has a credit balance.
Examine the following pieces of information from Alvin Consulting Services which illustrate
the posting process:
Assets
Current Assets
Cash 6,500
Accounts Receivable 10,000
Long-Term Liabilities
Notes Payable 30,000
Owner’s Equity
Alvin’s Capital 8,900
Jan 20x2
2022
2022
Figure 9. Alvin Consulting Services’ general ledger of the accounts receivable account.
2022
Figure 10. Alvin Consulting Services’ general ledger of the equipment account.
2022
Figure 11. Alvin Consulting Services’ general ledger of the accumulated depreciation account.
2022
Figure 12. Alvin Consulting Services’ general ledger of the unearned consulting fees account.
2022
Figure 13. Alvin Consulting Services’ general ledger of the notes payable account.
2022
Figure 14. Alvin Consulting Services’ general ledger of Alvin’s capital account.
2022
Figure 15. Alvin Consulting Services’ general ledger of the consulting fees account.
2022
Figure 16. Alvin Consulting Services’ general ledger of the administrative expense account.
2022
Figure 17. Alvin Consulting Services’ general ledger of the rent expense account.
The beginning balance of an account in the General Ledger is based on the previous year's
amounts in the company's Statement of Financial Position. For example, in Alvin Consulting
Services' General Ledger (see Fig. 8, 9, and 10), the beginning balance of the Cash account is
₱6,500, the Accounts Receivable is ₱10,000, and the Equipment is ₱10,000. The beginning
balance is based on the amount of Cash, Accounts Receivable, and Equipment in Alvin's
Consulting Service Statement of Financial Position (see Fig. 5).
The order in which an accountant posts transactions is based on the order of the account in
the Chart of Accounts. For example, an accountant should post all entries involving Cash
first, followed by Accounts Receivable, and then the next account in the company's chart. In
doing so, the accountant ensures that no journal entries are overlooked.
On the other hand, the process of writing the journal entry number in the General Ledger
and the General Journal is called cross-referencing (see Fig. 8 and 15). The journal entry
number in the General Ledger may be written as JE-01, or J1 or GJ1, or the account number.
If it is JE-01, the entry can also be found in the journal with JE-01. Sometimes, the number in
the posting reference means the entry can be found on that specific page number.
Moreover, if the account number is used in the posting reference column in the General
Journal, you can find such transactions using that account number in the ledger.
Alternatively, the accountant may use a tick mark "^" to indicate that the entry has already
been posted.
There is no hard rule for writing the posting reference in actual practice, and any method is
acceptable. The critical rule for the accountant is to make sure that all transactions are
posted.
Lastly, no new information must be added when posting entries to the ledger; and posting
transactions on the debit side should always be equal to the credit side. At the end of the
posting process, the accountant will compute the balances of each account. These balances
will be used to prepare the trial balance, 10-column worksheet, and financial statements.
The accuracy of financial reports depends on the correctness of the journal entries and
ledger balances. This is why it is crucial to post transactions diligently.
An accountant can also use a T-account to prepare adjusting entries. For example, a
T-account for Unearned Consulting Fees shows a beginning credit balance of ₱80,000 and an
ending credit balance of ₱14,000 (see figure 18). Through the analysis of the T-account, the
accountant can deduce that an Unearned Consulting Fees worth ₱66,000 must be debited
and recorded as an adjusting entry (see figure 19).
66,000
Figure 19. T-account for Unearned Consulting Fees with an amount recorded on the debit
side of the T-account.
Closer Look
Funny Company
Lena is the accountant of Funny Company. She handles the Unearned
Consulting Fees account of the company, and she was tasked to prepare
its 2023 financial statements.
You are required to calculate the ending balance of the Funny Company’s
Unearned Consulting Fees account.
Ending Balance
32,000 24,000
32,000 24,000
The Office Equipment account of Cute Company at the beginning of the year
was ₱100,000. During the year, it disposed of office equipment costing
₱20,000. At year-end, the entity reported the office equipment account in its
Statement of Financial Position in the amount of ₱125,000. Calculate the
amount of office equipment acquired by the business during the year.
Closer Look
Angel Company
Lysa is a newly passed Certified Public Accountant hired by Vin Business Management
Services to prepare financial statements for its client, Angel Company. However, the
computerized accounting system of Angel Company is down, and Lysa cannot enter
journal entries into the accounting system.
Using the bank statements and the previous year's financial statements, Lysa was able
to journalize transactions to the general journal, and she was able to post transactions
to the ledger.
With the help of T-accounts, she can now prepare the trial balance and, accordingly, the
financial statements.
Below is a partial General Journal that Lysa created. In addition, assume that Angel's
Company has beginning Accounts Receivable of ₱22,000 for the year 20x2.
20x2
Account Receivable
Beg. Bal. 22,000
Jan 8 ^ 11,100
Jan 8 ^ 11,100
Case Study
Ransomware Threats
Ransomware is a form of malware that blocks access to a company's
computerized system until the hacker is paid a sum of money.
Keep in Mind
● Posting refers to transferring the transactions from the general journal to the
general ledger. A general ledger is a record of accounts that classifies and
summarizes transactions from the general journal.
● A Chart of Accounts lists all accounts with their corresponding account numbers.
● The T-account is the simplest form of account. It serves the same purpose as the
General Ledger but with less information compared to the latter. According to the
double-entry bookkeeping system, a T-account may help an accountant analyze a
business transaction.
● The critical rule in posting is to make sure that all transactions are posted accurately.
● It is essential to know how to post transactions and prepare financial records
manually because computerized accounting systems may be subject to data loss and
data corruption.
Try This
True or False. Write true if the statement is correct. Otherwise, write false.
________________ 2. The left side of the T-account refers to the credit side of the
account.
________________ 6. After recording the information from the general journal to the
general ledger, the accountant should fill up the posting
reference column of both the general journal and the general
ledger.
________________ 8. When posting the transaction, the standard rule in writing the
posting reference is to write the tick mark "^."
________________ 9. The accountant has the discretion not to post the transactions
to the general ledger if the company suffers a loss in a
transaction.
________________ 10. Both general journal and general ledger assist the accountant
in producing the company's financial statements.
________________ 11. The updated balance of the general ledger will be the basis of
preparing the company's financial statements.
________________ 12. The income and expense accounts are listed first in the general
ledger, then asset, liability, and equity accounts.
________________ 13. Financial statements and reports are accounting outputs that
provide a company's financial position, performance, and cash
flows.
Cash ₱25,000
Equipment 40,000
Unearned Service Revenue 20,000
Marie, Capital 45,000
5. Suppose Marie determined that the amount of Unearned Revenue as of January 31,
20x2 is ₱3,000, determine the amount of earned service revenue for January 31,
20x2.
Challenge Yourself
Charly is applying for a position as an accountant at Marga Accounting Firm. Part of the
application process is to pass the accounting examination provided by the company. The
examination requires her to compute the ledger balances, analyze the ledger accounts, and
create journal entries. The T-accounts in the examination are as follows:
Cash
Accounts Receivable
Jan 4 20,000
Office Equipment
Jan 27 10,000
Marga, Capital
Jan 25 30,000
Consulting Fees
Jan 4 20,000
Jan 14 100,000
Salaries Expense
Jan 15 32,000
2. By looking at the T-accounts, what is the journal entry made by the business on
January 4 and January 14?
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3. By looking at the T-accounts, what are the journal entries made by the business on
January 25 and 27?
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Bibliography
Averkamp, H. (n.d.). What is a general ledger account?: Accountingcoach.
AccountingCoach.com. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from
https://www.accountingcoach.com/blog/what-is-a-general-ledger-account
Dili. “Difference between T Account and Ledger.” Compare the Difference Between Similar
Terms. Differencebetween.com, March 24, 2017.
https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-t-account-and-vs-ledger/.
Larson, Kermit D., John J. Wild, and Barbara Chiappetta. Fundamental Accounting Principles.
Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2002.
Shpak, S. (2019, January 28). Advantages & Disadvantages of Manual Accounting Systems.
Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-manual-accounting-syst
ems-23862.html.
Stice, Earl K., Earl K. Stice, and James D. Stice. Financial Accounting Reporting & Analysis. New
Delhi: South Western, 2009.
Williams, J. R., Haka, S. F., & Bettner, M. S. (2017). Financial accounting. McGraw-Hill
Higher Education.