I have no problems with memorizing the words or the equations in my lessons, but my biggest problem is recognizing the entries. I find it really hard to determine the correct things phrases to put on my entries such as cash, sales returns and allowances, merchandise inventory, etc. Is there a website that I can use to practice different entries? I did a lot of problems from the textbook, homework, and examples in class, I am still struggled in the class.
Prof
Journalizing transactions is a simple matter of deciding what took place in an exchange. You record what you received and you record what you gave up. It makes no sense to try to memorize journal entries. The idea is to analyze what was exchanged. You received or gave up assets and you use the debit and credit rules to record that. You incurred a liability (gave a promise to pay later) or you got your promise back because you discharged the liability. Again a credit or debit. Similarly with capital. You issued stock for cash so you received cash (a debit) and record a credit in owners’ equity representing the owner’s interest in the business assets. Or bought back stock giving up cash (a credit) and reducing the owner’s interest in the business (a debit in a capital account). You increase capital (credit revenue) by providing a service or product. You decreases capital (debit an expense) by using up assets or services. As long as you understand what was exchanged, you can decide what to debit and credit.
There are some practical aspects to recording transactions. For example. A company frequently buys office supplies. They are assets, and as they get used up, they become expenses. This company may decide to record office supplies as assets, and at the end of the accounting period it counts the supplies on hand and records whatever was used up as an expense. Another company may decide to record office supplies as expenses as soon as it buys them, on the assumption they will be used up rather quickly. At the end of the accounting period, the supplies still on hand are counted and recorded as an asset to appear on the balance sheet. The end of period process of counting the supplies results in making adjusting entries. A variety of transaction may be recorded in one of two ways: payments for rent by a tenant, rent receipts by a landlord, purchase of insurance are examples.
Unfortunately, the only way to learn this material is to solve accounting problems. You simply have to devote enough time. Accounting courses take more time that other business courses