Accounting Instruction Help & How To

This course will compare the process of entering period end adjusting entries using QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, and Excel. Because Excel is a much more transparent tool, it will provide us a much better understanding of the workings of QuickBooks.

The QuickBooks related sections of the course will cover the following:

We will enter period end, typically month or year-end, adjusting entries.

Learners will understand the process of adjusting entries and how and why adjusting entries are separate from the general data input process.

We will learn how to transition from the accounting data input to the adjusting process and back to data input for the following month as smoothly as possible.

Making the transitions between the accounting data input and adjusting entries smooth requires reversing entries.

We will discuss which entries should need reversing and why. Learners will understand how to enter reversing entries.

The course will also cover the generation of reports, using filtering options, to show the adjusting and reversing entries.

The Excel related sections of the course will cover the following:

This course will focus on period-end adjusting entries, entries needed to report financial statements accurately on an accrual basis.

Learners will know how to navigate Microsoft Excel and use a well-designed accounting worksheet, complete with a general journal, trial balance, general ledger, subsidiary ledgers for accounts receivable, accounts payable, & inventory, financial statements, and much more.

Excel is an excellent tool to learn accounting because it is much more transparent than a database program, like accounting software. QuickBooks is a typical example of accounting software.

For most new steps in our accounting practice problem, you will have access to a downloadable Excel Workbook containing at least two tabs, one with the answer, the new tasks completed, the other starting where the prior presentation left off.

We will discuss adjusting entries, how to format an adjusting entry worksheet, and how the day-to-day accounting process and the period-end adjusting entries fit together.

Next, we will enter adjusting entries and reversing entries for accrued interest, the interest we have incurred but have not yet paid.

Then we will enter adjusting entries and reversing entries related to an invoice or sales transaction originally entered after the cutoff date, month-end, but for which the work was done before the cutoff date.

After that, we will enter adjusting entries for prepaid insurance, which leads to the next adjusting entry for depreciation.

Next, we will enter adjusting entries and reversing entries related to unearned revenue. The unearned revenue entry is different from many book problems but a standard method when using accounting software.

Then we will enter a transaction to break out the short-term and long-term portion of loans according to their related amortization tables.

Finally, we will take the adjusted trial balance, a trial balance constructed after entering the adjusting entries, and create financial statements.