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Training Room 6: Posting and the Trial Balance
Part 1 — Posting
What I Need to Know
In FIN1015 you learned how to open all the account names and numbers into the ledger account, and prepare the opening entry for a new company. You also posted the opening entry from the general journal into the ledger. Knowing those procedures prepares you for posting daily transactions, since it is very similar to what you have already accomplished.
Why Is This Important?
It is important to post these amounts in order to see exactly how much money is in each account. Remember, the journal is for daily transactions and some accounts may not have any activity, whereas others could have several transactions. It is hard to tell how much money is in each account until these amounts are posted into the ledger.
What Do I Need to Do?
A business may post daily from its journal, or less often, depending on how many transactions it has. Learn more in “Enter and Post.”
You are now going to open Gurpreet’s Journal, so that the amounts can be posted into his ledger. Save it in your Course Folder to update page 1 of the previous journal.
Let’s do a little review from FIN1015. Refer to Gurpreet’s journal and answer the following questions.
- What does Post. Ref. stand for?
The abbreviation Post. Ref. stands for Posting Reference.
- What do the numbers in the Post. Ref. column refer to?
The numbers in the Post. Ref. column refer to the account numbers from the ledger.
- Why are these numbers in the Post. Ref. column?
The numbers are in the Post. Ref. column because the money amounts have been posted or put into the corresponding account number in the ledger.
- Why are there no numbers in the rest of the Post Ref. column?
The amounts in these rows have not been posted into the ledger; only the opening entry has been posted from this journal.
- What does Posting Ref. mean?
It is a reference column that shows where the money has been posted.
Let’s also review what this would look like in the ledger.
Open Gurpreet’s Ledger and save it in your Course Folder to update the previous ledger.
Notice that the chart of accounts is at the front of the ledger. This is like a table of contents at the front of a book.
- Go to the asset accounts of the ledger. What does the information on row 6 mean?
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.
- Why is there no money amounts in the petty-cash account?
There are no money amounts in the petty-cash account because nothing has been posted into the petty-cash account from the journal.
- Why are there only account names and account numbers for the revenue and expense accounts?
There are only account names and account numbers because the revenue and expense accounts are opened but no money has been posted yet.
You are now going to post the rest of the amounts from page 1 of this journal into the ledger. View the clip “Posting from Journal to Ledger” to see how to do the first few, and then try the rest on your own.
If you forget which side is the balance side, or the add side, refer to the Analyzing Transactions diagram.
Viewing both the journal and the ledger on your screen at the same time is very useful in the posting process. If you need help with how to do this in Excel®, check out the demonstration “Viewing Side by Side.”
To check your work, go to General Journal Page 1 Answer.
To check your work, go to Ledger (Page 1) Answer.
Now open Gurpreet’s Journal Page 2 from your Course Folder, and post the rest of the journal entries for March. Save the journal and the ledger when you are finished.
To check your work, go to General Journal Page 2 Answer.
To check your work, go to Ledger (Page 2) Answer.