Category Archives: 1 Basic Accounting

Basic Accounting – Buying office supplies

We are going to show what entries you need to do when you have just bought yourself some office supplies for 100. As office supplies are usually used for the less than a year and they aren’t separately all that expensive, there is no point in depreciating them and they are written right away into expenses.

Accounting Entries

When buying supplies like this we need to increase Office expenses and decrease Cash by 100.

Debit Credit
Office Expenses 100
Cash 100

Reporting

We are going to assume that you had Cash of 2,000 in balance sheet before buying office supplies.

First in balance sheet we are going to decrease 100 from Current Assets – Cash and cash equivalents, resulting in Cash balance of 1,900.
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Selling of assets

Normally, when disposing assets, the company’s management should have the aim to sell it. This way you simply don’t make a loss or get rid of an obsolete asset, but also earn something in the process. There is a really good chance that someone else may have use for it as it’s not that old for them, suits their business strategies more or they want the spare parts of it. Whatever the reason, but the party selling the asset, gets the proceeds which obviously is good in essence.

So, when the management has decided to sell the asset and in case there is a buyer, the asset is traded. It changes owners and as such the financial statements of the seller also change. It no longer possesses the asset and as such, it should also be derecognized from the financial statements.
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Disposing of assets

As part of everyday operations some assets become obsolete, outdated, break or simply don’t respond to company’s needs or strategic development plans anymore. What happens then is that the asset is either sold, destroyed, given away or taken apart for any possible spare parts. Either way it will not exist in its original state and nature in the company.

In accounting certain entries should obviously done as a result also. In reality the asset is more or less non-existing so in accounting it should also be written off from the balance sheet. The balances usually in financial statements relating to assets are: property, plant and equipment class in cost, accumulated depreciation and depreciation of the period (in the income statement). Now that the asset is decided by the management to be disposed, the asset is disposed from the balance sheet from this point onwards.
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Basic Accounting – Buying a Car

We have just bought our company a car. In this case we are going to assume that this car was paid in full right away and the useful life of it has been set to 5 years (60 months). Car purchase price was $12,000 and date it was bought, was March 1, 2011.

Accounting Entries

The car is an asset to your company. We are going to add the car under Assets – Vehicles – Debit $12,000. Next we need to decrease Cash – Credit $12,000.

Debit Credit
Vehicles 12000
Cash 12000

Now we have to calculate the depreciation for the car. The car will be depreciated for 60 months, so we will divide paid amount with months (60) – 12,000/60 = 200. This will be the amount that will be depreciated into expense every month for 5 years. The $200 will be added to Depreciation Expenses (Depreciation Expenses – Debit 200) and Accumulated Depreciation (Accumulated Depreciation – Credit 200). Adding the monthly depreciation to Accumulated Depreciation on your balance sheet decreases your Assets thus reflecting the value of the asset (over the periods it loses its value as its being used and gets older).
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Subsequent additions to an asset – how to treat them?

Every now and then it may happen that you need to buy something additional to an existing asset. It may either need an upgrade or addition to it, doesn’t really matter, however there are a few things that need to be kept in mind when treating these additions.

One obvious question is if it even meets the PPE definition criteria? Are you using it for more than 12 months? For an example paper to the printer is not a PPE item although it is needed for a printer to actually do what it’s meant to do. So prior to making the recognition, do think if the addition in essence is a PPE item? Is it going to be used to create revenue or decrease expenses? Will any future profits or benefits run into the company from using it?
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Initial recognition of property, plant and equipment (PPE)

Be the reasons what they may, the management has decided to purchase an asset. It has agreed on a budget and also made certain person responsible for acquiring it. The very moment your company possesses the rights and obligations to the asset, is the moment you recognize the asset on your balance sheet.

Not taking into account any future or subsequent measurement considerations you simply recognize the asset in its cost value. Provided you have not yet paid to the supplier, the entry is as follows:
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Subsequent measurement and entries for finance lease on financial statements

After initial recognition you end up having an asset and a liability on your balance sheet. Now when it comes to subsequent measurement and entries, there are a couple of things relevant to it.

First off is the depreciation. The asset is depreciated the same way as every other asset in the group it was recognized in. Also the useful lives are determined the same as to every other similar asset the company is holding. As a general rule though the useful life should never be longer than the rental period.

The entry every month:

Dr Depreciation expense

Cr Accumulated depreciation

The lease liability is treated as every other long-term liability essentially. Short-term part of it is the amount due in next 12 months and everything else is long-term.
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