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Accounting Worksheets
The Worksheet
What comes to mind when you hear the word worksheet? A place where you work – that's correct. A worksheet is used to collect information from the ledger accounts in order to prepare financial statements.
Financial Statements
The financial statements are the reports that indicate how the company is doing financially. The financial statements answer questions such as:
- Is the company making money? How much?
- What does the company own? What do they owe?
Business Details
Periodically a business reports details about its:
- assets
- liabilities
- owner's equity
- revenue
- expenses
A financial statement that reports assets, liabilities, and owner's equity on a specific date (March 31) is called a balance sheet.
A financial statement showing the revenue and expenses for a fiscal period (January 1 to March 31) is an income statement.
The worksheet seperates ledger account balances according to the financial statements to be prepared.
Here is a sample worksheet:
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7 Sections of the 10 Column Worksheet
- Heading (Purple Section on Worksheet)
- Account Section (White Section on Worksheet)- This section shows the account numbers and names of accounts in the ledger.
- Trial Balance (Green Section on Worksheet)- Trial Balance is taken directly from the ledger.
- Adjustment (Blue Section on Worksheet)- Adjustments are necessary because time passes and accounts balances change.
- Adjusted Trial Balance (Yellow Section on Worksheet)- Adjusted Trial Balance show the account balance which includes the adjustments.
- Income Statement Information (Peach Section on Worksheet)- Income Statement shows Revenues – Expenses.
- Balance Sheet Information (Gray Section on Worksheet)- Balance Sheet shows Assets, Liabilities and Owner's Equity.
Sections 3-8 (section 8 not shown) each have a Debit and Credit column.
Heading
The worksheet heading contains three lines:
- Company name
- Name of the accounting form – Worksheet
- Period of time covered by the worksheet
Account Names and Numbers
After the heading – all accounts are listed in account number order and includes account names. These are the same numbers and names that appear in both the chart of accounts and the ledger. Account names and numbers 101 Cash
102 Accounts Receivable
103 Vehicle
104 Equipment
201 Accouts Payable
301 Capital
401 Sales
501 Ad Expense
502 Insurance Expense
503 Rent Expense
504 Utilities Expense
505 Supplies Expense
Trial Balance
After recording all of the account numbers and names – then the balances from each account should be recorded in the Trial Balance columns. A trial balance is a list of all the ledger accounts with their current account balances. Add the Debit column – all the Credit column. The totals are compared and the Total Debit should equal the Total Credits.
Adjusted Trial Balance
Adjustments are required because there are times that the accounts need to be updated. Know that at the end of a period, adjusting entries are usually necessary to bring some accounts up-to-date. Once adjusting entries are recorded, you need to show that you have updated or "Adjusted" the Trial Balance. Which will bring you to the Adjusted Trial Balance.
Adjustments
Look at the Adjustments and the Adjusted Trial Balance, the Total Debits should equal the Total Credits.
Income Statement
The Income Statement section only shows revenue and expense accounts. Revenue has a normal Credit Balance and Expenses have a normal Debit Balance. If you look at the Income Statement section below – you will see that Sales (Revenue) is a credit and all the expenses are debits. Also look at the total Debit and Credit for this section and you will see there is a difference. Look all the way on the left side of the worksheet and that "difference" has a title- Net Income.
Balance Sheet
The Balance Sheet section shows the Assets, Liabilities and Equity accounts. Look at the total debits and credits for the Balance Sheet section and you will see they do not equal. The "difference" between the debits and credits is the same amount of difference you calculated in the Income Statement section – this is a way to check to see if you are correct! The differences in the debits and credits of both the Income Statement and Balance Sheet should be the same number.
Bottom Line
If you look at the bottom section of the Worksheet you will see "lines" or "ruling". If you have a single line, that is a subtotal – if you see a double line, that is the final total for that section.
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