[Anonymous]

I am scheduled to take FAR on May 15th. I have been studying pretty hard for a while now and feel good yet terrified about my prospects. This is my first section ever attempted so I don’t entirely know what to expect. I took a Becker final exam or whatever they are called and on one of the questions noticed that Becker marked my journal entries wrong because I had them in a different order than the answer key. To clarify, I don’t mean I had the debits and credits reversed. 🙂 I mean I debited and credited the proper accounts for the proper amounts and got the question wrong. I feel like I’ve been doing this long enough to know the answers to the following questions but I’m a little freaked out and want reassurance. So here goes: (1) Are the examiners going to mark my simulation wrong if things are in a different order? (2) Is there actually any logical arrangement to journal entries anyway?

Here is how I entered it:

Capital finance lease liability $15,000

Interest expense $85,000

Cash $100,000

I guess the software was looking for interest expense to be before capital finance lease liability. Maybe descending order by dollar amount is the most logical display??????

[Anonymous]

For my JE's, they had 10 or so lines to fill in and had the title “Entry to record depreciation” or something similar, and you only put that entry. Then another separate box with 10 more lines and a new entry to record. In terms of having the entries in order, that shouldn't be an issue.

In terms of what order to put the accounts within the entry (e.g. Cash or Loss first on the Debits side), I can't speak to this. Maybe someone can provide a better answer. I just typically ordered them based on dollar amount, descending from most to least.

[Anonymous]

For my JE's, they had 10 or so lines to fill in and had the title “Entry to record depreciation” or something similar, and you only put that entry. Then another separate box with 10 more lines and a new entry to record. In terms of having the entries in order, that shouldn't be an issue.

In terms of what order to put the accounts within the entry (e.g. Cash or Loss first on the Debits side), I can't speak to this. Maybe someone can provide a better answer. I just typically ordered them based on dollar amount, descending from most to least.

[Anonymous]

I haven't taken any section of the exam yet. But the way my professors teach/wrote J/E's is always debits first, credits second, so I suspect your J/E would need to look like this:

Dr.Cash 100,000

Cr.Capital Finance Lease Liability 15,000

Cr.Interest Expense 85,000

your entry balances, but it looks upside down and I don't know if it will be counted against you or not on the exam.

[Anonymous]

I haven't taken any section of the exam yet. But the way my professors teach/wrote J/E's is always debits first, credits second, so I suspect your J/E would need to look like this:

Dr.Cash 100,000

Cr.Capital Finance Lease Liability 15,000

Cr.Interest Expense 85,000

your entry balances, but it looks upside down and I don't know if it will be counted against you or not on the exam.

[super_cpa]

I found a year old thread that pertains to this matter.

Look at the 3rd post down. Kricket mentioned an email from AICPA stating that the order should not matter as long as the entry is correct.

Link: https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/topic/does-the-order-of-journal-entries-matter

- "Of all people, you know who I am… who the world needs me to be. I’m Wonder Woman."

[super_cpa]

I found a year old thread that pertains to this matter.

Look at the 3rd post down. Kricket mentioned an email from AICPA stating that the order should not matter as long as the entry is correct.

Link: https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/topic/does-the-order-of-journal-entries-matter

- "Of all people, you know who I am… who the world needs me to be. I’m Wonder Woman."

[Anonymous]

Sorry my indents didn't make it into the post. My answer looked like this:

Dr. Capital Finance Lease Liability

Dr. Interest Expense

Cr. Cash

I also just now figured out how to reply to a post (Don't judge me 🙂 ) Previously I was trying to edit my own post in response to other posters…but I digress.

I guess debits before credits and otherwise largest dollar amounts first is the best presentation. I guess this is my new plan. Any opposing views out there??

Additionally, on some of the Sims, Becker required the credits to be entered as negative numbers. Does the real exam do weird stuff like this? We all know that a credit has the opposite impact of a debit. I don't see the logic in entering it as a negative number.

[Anonymous]

Sorry my indents didn't make it into the post. My answer looked like this:

Dr. Capital Finance Lease Liability

Dr. Interest Expense

Cr. Cash

I also just now figured out how to reply to a post (Don't judge me 🙂 ) Previously I was trying to edit my own post in response to other posters…but I digress.

I guess debits before credits and otherwise largest dollar amounts first is the best presentation. I guess this is my new plan. Any opposing views out there??

Additionally, on some of the Sims, Becker required the credits to be entered as negative numbers. Does the real exam do weird stuff like this? We all know that a credit has the opposite impact of a debit. I don't see the logic in entering it as a negative number.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Wonder Woman. You truly are my hero.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Wonder Woman. You truly are my hero.

[Author]

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