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May 7, 2013 at 11:13 pm #177387
RandomAlt
MemberSo how does everyone here study journal entries?
So far, I’ve been transcribing every journal entry I find into an excel file I created, to keep a database of Journal Entries. The problem is that this is VERY time consuming, and I feel like I’m devoting too much time to this, and it is greatly slowing down my overall progress.
Anyone have any tips about this?
For the record, I use CPAexcel.
FAR - [10/07/2013 --> 66] [07/07/2014 --> 86]
BEC - [08/31/2014 --> 86]
AUD - [11/24/2014 --> 88]
REG - [02/14/2015 --> 92]
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AuthorReplies
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May 8, 2013 at 1:55 am #462248
memmy29
ParticipantI'm having a tough time with J/Es too. It's what got me on my last try at FAR. I'm trying to write them down for each section of notes I'm taking from Becker. I don't think memorizing them is possible, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around them in a testing situation.
AUD-84, REG-75, BEC-84, FAR-77
Licensed CPA
CIA Exam
Part 1 - Passed
Part 2 - Passed
Part 3 - PassedMay 8, 2013 at 2:59 am #462250J
MemberI teach financial accounting courses and love journal entries; I sincerely believe that if you understand journal entries, you can solve most problems that you might face in financial accounting. In my opinion, they're NOT to be memorized; if you do that, you're setting yourself up for failure because one slight change in a problem can throw off everything else. Becoming proficient with journal entries is an acquired taste and the bottom line is that you have to practice them, non memorize them.
With that said, one piece of advice that I give to my students is to work with what you know and fill in what you know and the easy parts first (this is similar to smp73's advice). Yes, you should list all debits before all credits but if you know that you're crediting cash for example, skip a couple of lines and fill that in first, then go back to your debits. You can plug what you don't know. When you hit more advanced or complicated journal entries where you have six or seven different accounts with which you are working, it becomes a more simple process to construct the unknowns and help you fill in the remainder. Furthermore, a lot of it comes down to the basics… your basic types of accounts, normal balances, etc. Don't worry about remembering exact names for accounts; those are secondary for the most part (and for simulations on the CPA, you'll often be given a drop-down menu with the account titles that they want you to use).
Let me give you a really simple, elementary example… suppose you're doing an entry for selling common stock above par value but you don't remember the entry. You sell 100 shares of $10 par value common stock when the market price is $40/share. (1) Figure out the easy parts first… well, what do you know? If you sell it for $40/share and you're selling 100 shares, you get $4,000… so debit cash for that amount. What else do you know? The par value of common stock is $10/share, and you sell 100 shares… so credit Common Stock for $1,000. At this point, your journal entry looks as follows:
Db. Cash 4,000
Cr. Common Stock 1,000
Cr. ????? XXXX
Obviously the account to credit at this point is APIC – Common, but even if you don't know that, you can fill in the amount of a credit of 3,000 through the plug. Hopefully you would recall the accounting treatment and credit the aforementioned account but in the case of a simulation, you would have it at your disposition through a drop-down.
Anyway, I'm tired but hopefully some of this helps you a little bit… the bottom line is that you have to practice these things and not try to memorize them, because there are too many possibilities and too many variables to throw you off if you try that approach. Good luck!
May 8, 2013 at 2:59 am #462342J
MemberI teach financial accounting courses and love journal entries; I sincerely believe that if you understand journal entries, you can solve most problems that you might face in financial accounting. In my opinion, they're NOT to be memorized; if you do that, you're setting yourself up for failure because one slight change in a problem can throw off everything else. Becoming proficient with journal entries is an acquired taste and the bottom line is that you have to practice them, non memorize them.
With that said, one piece of advice that I give to my students is to work with what you know and fill in what you know and the easy parts first (this is similar to smp73's advice). Yes, you should list all debits before all credits but if you know that you're crediting cash for example, skip a couple of lines and fill that in first, then go back to your debits. You can plug what you don't know. When you hit more advanced or complicated journal entries where you have six or seven different accounts with which you are working, it becomes a more simple process to construct the unknowns and help you fill in the remainder. Furthermore, a lot of it comes down to the basics… your basic types of accounts, normal balances, etc. Don't worry about remembering exact names for accounts; those are secondary for the most part (and for simulations on the CPA, you'll often be given a drop-down menu with the account titles that they want you to use).
Let me give you a really simple, elementary example… suppose you're doing an entry for selling common stock above par value but you don't remember the entry. You sell 100 shares of $10 par value common stock when the market price is $40/share. (1) Figure out the easy parts first… well, what do you know? If you sell it for $40/share and you're selling 100 shares, you get $4,000… so debit cash for that amount. What else do you know? The par value of common stock is $10/share, and you sell 100 shares… so credit Common Stock for $1,000. At this point, your journal entry looks as follows:
Db. Cash 4,000
Cr. Common Stock 1,000
Cr. ????? XXXX
Obviously the account to credit at this point is APIC – Common, but even if you don't know that, you can fill in the amount of a credit of 3,000 through the plug. Hopefully you would recall the accounting treatment and credit the aforementioned account but in the case of a simulation, you would have it at your disposition through a drop-down.
Anyway, I'm tired but hopefully some of this helps you a little bit… the bottom line is that you have to practice these things and not try to memorize them, because there are too many possibilities and too many variables to throw you off if you try that approach. Good luck!
May 8, 2013 at 12:47 pm #462344RandomAlt
MemberThanks everybody for your views.
InterFC1…I appreciate your long post, and really understand what you are saying. My problem comes from being able to practice journal entries.
Aside from SIMS, where can I find good practice problems?
FAR - [10/07/2013 --> 66] [07/07/2014 --> 86]
BEC - [08/31/2014 --> 86]
AUD - [11/24/2014 --> 88]
REG - [02/14/2015 --> 92]May 8, 2013 at 12:47 pm #462252RandomAlt
MemberThanks everybody for your views.
InterFC1…I appreciate your long post, and really understand what you are saying. My problem comes from being able to practice journal entries.
Aside from SIMS, where can I find good practice problems?
FAR - [10/07/2013 --> 66] [07/07/2014 --> 86]
BEC - [08/31/2014 --> 86]
AUD - [11/24/2014 --> 88]
REG - [02/14/2015 --> 92]May 8, 2013 at 7:26 pm #462346Anonymous
InactiveI just don't understand how one can pass the CPA exam and not know something as fundamentally basic as a jounral entry.
Double-entry accounting is the basis of accounting. Like InterFC1 said, you can't memorize them, you just have to know them. T accounts are very helpful in understanding JE movments and I use them all the time at work. I think they are good start in helping understand the “double” entry, debit and credit.
If you have never had to do a J/E for work, I guess my suggestion would be SIMS to help you understand them better. But at the end of the day, you need to know which accounts are debit balances and which are credit balances and what balances contra accounts are and how transactions affect each account balance.
May 8, 2013 at 7:26 pm #462254Anonymous
InactiveI just don't understand how one can pass the CPA exam and not know something as fundamentally basic as a jounral entry.
Double-entry accounting is the basis of accounting. Like InterFC1 said, you can't memorize them, you just have to know them. T accounts are very helpful in understanding JE movments and I use them all the time at work. I think they are good start in helping understand the “double” entry, debit and credit.
If you have never had to do a J/E for work, I guess my suggestion would be SIMS to help you understand them better. But at the end of the day, you need to know which accounts are debit balances and which are credit balances and what balances contra accounts are and how transactions affect each account balance.
May 8, 2013 at 7:53 pm #462348OJFWEroiu
Member@Desperatly
A lot of us barely got through college.
Yea, OP. You don't have to memorize everything. It's like a puzzle. The pieces will be scrambled, but you just have to put them together. The sims will show the accounts listed, and you just fill out where they go.
I would just look at the examples in the CPAexcel textbook (the JEs & T-accounts) 3-4+ times till you have some sort of grasp. Doesn't need to be perfect. You don't have to know everything.
If you have your old Intermediate Accounting textbook lying around, maybe you could find some examples in there. Not much has changed with JEs I don't think for a while.
passed
May 8, 2013 at 7:53 pm #462256OJFWEroiu
Member@Desperatly
A lot of us barely got through college.
Yea, OP. You don't have to memorize everything. It's like a puzzle. The pieces will be scrambled, but you just have to put them together. The sims will show the accounts listed, and you just fill out where they go.
I would just look at the examples in the CPAexcel textbook (the JEs & T-accounts) 3-4+ times till you have some sort of grasp. Doesn't need to be perfect. You don't have to know everything.
If you have your old Intermediate Accounting textbook lying around, maybe you could find some examples in there. Not much has changed with JEs I don't think for a while.
passed
May 8, 2013 at 8:24 pm #462350RandomAlt
MemberLol..I find it interesting how polarizing this topic is…
@DesperatelySeekingChupacabra – I have very limited free/study time. I work full-time, in an unrelated field (so no, I don't work w/ JE's in my everyday life), and have a 1 year old and a wife that “occasionally” require attention. Therefore, I have to focus my study time, and concentrate on the things that will maximize my chances of passing. Hence, my question about very time intensive JEs
@OJFWEroiu – Thanks the the update, the added info really helps me put things in better perspective.
FAR - [10/07/2013 --> 66] [07/07/2014 --> 86]
BEC - [08/31/2014 --> 86]
AUD - [11/24/2014 --> 88]
REG - [02/14/2015 --> 92]May 8, 2013 at 8:24 pm #462258RandomAlt
MemberLol..I find it interesting how polarizing this topic is…
@DesperatelySeekingChupacabra – I have very limited free/study time. I work full-time, in an unrelated field (so no, I don't work w/ JE's in my everyday life), and have a 1 year old and a wife that “occasionally” require attention. Therefore, I have to focus my study time, and concentrate on the things that will maximize my chances of passing. Hence, my question about very time intensive JEs
@OJFWEroiu – Thanks the the update, the added info really helps me put things in better perspective.
FAR - [10/07/2013 --> 66] [07/07/2014 --> 86]
BEC - [08/31/2014 --> 86]
AUD - [11/24/2014 --> 88]
REG - [02/14/2015 --> 92]May 9, 2013 at 5:01 am #462352Anonymous
InactiveI made little note cards every time a question asked me which account to credit or debit. That was my little clue for journal entry. My study partner would also make T-accounts which helped you remember which accounts were debits, credits, contra, et al. Just a couple of scratches on the paper as you work out the problem and you'll start to get real good at those kind of questions. Good luck!
May 9, 2013 at 5:01 am #462260Anonymous
InactiveI made little note cards every time a question asked me which account to credit or debit. That was my little clue for journal entry. My study partner would also make T-accounts which helped you remember which accounts were debits, credits, contra, et al. Just a couple of scratches on the paper as you work out the problem and you'll start to get real good at those kind of questions. Good luck!
May 20, 2013 at 8:23 pm #462354Anonymous
Inactive@RandomAlt Thanks for starting this thread. I posted in another forum a note to you:
I'm CPAexceler too.
I tried taking notes and it blew my exam plan schedule. I've been noting on the side bar in the CPAExcel books – J/E * and on more difficult flagging with small postie-note tags..It's looking like flags of hundred nations now on my FAR book.
I'm also starting to make flashcards on the more difficult journal entries.
After thinking about this thread and @Desperately comment…how could you not know journal entries..! I'm finding that the difficulty has more to do with the calculation…For instances if you are dealing with Bond Payment or Sale…Are you using the stated interest or the market interest…and then you have the journal entry plug…So if you don't get one side of the equation right on the bond calculation, you mess up the credit side. So that is a great flashcard opportunity.
I will have to get a new cell phone so I can have an excuse to do smartphone flashcards…I like the idea.
Thanks for the inspiration to keeping going through CPAExcel FAR! I'm here with you on the forum RandomAlt.
We all will get through this and pass first attempt!
May 20, 2013 at 8:23 pm #462262Anonymous
Inactive@RandomAlt Thanks for starting this thread. I posted in another forum a note to you:
I'm CPAexceler too.
I tried taking notes and it blew my exam plan schedule. I've been noting on the side bar in the CPAExcel books – J/E * and on more difficult flagging with small postie-note tags..It's looking like flags of hundred nations now on my FAR book.
I'm also starting to make flashcards on the more difficult journal entries.
After thinking about this thread and @Desperately comment…how could you not know journal entries..! I'm finding that the difficulty has more to do with the calculation…For instances if you are dealing with Bond Payment or Sale…Are you using the stated interest or the market interest…and then you have the journal entry plug…So if you don't get one side of the equation right on the bond calculation, you mess up the credit side. So that is a great flashcard opportunity.
I will have to get a new cell phone so I can have an excuse to do smartphone flashcards…I like the idea.
Thanks for the inspiration to keeping going through CPAExcel FAR! I'm here with you on the forum RandomAlt.
We all will get through this and pass first attempt!
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