Top Excel Templates for Accounting

By Andy Marker | December 29, 2015

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In this article, you’ll find the most comprehensive list of free, downloadable accounting templates for a variety of use cases. 

Included on this page, you’ll find an accounting journal template , accounts payable template , accounts receivable template , and more.

Accounting Journal Template

Accounting Journal Template

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An accounting journal is an accounting worksheet that allows you to track each of the steps of the accounting process, side by side. This accounting journal template includes each step with sections for their debits and credits, and pre-built formulas to calculate the total balances for each column. 

We’ve also included links to similar accounting templates in Smartsheet, a spreadsheet-inspired work management tool that makes accounting processes even easier and more collaborative than Excel.

Accounts Payable Template

Accounts Payable Journal Template

When making large purchases for items like inventory, supplies, or equipment it may be necessary to do so on credit, which could result in multiple monthly payments made to different vendors or suppliers, due on different dates. Using this accounts payable template will help to keep track of what you owe to each party, and will provide a quick look at the total outstanding balances and due dates.

Accounts Receivable Template

Accounts Receivable Template

Every company should have a process in place to manage the outstanding balances owed to them. Using this accounts receivable template will help streamline the process by providing a place for you to track the amounts due to your company and help prioritize collection efforts. 

Bill To Invoice Template

Bill To Invoice Template

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For any company providing goods or services, using an invoice that looks professional and can be customized to fit your needs, is important. This simple bill template will help you get started quickly. Add your company details and payee information, provide an itemized list of the description, quantity, and price of each item you are charging for, and include directions on how your customer may remit payment. 

Bill of Lading Template

Bill of Lading Template

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A bill of lading is a document detailing how goods are being shipped from a seller to a recipient. It includes details about the items being shipped, the quantity of items included in the shipment, and the destination address. Use a bill of lading template to ensure you complete this document for each shipping transaction. This template includes a signature section that should be signed by you, then the shipping company, and finally the recipient, so that if the shipment is lost, the signature detail will help identify at what point it was lost and who was liable.

Billing Statement Template

Billing Statement Template

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A billing statement is helpful if you receive regular bi-monthly or monthly payments from your customers. Use this billing statement template to track customer invoices, account details, and billing status, all in one location. Additionally, this template looks professional  and is customizable to match your needs.

Cash Flow Statement Template

Cash Flow Statement Template

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A cash flow statement is important to provide a good picture of the inflow and outflow of cash within your company. It shows where the money came from (cash receipts) and where the money went to (cash paid). Use a cash flow statement template, in conjunction with your balance sheet and income statement, to provide a comprehensive look into the financial status of your company. This cash flow template includes two additional worksheets to track month-to-month and year-to-year cash flow.

Cash Flow Forecast Template

Cash Flow Forecast Template

Creating a cash flow forecast can be helpful for managing your business’ finances. It enables you to estimate how much money your business will make and spend at any given point, and will allow you to take the appropriate steps to ensure that your cash outflow is not more than your inflow. Use a simple cash flow forecast template to get started quickly. Be sure you include all income including revenue and investments, and account for all expenses including fixed costs.

Expense Report Template

Expense Report Template

A simple expense report is helpful to keep track of business expenses for an individual, department, project, or company, and provides a quick way to document and track expense details. You can require that your team submit monthly expense reports or as the expenses are accrued. Use this expense report template to quickly input specific expense details and obtain approvals as needed.

Income Statement Template

Income Statement Template

An income statement, or profit and loss statement, provides a look into the financial performance of a company over a period of time. The statement provides a summary of the company’s revenue and expenses, along with the net income. Use this income statement template to create a single-step statement that groups all revenue and expenses, and is helpful for businesses of all sizes.

Payment Schedule Template

Payment Schedule Template

You will likely have multiple bills to pay in a month, to different companies and on different dates. It is important to have a way to track when specific bills are due, the amount that is due, and to whom. Use a simple payment schedule template to track these details. This payment schedule template will help you remember when each bill is due and be able to budget accordingly.

Simple Balance Sheet Template

Balance Sheet Template

A simple balance sheet template provides a quick snapshot of a company’s financial position, at a given moment. Use this balance sheet template to summarize the company’s assets, liabilities, and equity, and give investors an idea of the health of the company. 

Travel Itinerary Template

Travel Itinerary Template

Whenever you or your team are scheduled for business trips, it’s helpful to have a travel itinerary that lists the details for transportation, lodging, car rentals, meetings and more. Use a simple business travel itinerary template to keep all of these details in one location, and be able to share the details with important stakeholders. 

Save Hours of Manual Work with Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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Excel Accounting and Bookkeeping (Template Included)

Bryce Warnes

Reviewed by

July 12, 2023

This article is Tax Professional approved

Sometimes life forces you to use spreadsheets. If you’re planning to do your small business accounting with Excel, this is one of those times. But there are ways to make the process easier. We’ll show you how, using Bench’s Income Statement Excel Template to get started.

What's Bench?

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First: What Excel can and can’t do

Microsoft Excel (and its simpler, online cousin Google Sheets) is adaptable. The better you know how to use it, the more you can get done. That being said, even if you’re good enough at Excel to compete internationally , there’s only so much you can do with it in a DIY bookkeeping context.

Single-entry bookkeeping in Excel

Before we get started on DIY bookkeeping, download a copy of Bench’s Income Statement Template . Later, you may prefer to use a different template, or even create your own. But when you’re getting started, the Income Statement Template is tidy and approachable. And it has everything you need to get a grasp of single-entry bookkeeping in Excel.

Single-entry bookkeeping is a good choice if you run a small, simple business with a low volume of transactions. Every time money enters or leaves your business, it’s recorded once, as a positive (income) or negative (expense) value.

A quick heads up about double-entry bookkeeping. The double-entry method of bookkeeping is standard for larger, more complex businesses. It’s more effective than single-entry for tracking cash flow and protecting against errors and fraud. However, it’s also more work to maintain—and difficult to set up in Excel. If you’re at the point where you believe your business needs double-entry bookkeeping, it’s time to use accounting software. Or, think about hiring a bookkeeper (like Bench ).

What you need to use the Income Statement Template for DIY bookkeeping

Before you get started with Bench’s Income Statement template, make sure you understand the differences between single-entry and double-entry bookkeeping. You’ll also need access to spreadsheet software such as Excel or Google Sheets.

Understanding the Income Statement Template

There are three sheets in Bench’s Income Statement Template:

1. The Chart of Accounts

This lists all the accounts that make up your books. Think of each account a category. Every transaction you record gets sorted into one of these categories.

2. Transactions

This contains details of every business transaction you perform—the date, a description, the amount, and the account.

3. The Income Statement

This pulls info from your Transactions and performs some basic calculations. Then it summarizes how much income your business has earned and spent within a defined date range.

Are you currently doing your own books for your business?

Customizing the Income Statement Template for your business

The info in the copy of the Income Statement Template you downloaded is only there as a placeholder. Here’s how you adapt it to your business.

1. Add or remove accounts from the Chart of Accounts

The Chart of Accounts includes an account for “Gas & Auto.” But if you don’t drive for work, you don’t need this row—so you can delete it. The same follows for any other account that doesn’t apply to your business.

Likewise, if there are any transaction categories you need for your business that are missing from the Chart of Accounts, you should add them.

A note about account types:

  • Income designates any account used to track money coming into your business.
  • Expense designates any account used to track money leaving your business.
  • Cost of Sale (COS) and Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) are unique. These accounts track the money you have to spend to create the product you sell your customers or clients. They’re often used interchangeably—COS by retailers, and COGS by manufacturers. Learn more about calculating these expenses.

bookkeeping in Excel 1

2. Clear the Transactions sheet

Before you can start tracking your own transactions, you need to clear the placeholder data.

Select everything in the Date, Description/Transaction, and Category columns, and delete it.

bookkeeping in Excel 2

3. Add or remove accounts from the Income Statement

By default, the Income Statement includes data for every account listed in the Chart of Accounts. If you’ve added or removed accounts from the Chart of Accounts, make the same changes to the Income Statement. For instance, if you don’t track “Gas & Auto” as an expense, delete the row.

bookkeeping in Excel 3

4. Make copies of the Income Statement for each month

In order to generate monthly Income Statements, you’ll need separate sheets for each month. Make twelve copies of the original income statement, one for each month in the year.

Then, on each Income Statement sheet, change the Date Range (Beginning Rate and End Date) to cover the relevant month. Name the sheet after the month it covers.

bookkeeping in Excel 4

5. Optional—Add a sheet for tracking invoices

When you enter income from paid invoices into your Transactions sheet, include the invoice number in the description. That way, you can cross-reference it, and avoid errors—like forgetting to enter invoice payments, or entering the same invoice twice. This is a lot easier if you’ve got a separate sheet to track your invoices.

First, download a free invoice template for Excel , or get one for Google Sheets . Then, add a new sheet to your Income Statement Template. Copy and paste the data from the invoice template you downloaded into the new sheet.

Keep the tab for your invoice tracker to the right of the Transactions sheet, but to the left of your monthly Income Statements. It’ll be easier to check for reference.

6. Optional—Add a sheet for projecting cash flow

Excel spreadsheets aren’t up to the task of creating a proper Cash Flow Statement that you can present to investors. However, for your own personal planning, you can still plan your cash flow month by month in a simple spreadsheet.

To get started, check out our Google Sheets Cash Flow Projection Template . Copy and paste it into a blank sheet next to your Transactions.

Keeping your books up to date in Excel

Once you’ve customized the Income Statement Template for your business, you’ll mostly be using the Transactions sheet.

Input and categorize transactions

Every time a transaction takes place—whether you’re moving money, cash, or credit—you need to enter it into the Transaction sheet, in its own row. Then you need to categorize it.

When you use Bench , your transactions are automatically imported and categorized for you. But for DIY bookkeeping in Excel, you’ll be doing it yourself.

  • Get a record of the transaction. That could be a credit or bank card statement, info in your Paypal account, or receipt from a cash payment.
  • Enter the date the transaction was recorded under the Date column, using DD/YY/MM format.
  • Categorize the transaction. Enter its relevant account under the Category column. Be sure to type it exactly as it appears on the Chart of Accounts. The Income Statement will look at the data you enter in order to figure out how the transaction will be categorized.
  • Add any notes for yourself in the Description/Transaction column.

Save income sheets

By the end of every month, the Income Sheet should have all the data it needs to summarize your bookkeeping for that period. Make sure to keep the Income Sheets separated, organized by month.

You may want to make a copy of each one at the end of the month, and either save it or upload it to the cloud. Come tax season, your accountant will need your income sheets for the year.

Advanced accounting in Excel

If you want to get beyond bookkeeping and start understanding your finances in deeper ways within Excel, we recommend starting with pivot tables.

Pivot tables allow you to visualize and summarize your accounting info.

In our Income Statement template, we select Data > Summarize with Pivot Table

Accessing Pivot Tables in Excel

After we select all the categories we want to see summarized, here’s what we get.

Pivot table example in accounting

This pivot table gives us a simple summary of how much we spent from each vendor and how often we bought from them.

There’s much more you can do with pivot tables. If you want to learn more, check out the Microsoft Office training page for pivot tables .

And if you just want some good old fashioned Excel tips to level up, check out this in-depth blog article from Hubspot.

Outgrowing DIY bookkeeping in Excel

If your business keeps growing, you’ll eventually need to move on from Excel.

Signs you’re ready for a bookkeeper:

  • Data entry - Manually entering and categorizing transactions for your books is starting to take up too much of your time. (This can happen when you start processing more transactions per month)
  • You decide to upgrade to double-entry bookkeeping
  • You decide to switch to accrual accounting
  • You need complex financial statements such as a Balance Sheet or Cash Flow Statement
  • You start working with an accountant, and they need access to professionally kept books
  • You’ve just experienced a hectic tax season, and realize you need to be better organized for next year
  • You’ve experienced a phishing or malware attack on your business computer, and need a more secure way to maintain your business records
  • You have bookkeeping questions that can’t be answered by searching online

Sound like you? Learn how to dump spreadsheets and outsource your bookkeeping .

  • Accounting Journal Entries: Definition, How-to, and Examples
  • Debits VS Credits: A Simple, Visual Guide
  • The Difference Between Bookkeeping and Accounting
  • Adjusting Entries: A Simple Introduction

Join over 140,000 fellow entrepreneurs who receive expert advice for their small business finances

Get a regular dose of educational guides and resources curated from the experts at Bench to help you confidently make the right decisions to grow your business. No spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

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The ultimate Excel accounting template for bookkeeping

accounting cycle project excel

Your business can’t survive without accounting, which is why you’re probably on the hunt for an Excel accounting template that can help you stay on top of your organization’s finances.

But before you dive in head-first, there are a few important things you should know about accounting templates and other accounting software.

In this article, we will explain what accounting is, how Excel accounting templates work, and how monday.com’s Accounting Template can take your organization’s accounting to the next level.

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What is an Excel accounting template?

Accounting is all about making sure you always have a clear view of your income, petty cash, cost management , cash book, tax obligations, debts, paychecks, and everything else money-related you could possibly think of.

Download Excel template

But that can be pretty hard to keep track of — especially if you’re leading a small team and wearing many different hats at any given time. This is where an Excel accounting template really comes to the rescue.

An accounting template is a pre-built accounting statement that you can download and customize to suit your business needs. These templates are typically pre-populated or have a range of labeled columns — and then you simply fill in the blanks with your own financial information.

There are a number of free accounting templates for Excel and Google Sheets you can download and import onto your desktop or web app.

Screenshot of Excel accounting template

( Image source )

Why use the Excel accounting template?

Excel accounting templates are all about making life easier. If you’re new at this, having a clearly labeled template that can show which values to place and where is a total lifesaver.

For example, let’s say you’re a software engineer managing a new start-up. You might know a whole lot about building apps, but next to nothing about how to fill out an income statement. Don’t worry: most of us aren’t accountants.

Having an Excel accounting template to fall back on gives you some peace of mind in knowing you’re on the right track. A template will guide you in terms of all the fields and columns you have to include and what financial data you’ve got to keep tabs on.

If you’re looking for a more flexible and dynamic accounting template with less manual labor involved, we’ve got you covered. But more on that in a minute. First, let’s talk about the different types of accounting templates.

What are some examples of Excel accounting templates?

Because it’s the bread and butter of most trained accountants, you can find a lot of Excel accounting templates and just about every Excel bookkeeping template you could ever want, depending on your needs.

For example, there’s a General Ledger Template for you to track any business expense , a Statement of Account Template, Credit Card Tracker Template, invoice templates, and more. These templates can help you keep track of your finances and ensure that your business is running smoothly.

Let’s talk about the different types of accounting templates.

Income statement templates

An income statement template is a pre-designed template to help you record and summarize all of your team’s net income, net sales, and expenses during a given period of time.

An income statement is also often referred to as a “profit and loss statement” or “statement of revenue and expense.” That means you might occasionally see an income statement template labeled as a profit and loss statement template or a statement of revenue and expense template — but it all amounts to the same thing.

Income statement template example

There are a number of downloadable income statement templates you can use to record your income information in Excel spreadsheets . They’re normally pretty basic and include a number of pre-labeled rows and columns identifying common expenses and revenue sources that apply to a lot of different business types.

The key benefit here is that these templates will serve as a great prompt in terms of all the expenses or income sources you might not have otherwise considered including in your statement.

Balance sheet templates

A balance sheet template is a pre-made accounting statement that looks at all of your company’s total assets and liabilities — as well as shareholder equity. Balance sheets are all about demonstrating the “book value” of your company. To figure out your book value, you need to list all your company’s assets, liabilities, and equity for a given reporting date. Balance sheet templates are useful because they include pre-loaded rows that spell out all the basic information you’ll need to include in your accounting statement.

Balance Sheet template example

There are a number of pre-built balance sheet templates on Microsoft Office and other apps that include pre-configured formulas to find all your balance totals. This can save you valuable time because all you’ve got to do is drag and drop your financial data — the template does all the hard work.

Cash flow statement templates

Next, you’ve got cash flow statement templates. A cash flow statement gives you a breakdown of what your company’s cash balances look like for a given period. There are loads of cash flow templates available on Excel and a number of external sites that you can download for free.

Cash flow statement templates example

Cash flow statement templates are particularly useful for companies that are scaling up and need to show how sustainable their cash inflows are. For example, a clothing startup might use a cash flow statement template to quickly work out their cash balances over a 12-month period to show a lender that the startup can afford to take on a new business loan.

Managerial accounting templates

Managerial accounting is similar to financial accounting. But instead of looking at various accounting dates, it focuses on monthly or quarterly reports.

Managerial accounting statements enable you to analyze a company’s income and overheads to make important decisions about how your operations are funded and run. There are a number of managerial accounting templates on Excel — including budget templates and forecast templates.

Screenshow of managerial accounting template

This makes it easy to share with stakeholders and externals to let them know how your business is doing — without losing hours of precious time building tables yourself.

Cost accounting templates

Cost accounting templates are used to analyze spending and choose how your business prices its products or services. Translation: cost accounting is all about helping you develop price points to promote sales. You’ll encounter quite a few cost accounting templates on Excel and other third-party sites, although these will often be labeled as “cost sheets” or “costing templates.”

A huge benefit of using cost accounting templates is that the cost data you’re inputting is often dependent on other variables. That means your data in one cell may go up or down based on the number you place into a different column — which can get complicated fast. Costing templates come with all those formulas pre-loaded so that you can create an accounting statement without creating a headache.

Excel accounting template by monday.com

If you’re on the hunt for the perfect Excel accounting template but can’t find any Microsoft templates that fit the bill, you should check out monday.com’s free Excel accounting template.

accounting cycle project excel

Our dynamic downloadable template comes with a range of pre-built financial reports — including all the basic accounting statements we’ve already talked about. That means rather than worrying about creating loads of new spreadsheets and organizing them all, you can make life simpler with one master template that has everything you need in one place.

Each column is fully customizable, and all you’ve got to do is drag and drop your company’s financials to create fast and reliable financial statements to support your accounting function. All of the formulas you’ll ever need are already integrated into the template, which means you can knock out all your accounting statements in record time without breaking a sweat.

accounting cycle project excel

You can download our free Excel accounting template here. But if you want to remove all of the manual processes involved in accounting with Excel, we’ve got an even better solution available in the form of our fully-loaded Work OS Accounting Template.

Why monday.com’s built-in Accounting Template is the only template you’ll ever need

It’s totally possible to run a company’s accounting function offline using Excel. Many companies do it. But if you want to be able to handle all the core accounting functions we’ve covered without working overtime, you may want to rethink Excel and check out monday.com’s Accounting Template.

With our easy-to-use Accounting Template, you can consolidate all the accounting information and workflows in your business to manage everything on a single dashboard. This empowers you with a bird’s-eye view of all your finances. You’ll be able to automate financial reports, keep track of spending, set up spending alerts, and you’ll always know where you are in relation to your budget and income streams. This makes performing financial audits a breeze.

And if you really love a particular Excel accounting template — like ours — you can even use it alongside monday.com’s more dynamic template. With the help of our set of handy integrations, you can easily import Excel workbooks onto your monday.com dashboard and use that data to contribute to your wider works on monday.com.

Not only will that save you valuable time, but it also keeps you organized. We’re pretty good at knowing which columns go where — which means that we’ll automatically turn your imported Excel workbooks into a clearly labeled and fully customizable monday.com board in just a few clicks.

You can then tag and move items, assign tasks to team members based on your imported accounting statements, and change your dashboard view to give you different perspectives on the financial data you’ve imported.

End result: your accounting management will go from slow and reactive to super proactive in a matter of minutes.

Even more accounting templates from monday.com

Financial statements template.

If you’re focusing less on overall accounting and more on your financial statements, our Financial Statements Template will fit the bill.

You can use this template to manage capital investments, track debts and repayment schedules, and manage corporate audits — all while setting up rules and automations that will keep a running score of your core financial statements like your balance, income, and cash flow.

For example, you could set up an automation that automatically alerts a certain member of your team every time a capital investment posts a loss — or create an automated recurring task for your finance team to perform a monthly expenses audit.

Expense Tracking Template

Our Expense Tracking Template is designed to help you regain control of your finances with a fast and simple proactive approach.

This template offers live updates on all of your project or organization’s financials for any given period.

But it also gives you the chance to skip ahead and forecast where your existing financials will be in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

Screenshot of monday.com expense tracking template

FAQs about Excel accounting templates

How do i create an accounting template in excel.

Creating your own accounting template in Excel is pretty straightforward — although it can be a little time-consuming.

First, you’ve got to decide what sort of accounting template you’d like to create. After all, each template includes a range of different fields, so you’ll need to hone in on the reason you’re creating a template.

After opening up Excel, start a blank workbook and label your columns and rows. You may need to add formulas for certain columns depending on the type of statement template you’re creating.

Once you’re happy with the design and layout of your statement, all you’ve got to do is hit “File” and then “Save As Template.”

Does Excel have accounting templates?

The short answer is: yes, Excel has loads of accounting templates. If you open up Excel and then use the relevant keyword in the “Search All Templates” box, you should be able to find a basic template that will fit your needs.

For example, Excel has an inbuilt profit and loss statement template, business expenses budget template, budget planner template, and more.

How do you do accounting in Excel?

If you know what you’re doing, it’s possible to perform all of the core accounting functions for a business on Excel. But there’s a lot to do.

You’ll need to create an excel sheet as an invoice tracker, create a financial transaction tracker, set up multiple managerial accounting spreadsheets to keep tabs on operational expenditure — not to mention prepare income statements and cash flow statements.

These financial records will need to be constantly added into an up-to-date company ledger, which is essentially your master accounting template. Excel does offer a basic, pre-built company ledger template.

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Accounting | How To

How To Use Excel for Accounting [+Free Templates]

Updated June 24, 2023

Updated Jun 24, 2023

Published May 30, 2023

Tim Yoder, Ph.D., CPA

REVIEWED BY: Tim Yoder, Ph.D., CPA

Eric Gerard Ruiz, CPA

WRITTEN BY: Eric Gerard Ruiz, CPA

This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software .

  • 1 Reconcile Bank Accounts
  • 2 Track Unpaid Invoices (A/R)
  • 3 Track Unpaid Bills (A/P)
  • 4 Track Cost of Goods Sold
  • 5 Create Amortization Schedules
  • 6 As a General Ledger
  • 7 Importing Data Into Excel from QuickBooks Online
  • 8 When To Use Bookkeeping Software
  • 10 Bottom Line

Microsoft Excel is an invaluable tool for accountants to perform complex mathematical calculations that traditional bookkeeping software doesn’t provide. We don’t recommend that you use Excel as your primary bookkeeping system. However, it’s a fantastic tool to supplement your bookkeeping platform by performing needed reconciliations and calculations.

We discuss how you can use Excel to enhance your accounting. We also provide several templates, including bank reconciliation, invoice tracker, bills tracker, loan amortization, and general ledger, to assist you.

Are you looking for alternatives? Check out our list of the best small business accounting software .

Using Excel to Reconcile Bank Accounts

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Free Bank Reconciliation Template

Free Bank Reconciliation Template thumbnail

Thank you for downloading!

A bank reconciliation is essential to keep your bank and book balances on the same page. Due to timing differences, bank and book balances don’t always agree. Most accounting software has bank reconciliation features, but they always come with the paid or premium version.

We prepared our Excel bank reconciliation template in case you want to use free accounting software that lacks bank reconciliation features. With our file, you can reconcile the check register balance and bank statement balances by adjusting them for deposits in transit and outstanding checks.

How To Use Our Bank Reconciliation Template

To prevent any problems with Excel formulas in the sheet, you only need to fill out boxes in blue. You’ll need to gather the following information:

  • Balance per check register (Tip: Update first your check register before reconciliation).
  • Bank statement ending balance.
  • Deposits in transit, which are deposits you’ve recorded in your check register that aren’t shown on the bank statement.
  • Outstanding checks which are checks recorded in your check register that aren’t shown on your bank statement.

The template matches the adjusted bank balance with the balance per check register. If it’s not equal, the template will show you the difference. Once reconciled, you’ll see the word “RECONCILED.”

Using Excel to Track Unpaid Invoices (A/R)

Free Invoice Tracker Template

Free Invoice Tracker Template thumbnail

An A/R aging report is used by many businesses that invoice their clients to keep track of what payments are due to them. It shows when payments are owed, the amount due, and from which customer. It serves as an effective way to forecast cash flow and know exactly how much you’re owed at any given time.

You can use Excel to generate your invoices, especially if you want unlimited customization options, such as adding your logo and changing fonts. However, you may want to consider using a free invoice generator, which automates the invoicing process. Check out our recommendations for the top free invoice generators .

How To Use Our Invoice & A/R Tracker Template

After downloading the template, go directly to the CustomerList sheet. Replace all the information in the sheet with your actual customers. Once done, go to the InvoiceData sheet.

Items you can delete and replace with actual data in the InvoiceData sheet:

  • Invoice Number
  • Invoice Date
  • Company Name
  • Invoice Total

The Customer Name and Days Overdue columns cannot be replaced and deleted—these cells contain the formulas. After updating the sheet, go to the Customer Tracker or A/R Aging sheets. Right-click on the table and click Refresh to reflect your changes.

Using Excel to Track Unpaid Bills (A/P)

Free Bills Tracker Template

Free Bills Tracker Template thumbnail

The process of tracking how much money is owed to vendors, when the bills are due, and when they have been paid is known as A/P. If you aren’t diligent with paying your vendors on time, you can end up with bad credit and a lack of supplies, among other things. Creating an A/P aging file in Excel will help you monitor your payable accounts so that you know which bills you must pay first and how behind you’re on any past-due accounts.

How To Use Our Bill & A/P Tracker Template

After downloading the template, go directly to the VendorList sheet. Replace all the information in the sheet with actual vendors, then go to the BillData sheet.

Items you can delete and replace with actual data in the BillData sheet:

  • Bill Number
  • Vendor Company Name

Using Excel to Track Cost of Goods Sold

Free Inventory & COGS Tracker Template

Free Inventory & COGS Tracker Template thumbnail

The main challenge of inventory accounting is determining the cost of inventory on-hand at the end of the year versus the cost of inventory sold during the year, also known as cost of goods sold (COGS) . Tracking COGS is crucial in determining net income. With our COGS tracker, you can compute the most recent COGS balance of a particular inventory item and determine individual inventory gross profits or cost per unit.

The computation of inventory ending balance and COGS depends if you’re using the average cost (AVCO) method or first-in, first-out (FIFO) method . For our free template, we use the AVCO method because implementing the FIFO method in Excel requires complex functions.

How To Use Our Inventory & COGS Tracker Template

The template above uses the AVCO method of inventory costing. You should only fill out the yellow cells, and Excel will compute the rest. Don’t touch the white cells because these contain formulas that compute certain values. Remember that this template assumes that you’re only tracking one inventory product. If you have several inventory products, copy the sheet and rename it, such as sheet 1 = “Light Bulbs.”

Tracking inventory in a spreadsheet is extremely time-consuming, especially if you have a lot of different products to track. QuickBooks Online Plus will track inventory automatically and split costs between COGS and ending inventory. Learn more about it through our review of QuickBooks Online .

Using Excel to Create Amortization Schedules

Free Loan Amortization Template

Free Loan Amortization Template thumbnail

A loan amortization schedule shows you the schedule of payments, the amount of interest you pay, and the amount that gets deducted from the principal balance. You can use the amortization table to record monthly interest expense and update loans payable in the books. Most accounting software doesn’t have an amortization schedule feature. Our Excel template can help you prepare journal entries to update account balances.

How To Use Our Loan Amortization Template

The template is a dynamic amortization table, and it adjusts based on the number of payment periods and terms. All you need to do is fill out the yellow cells and Excel will generate the table automatically. Take note that the maximum loan term in this template is 40 years. The amortization table contains the following information:

  • Period : It is the ordinal number corresponding to the number of payment periods. For example, period 1 pertains to the first payment while period 6 pertains to the sixth payment.
  • Date : It refers to the date when payment is due.
  • Beginning Balance : It’s the balance of the loan at the beginning of the payment period.
  • Payments : It’s the installment payment you need to pay based on the payment frequency. This cell changes dynamically if you choose a payment frequency.
  • Interest : It’s the amount of interest expense based on the beginning balance of the loan.
  • Principal Amortization : It’s the portion of installment payments that is deducted from the beginning balance of the loan.
  • Ending Balance : It’s the balance of the loan after deducting the principal amortization.

Using Excel as a General Ledger

Free General Ledger Template

accounting cycle project excel

The general ledger is the collection of all accounts used in the accounting system. All transactions during the period must be posted to an account in the general ledger. However, you can skip journal entries if you only have a few transactions per month and update the accounts in the general ledger.

How to Use Our General Ledger Template

We recommend using this template if you don’t need to keep detailed records of transactions. It will enable you to keep tabs of all accounts related to your business. To keep things organized, we recommend using one sheet per month so that you don’t mix previous and current month transactions in one sheet.

Instructions on how to manipulate the template are included in the Excel file. Download it and read the instructions carefully.

Importing Data From QuickBooks Online Into Excel

Screenshot of QuickBooks Online Exporting Reports to Excel

Exporting Reports to Excel in QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online can export any of its reports to Excel, which is useful as you can pull sales data, banking data, and invoices from many sources into one central workbook to support your accounting activities. Exporting the report is simple and can be done with the following steps:

Step 1: Select Reports in the left sidebar.

Step 2: Search for and select the report that you want to export.

Step 3: Scroll to the top of the report to adjust the time period, accounting method, and other preferences, if desired.

Step 4: Click the Export icon in the top right corner of the report, then select Export to Excel. You also have the option to save the report as a PDF.

Step 5: Save the report in a location that you’ll be able to find easily, such as your desktop.

Here’s a sample Profit and Loss report exported to Excel:

QuickBooks Online Sample Profit & Loss Statement Exported to Excel

Sample Profit and Loss (P&L) Statement exported to Excel from QuickBooks Online

If you’re missing data when you open the report in Excel, it’s likely that the file is in a protected view. Select Enable Editing in Excel to view the full report.

When To Use Bookkeeping Software

While there are many accounting uses for Excel, we don’t recommend using it as your primary bookkeeping software to track your cash flow and classify your income and expenses. While it can be done, it’s much simpler to use one of the many free accounting software that are available in both cloud and desktop formats.

Basic bookkeeping software makes it easy to maintain detailed and accurate books. In addition to automating bookkeeping tasks, such as sending invoices (A/R) and paying bills (A/P), many programs use double-entry accounting, enable you to generate financial reports, provide some form of technical support, integrate with business apps, and can scale with your business.

Unlike bookkeeping software, Excel won’t be able to:

  • Generate reports based on the data from your books automatically
  • Connect to your business bank accounts or credit cards and import and sort transactions automatically
  • Create workflows to simplify accounting tasks because you still have to input formula and functions

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can i use excel for bookkeeping.

Yes, but it’s not recommended. If you’re a very small business, using Excel is cost-effective. But for small businesses with complex processes, Excel can be counterproductive and difficult to use. We recommend getting dedicated accounting software instead.

How do accountants use Excel?

Accountants and bookkeeping professionals use Excel to perform complex calculations, like amortization tables and depreciation schedules. They also use it to compute product cost, allocate overhead, and perform budgeting and forecasting.

Is QuickBooks better than Excel?

Overall, QuickBooks is better than Excel for accounting. It’s also easier to use because you don’t need to create formulas to perform calculations and process data. Excel requires users to have in-depth knowledge of formulas and even a little bit of programming to create automations.

Bottom Line

While using Excel for accounting tasks can be beneficial and inexpensive, it can also be a time-consuming process with the potential for errors. If you’re looking for a simpler and much more efficient way to manage your accounting, we recommend exploring different accounting software solutions to identify the one that’ll work best for you. Check out our list of the best small business accounting software for guidance.

About the Author

Eric Gerard Ruiz, CPA

Find Eric Gerard On LinkedIn

Eric Gerard Ruiz, CPA

Eric is an accounting and bookkeeping expert for Fit Small Business. He has a CPA license in the Philippines and a BS in Accountancy graduate at Silliman University. Since joining FSB, Eric has used his expertise and authority in curating and writing content about small business accounting and bookkeeping, accounting software, financial accounting and reporting, managerial accounting, and financial management.

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  • 5.4 Appendix: Complete a Comprehensive Accounting Cycle for a Business
  • Why It Matters
  • 1.1 Explain the Importance of Accounting and Distinguish between Financial and Managerial Accounting
  • 1.2 Identify Users of Accounting Information and How They Apply Information
  • 1.3 Describe Typical Accounting Activities and the Role Accountants Play in Identifying, Recording, and Reporting Financial Activities
  • 1.4 Explain Why Accounting Is Important to Business Stakeholders
  • 1.5 Describe the Varied Career Paths Open to Individuals with an Accounting Education
  • Multiple Choice
  • 2.1 Describe the Income Statement, Statement of Owner’s Equity, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows, and How They Interrelate
  • 2.2 Define, Explain, and Provide Examples of Current and Noncurrent Assets, Current and Noncurrent Liabilities, Equity, Revenues, and Expenses
  • 2.3 Prepare an Income Statement, Statement of Owner’s Equity, and Balance Sheet
  • Exercise Set A
  • Exercise Set B
  • Problem Set A
  • Problem Set B
  • Thought Provokers
  • 3.1 Describe Principles, Assumptions, and Concepts of Accounting and Their Relationship to Financial Statements
  • 3.2 Define and Describe the Expanded Accounting Equation and Its Relationship to Analyzing Transactions
  • 3.3 Define and Describe the Initial Steps in the Accounting Cycle
  • 3.4 Analyze Business Transactions Using the Accounting Equation and Show the Impact of Business Transactions on Financial Statements
  • 3.5 Use Journal Entries to Record Transactions and Post to T-Accounts
  • 3.6 Prepare a Trial Balance
  • 4.1 Explain the Concepts and Guidelines Affecting Adjusting Entries
  • 4.2 Discuss the Adjustment Process and Illustrate Common Types of Adjusting Entries
  • 4.3 Record and Post the Common Types of Adjusting Entries
  • 4.4 Use the Ledger Balances to Prepare an Adjusted Trial Balance
  • 4.5 Prepare Financial Statements Using the Adjusted Trial Balance
  • 5.1 Describe and Prepare Closing Entries for a Business
  • 5.2 Prepare a Post-Closing Trial Balance
  • 5.3 Apply the Results from the Adjusted Trial Balance to Compute Current Ratio and Working Capital Balance, and Explain How These Measures Represent Liquidity
  • 6.1 Compare and Contrast Merchandising versus Service Activities and Transactions
  • 6.2 Compare and Contrast Perpetual versus Periodic Inventory Systems
  • 6.3 Analyze and Record Transactions for Merchandise Purchases Using the Perpetual Inventory System
  • 6.4 Analyze and Record Transactions for the Sale of Merchandise Using the Perpetual Inventory System
  • 6.5 Discuss and Record Transactions Applying the Two Commonly Used Freight-In Methods
  • 6.6 Describe and Prepare Multi-Step and Simple Income Statements for Merchandising Companies
  • 6.7 Appendix: Analyze and Record Transactions for Merchandise Purchases and Sales Using the Periodic Inventory System
  • 7.1 Define and Describe the Components of an Accounting Information System
  • 7.2 Describe and Explain the Purpose of Special Journals and Their Importance to Stakeholders
  • 7.3 Analyze and Journalize Transactions Using Special Journals
  • 7.4 Prepare a Subsidiary Ledger
  • 7.5 Describe Career Paths Open to Individuals with a Joint Education in Accounting and Information Systems
  • 8.1 Analyze Fraud in the Accounting Workplace
  • 8.2 Define and Explain Internal Controls and Their Purpose within an Organization
  • 8.3 Describe Internal Controls within an Organization
  • 8.4 Define the Purpose and Use of a Petty Cash Fund, and Prepare Petty Cash Journal Entries
  • 8.5 Discuss Management Responsibilities for Maintaining Internal Controls within an Organization
  • 8.6 Define the Purpose of a Bank Reconciliation, and Prepare a Bank Reconciliation and Its Associated Journal Entries
  • 8.7 Describe Fraud in Financial Statements and Sarbanes-Oxley Act Requirements
  • 9.1 Explain the Revenue Recognition Principle and How It Relates to Current and Future Sales and Purchase Transactions
  • 9.2 Account for Uncollectible Accounts Using the Balance Sheet and Income Statement Approaches
  • 9.3 Determine the Efficiency of Receivables Management Using Financial Ratios
  • 9.4 Discuss the Role of Accounting for Receivables in Earnings Management
  • 9.5 Apply Revenue Recognition Principles to Long-Term Projects
  • 9.6 Explain How Notes Receivable and Accounts Receivable Differ
  • 9.7 Appendix: Comprehensive Example of Bad Debt Estimation
  • 10.1 Describe and Demonstrate the Basic Inventory Valuation Methods and Their Cost Flow Assumptions
  • 10.2 Calculate the Cost of Goods Sold and Ending Inventory Using the Periodic Method
  • 10.3 Calculate the Cost of Goods Sold and Ending Inventory Using the Perpetual Method
  • 10.4 Explain and Demonstrate the Impact of Inventory Valuation Errors on the Income Statement and Balance Sheet
  • 10.5 Examine the Efficiency of Inventory Management Using Financial Ratios
  • 11.1 Distinguish between Tangible and Intangible Assets
  • 11.2 Analyze and Classify Capitalized Costs versus Expenses
  • 11.3 Explain and Apply Depreciation Methods to Allocate Capitalized Costs
  • 11.4 Describe Accounting for Intangible Assets and Record Related Transactions
  • 11.5 Describe Some Special Issues in Accounting for Long-Term Assets
  • 12.1 Identify and Describe Current Liabilities
  • 12.2 Analyze, Journalize, and Report Current Liabilities
  • 12.3 Define and Apply Accounting Treatment for Contingent Liabilities
  • 12.4 Prepare Journal Entries to Record Short-Term Notes Payable
  • 12.5 Record Transactions Incurred in Preparing Payroll
  • 13.1 Explain the Pricing of Long-Term Liabilities
  • 13.2 Compute Amortization of Long-Term Liabilities Using the Effective-Interest Method
  • 13.3 Prepare Journal Entries to Reflect the Life Cycle of Bonds
  • 13.4 Appendix: Special Topics Related to Long-Term Liabilities
  • 14.1 Explain the Process of Securing Equity Financing through the Issuance of Stock
  • 14.2 Analyze and Record Transactions for the Issuance and Repurchase of Stock
  • 14.3 Record Transactions and the Effects on Financial Statements for Cash Dividends, Property Dividends, Stock Dividends, and Stock Splits
  • 14.4 Compare and Contrast Owners’ Equity versus Retained Earnings
  • 14.5 Discuss the Applicability of Earnings per Share as a Method to Measure Performance
  • 15.1 Describe the Advantages and Disadvantages of Organizing as a Partnership
  • 15.2 Describe How a Partnership Is Created, Including the Associated Journal Entries
  • 15.3 Compute and Allocate Partners’ Share of Income and Loss
  • 15.4 Prepare Journal Entries to Record the Admission and Withdrawal of a Partner
  • 15.5 Discuss and Record Entries for the Dissolution of a Partnership
  • 16.1 Explain the Purpose of the Statement of Cash Flows
  • 16.2 Differentiate between Operating, Investing, and Financing Activities
  • 16.3 Prepare the Statement of Cash Flows Using the Indirect Method
  • 16.4 Prepare the Completed Statement of Cash Flows Using the Indirect Method
  • 16.5 Use Information from the Statement of Cash Flows to Prepare Ratios to Assess Liquidity and Solvency
  • 16.6 Appendix: Prepare a Completed Statement of Cash Flows Using the Direct Method
  • A | Financial Statement Analysis
  • B | Time Value of Money
  • C | Suggested Resources

We have gone through the entire accounting cycle for Printing Plus with the steps spread over three chapters. Let’s go through the complete accounting cycle for another company here. The full accounting cycle diagram is presented in Figure 5.14 .

We next take a look at a comprehensive example that works through the entire accounting cycle for Clip’em Cliff. Clifford Girard retired from the US Marine Corps after 20 years of active duty. Cliff decides it would be fun to become a barber and open his own shop called “Clip’em Cliff.” He will run the barber shop out of his home for the first couple of months while he identifies a new location for his shop.

Since his Marines career included several years of logistics, he is also going to operate a consulting practice where he will help budding barbers create a barbering practice. He will charge a flat fee or a per hour charge. His consulting practice will be recognized as service revenue and will provide additional revenue while he develops his barbering practice.

He obtains a barber’s license after the required training and is ready to open his shop on August 1. Table 5.2 shows his transactions from the first month of business.

Transaction 1: On August 1, 2019, Cliff issues $70,000 shares of common stock for cash.

  • Clip’em Cliff now has more cash. Cash is an asset, which is increasing on the debit side.
  • When the company issues stock, this yields a higher common stock figure than before issuance. The common stock account is increasing on the credit side.

Transaction 2: On August 3, 2019, Cliff purchases barbering equipment for $45,000; $37,500 was paid immediately with cash, and the remaining $7,500 was billed to Cliff with payment due in 30 days.

  • Clip’em Cliff now has more equipment than before. Equipment is an asset, which is increasing on the debit side for $45,000.
  • Cash is used to pay for $37,500. Cash is an asset, decreasing on the credit side.
  • Cliff asked to be billed, which means he did not pay cash immediately for $7,500 of the equipment. Accounts Payable is used to signal this short-term liability. Accounts payable is increasing on the credit side.

Transaction 3: On August 6, 2019, Cliff purchases supplies for $300 cash.

  • Clip’em Cliff now has less cash. Cash is an asset, which is decreasing on the credit side.
  • Supplies, an asset account, is increasing on the debit side.

Transaction 4: On August 10, 2019, provides $4,000 in services to a customer who asks to be billed for the services.

  • Clip’em Cliff provided service, thus earning revenue. Revenue impacts equity, and increases on the credit side.
  • The customer did not pay immediately for the service and owes Cliff payment. This is an Accounts Receivable for Cliff. Accounts Receivable is an asset that is increasing on the debit side.

Transaction 5: On August 13, 2019, Cliff pays a $75 utility bill with cash.

  • Clip’em Cliff now has less cash than before. Cash is an asset that is decreasing on the credit side.
  • Utility payments are billed expenses. Utility Expense negatively impacts equity, and increases on the debit side.

Transaction 6: On August 14, 2019, Cliff receives $3,200 cash in advance from a customer for services to be rendered.

  • The customer has not yet received services but already paid the company. This means the company owes the customer the service. This creates a liability to the customer, and revenue cannot yet be recognized. Unearned Revenue is the liability account, which is increasing on the credit side.

Transaction 7: On August 16, 2019, Cliff distributed $150 cash in dividends to stockholders.

  • When the company pays out dividends, this decreases equity and increases the dividends account. Dividends increases on the debit side.

Transaction 8: On August 17, 2019, Cliff receives $5,200 cash from a customer for services rendered.

  • Clip’em Cliff now has more cash than before. Cash is an asset, which is increasing on the debit side.
  • Service was provided, which means revenue can be recognized. Service Revenue increases equity. Service Revenue is increasing on the credit side.

Transaction 9: On August 19, 2019, Cliff paid $2,000 toward the outstanding liability from the August 3 transaction.

  • Accounts Payable is a liability account, decreasing on the debit side.

Transaction 10: On August 22, 2019, Cliff paid $4,600 cash in salaries expense to employees.

  • When the company pays salaries, this is an expense to the business. Salaries Expense reduces equity by increasing on the debit side.

Transaction 11: On August 28, 2019, the customer from the August 10 transaction pays $1,500 cash toward Cliff’s account.

  • The customer made a partial payment on their outstanding account. This reduces Accounts Receivable. Accounts Receivable is an asset account decreasing on the credit side.
  • Cash is an asset, increasing on the debit side.

The complete journal for August is presented in Figure 5.15 .

Once all journal entries have been created, the next step in the accounting cycle is to post journal information to the ledger. The ledger is visually represented by T-accounts. Cliff will go through each transaction and transfer the account information into the debit or credit side of that ledger account. Any account that has more than one transaction needs to have a final balance calculated. This happens by taking the difference between the debits and credits in an account.

Clip’em Cliff’s ledger represented by T-accounts is presented in Figure 5.16 .

You will notice that the sum of the asset account balances in Cliff’s ledger equals the sum of the liability and equity account balances at $83,075. The final debit or credit balance in each account is transferred to the unadjusted trial balance in the corresponding debit or credit column as illustrated in Figure 5.17 .

Once all of the account balances are transferred to the correct columns, each column is totaled. The total in the debit column must match the total in the credit column to remain balanced. The unadjusted trial balance for Clip’em Cliff appears in Figure 5.18 .

The unadjusted trial balance shows a debit and credit balance of $87,900. Remember, the unadjusted trial balance is prepared before any period-end adjustments are made.

On August 31, Cliff has the transactions shown in Table 5.3 requiring adjustment.

Adjusting Transaction 1: Cliff took an inventory of supplies and discovered that $250 of supplies remain unused at the end of the month.

  • $250 of supplies remain at the end of August. The company began the month with $300 worth of supplies. Therefore, $50 of supplies were used during the month and must be recorded (300 – 250). Supplies is an asset that is decreasing (credit).
  • Supplies is a type of prepaid expense, that when used, becomes an expense. Supplies Expense would increase (debit) for the $50 of supplies used during August.

Adjusting Transaction 2: The equipment purchased on August 3 depreciated $2,500 during the month of August.

  • Equipment cost of $2,500 was allocated during August. This depreciation will affect the Accumulated Depreciation–Equipment account and the Depreciation Expense–Equipment account. While we are not doing depreciation calculations here, you will come across more complex calculations, such as depreciation in Long-Term Assets .
  • Accumulated Depreciation–Equipment is a contra asset account (contrary to Equipment) and increases (credit) for $2,500.
  • Depreciation Expense–Equipment is an expense account that is increasing (debit) for $2,500.

Adjusting Transaction 3: Clip’em Cliff performed $1,100 of services during August for the customer from the August 14 transaction.

  • The customer from the August 14 transaction gave the company $3,200 in advanced payment for services. By the end of August the company had earned $1,100 of the advanced payment. This means that the company still has yet to provide $2,100 in services to that customer.
  • Since some of the unearned revenue is now earned, Unearned Revenue would decrease. Unearned Revenue is a liability account and decreases on the debit side.
  • The company can now recognize the $1,100 as earned revenue. Service Revenue increases (credit) for $1,100.

Adjusting Transaction 4: Reviewing the company bank statement, Clip’em Cliff identifies $350 of interest earned during the month of August that was previously unrecorded.

  • Interest is revenue for the company on money kept in a money market account at the bank. The company only sees the bank statement at the end of the month and needs to record as received interest revenue reflected on the bank statement.
  • Interest Revenue is a revenue account that increases (credit) for $350.
  • Since Clip’em Cliff has yet to collect this interest revenue, it is considered a receivable. Interest Receivable increases (debit) for $350.

Adjusting Transaction 5: Unpaid and previously unrecorded income taxes for the month are $3,400.

  • Income taxes are an expense to the business that accumulate during the period but are only paid at predetermined times throughout the year. This period did not require payment but did accumulate income tax.
  • Income Tax Expense is an expense account that negatively affects equity. Income Tax Expense increases on the debit side.
  • The company owes the tax money but has not yet paid, signaling a liability. Income Tax Payable is a liability that is increasing on the credit side.

The summary of adjusting journal entries for Clip’em Cliff is presented in Figure 5.19 .

Now that all of the adjusting entries are journalized, they must be posted to the ledger. Posting adjusting entries is the same process as posting the general journal entries. Each journalized account figure will transfer to the corresponding ledger account on either the debit or credit side as illustrated in Figure 5.20 .

We would normally use a general ledger, but for illustrative purposes, we are using T-accounts to represent the ledgers. The T-accounts after the adjusting entries are posted are presented in Figure 5.21 .

You will notice that the sum of the asset account balances equals the sum of the liability and equity account balances at $80,875. The final debit or credit balance in each account is transferred to the adjusted trial balance, the same way the general ledger transferred to the unadjusted trial balance.

The next step in the cycle is to prepare the adjusted trial balance. Clip’em Cliff’s adjusted trial balance is shown in Figure 5.22 .

The adjusted trial balance shows a debit and credit balance of $94,150. Once the adjusted trial balance is prepared, Cliff can prepare his financial statements (step 7 in the cycle). We only prepare the income statement, statement of retained earnings, and the balance sheet. The statement of cash flows is discussed in detail in Statement of Cash Flows .

To prepare your financial statements, you want to work with your adjusted trial balance.

Remember, revenues and expenses go on an income statement. Dividends, net income (loss), and retained earnings balances go on the statement of retained earnings. On a balance sheet you find assets, contra assets, liabilities, and stockholders’ equity accounts.

The income statement for Clip’em Cliff is shown in Figure 5.23 .

Note that expenses were only $25 less than revenues. For the first month of operations, Cliff welcomes any income. Cliff will want to increase income in the next period to show growth for investors and lenders.

Next, Cliff prepares the following statement of retained earnings ( Figure 5.24 ).

The beginning retained earnings balance is zero because Cliff just began operations and does not have a balance to carry over to a future period. The ending retained earnings balance is –$125. You probably never want to have a negative value on your retained earnings statement, but this situation is not totally unusual for an organization in its initial operations. Cliff will want to improve this outcome going forward. It might make sense for Cliff to not pay dividends until he increases his net income.

Cliff then prepares the balance sheet for Clip’em Cliff as shown in Figure 5.25 .

The balance sheet shows total assets of $80,875, which equals total liabilities and equity. Now that the financial statements are complete, Cliff will go to the next step in the accounting cycle, preparing and posting closing entries. To do this, Cliff needs his adjusted trial balance information.

Cliff will only close temporary accounts, which include revenues, expenses, income summary, and dividends. The first entry closes revenue accounts to income summary. To close revenues, Cliff will debit revenue accounts and credit income summary.

The second entry closes expense accounts to income summary. To close expenses, Cliff will credit expense accounts and debit income summary.

The third entry closes income summary to retained earnings. To find the balance, take the difference between the income summary amount in the first and second entries (10,650 – 10,625). To close income summary, Cliff would debit Income Summary and credit Retained Earnings.

The fourth closing entry closes dividends to retained earnings. To close dividends, Cliff will credit Dividends, and debit Retained Earnings.

Once all of the closing entries are journalized, Cliff will post this information to the ledger. The closed accounts with their final balances, as well as Retained Earnings, are presented in Figure 5.26 .

Now that the temporary accounts are closed, they are ready for accumulation in the next period.

The last step for the month of August is step 9, preparing the post-closing trial balance. The post-closing trial balance should only contain permanent account information. No temporary accounts should appear on this trial balance. Clip’em Cliff’s post-closing trial balance is presented in Figure 5.27 .

At this point, Cliff has completed the accounting cycle for August. He is now ready to begin the process again for September, and future periods.

Concepts In Practice

Reversing entries.

One step in the accounting cycle that we did not cover is reversing entries. Reversing entries can be made at the beginning of a new period to certain accruals. The company will reverse adjusting entries made in the prior period to the revenue and expense accruals.

It can be difficult to keep track of accruals from prior periods, as support documentation may not be readily available in current or future periods. This requires an accountant to remember when these accruals came from. By reversing these accruals, there is a reduced risk for counting revenues and expenses twice. The support documentation received in the current or future period for an accrual will be easier to match to prior revenues and expenses with the reversal.

Link to Learning

As we have learned, the current ratio shows how well a company can cover short-term debt with short-term assets. Look through the balance sheet in the 2017 Annual Report for Target and calculate the current ratio. What does the outcome mean for Target ?

Think It Through

Using liquidity ratios to evaluate financial performance.

You own a landscaping business that has just begun operations. You made several expensive equipment purchases in your first month to get your business started. These purchases very much reduced your cash-on-hand, and in turn your liquidity suffered in the following months with a low working capital and current ratio.

Your business is now in its eighth month of operation, and while you are starting to see a growth in sales, you are not seeing a significant change in your working capital or current ratio from the low numbers in your early months. What could you attribute to this stagnancy in liquidity? Is there anything you can do as a business owner to better these liquidity measurements? What will happen if you cannot change your liquidity or it gets worse?

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  • Authors: Mitchell Franklin, Patty Graybeal, Dixon Cooper
  • Publisher/website: OpenStax
  • Book title: Principles of Accounting, Volume 1: Financial Accounting
  • Publication date: Apr 11, 2019
  • Location: Houston, Texas
  • Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/principles-financial-accounting/pages/1-why-it-matters
  • Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/principles-financial-accounting/pages/5-4-appendix-complete-a-comprehensive-accounting-cycle-for-a-business

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Excel Accountancy

Financial Accounting The Accounting Cycle

The accounting cycle.

The Accounting Cycle

The ‘accounting cycle’ refers to the process in which data is recorded and processed until it becomes part of the financial statements at the end of the period. Understanding the accounting cycle helps to visualize and contextualize the whole accounting process which eventually helps to understand each piece of the accounting process.

Now that we’ve covered all aspects of bookkeeping entries, we can show the full accounting cycle in the form of the diagram below.

Stages in Accounting Cycle

1.   identifying transactions.

The first step in the accounting cycle is to identify transactions from an event. For example, if a customer enters into a shop and asks for prices, this is an event and need not be recorded in accounting until he buys something.

2.   Vouching

The first document in the accounting cycle is a voucher that serves as proof of transaction. Vouchers are prepared at the time when actual transactions occur. These documents have a special legal value and are usually hand/ digitally signed by the person who is preparing these.

Vouchers are carefully saved, even after the transactions have been recorded into the book of accounts so these can later be reproduced if required during verification (at the time of dispute or audit) of the transaction. In some jurisdictions, it is mandatory for the business to save vouchers for a particular number of years. Particularly taxation authorities may ask to reproduce vouchers in later years while auditing the financial reports/ tax filing of the company.

Examples are Sales Invoices/ Bill, Goods Receipt notes, etc. We will discuss vouchers in more detail in the coming chapters .

3.   Journalizing/ Entry in Daybooks

Each transaction is then briefly entered into a relevant Day Book OR Journal . The record entered into the daybooks is a brief summary of the content written on vouchers issued at the time of the transaction. At the end of each day, the persons responsible for making the transaction i.e. cashier, salesman, storekeeper, etc. are usually responsible to fill the records into the daybooks/ journals/ registers before closing the day/ shift.

Following are examples of journals are the Purchase day book and Sales daybook.

Sales daybook/ Journal

Purchase daybooks/Journal

Sales Return daybook/ Journal

Purchase return daybook/journal

Cash/ Bankbook

General Journal

Later in the coming chapters , we will study each of the above daybooks/journals/registers in detail.

4.   Posting into Ledgers

After a specific interval, and review by a senior staff member/ supervisor (depending on organizational hierarchy) all transactions from daybooks are summarized by posting them into ledgers.

When a business is small, all double-entry accounts can be kept in one book, called the ‘ ledger ‘. However, as the business grows, it will be impossible to keep all records in just one Ledger. Further, a high volume of transactions for almost every aspect of the business means the various types of Ledgers needed to be classified separately for better financial and performance management.

The answer to this problem is to keep as many ledger books as required. When we do this, we put together similar transactions and have a separate book to record transactions for each category.

5.   Closing of Accounts

At the end of each period, all ledgers are reviewed and to balance them various entries are posted into Ledgers. These balancing entries result in the closing of various period-specific ledgers, therefore this process at each period end is called “Closing Process” or simply closing. Examples of closing entries include posting revenues and expenses into profit and loss accounts, temporarily closing/ balancing Assets, liability, and capital accounts, and posting entries like depreciation, accruals, and prepayments. The Detailed closing process will be deliberated in upcoming sections .

6.   Preparation of Trial Balance

Trial Balance in a simple list of accounts with the amounts of closing balances at each period end.

After the closing process n most companies, an initial trial balance statement is prepared. Any errors identified during the closing and audit process are rectified through the creation of the suspense account, and then after complete rectification of errors suspense account is closed and a final error-free trial balance, also called adjusted trial balance is prepared.

At the end of this chapter, the purpose and preparation of the trial balance have been discussed in detail.

7.   Financial Statements

After the finalization of the trial balance report, Financial Statements are prepared and presented to senior management for approval and further reporting to owners. Financial statements include Profit and Loss Statement , Balance Sheet , cash-flow statements , statement of changes in equity, and notes to these financial statements.

8.   Reversing Entries/ Opening Balances

At the beginning of the new financial year, all temporarily closed ledgers (Assets, Liabilities, and capital) and entries posted for accrual during the closing process (stated at the 5th Stage of the accounting cycle) are reversed.

Note: Each stage of the accounting cycle will be discussed in a relevant chapter. Further, depending on the systems and control mechanism of each company, the stage of the accounting cycle provided here may vary. However, the details of the accounting cycle given here will help you to understand the accounting process being followed in real life. 

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Good Refresher on the entire Accounting Cycle. Appreciated the thorough explanations for each transaction. Definitely would recommend for a beginner or someone looking for a brush up on the accounting cycle.

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Literature review, beyond excel: software tools and the accounting curriculum.

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Lorraine Lee , William Kerler , Daniel Ivancevich; Beyond Excel: Software Tools and the Accounting Curriculum. AIS Educator Journal 1 January 2018; 13 (1): 44–61. doi: https://doi.org/10.3194/1935-8156-13.1.44

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The ability to use various software and tools is important for students entering the accounting profession. In an exploratory study, we develop a survey to assess accounting practitioners' evaluations of the importance of various software tools, as well as the importance of data analytics and data visualization skills. Responses from 197 practitioners indicate that Excel is the most frequently utilized software / tool, the most important software tool for new hires, and that Excel should be emphasized in university accounting programs. We find that the importance of Excel is consistent across different accounting areas (audit, tax, advisory, and corporate) and across all experience levels. In addition, Adobe Acrobat, PowerPoint, accounting / ERP software, and the FASB Codification were identified as frequently utilized across the various accounting areas and experience levels. Finally, practitioners in each of the different accounting areas and at all experience levels indicate data analytic skills and data visualization skills are important, but that data analytic skills are perceived as more important than data visualization skills. Our study contributes to the accounting information systems literature by identifying the specific software and tools that are relevant to the profession and provides guidance on the software and tools that should be emphasized in university accounting programs.

The accounting profession is closely associated with numerous technologies and applications that enable the more efficient and effective processing and analysis of financial data. From basic spreadsheet software such as Excel to complex enterprise resource planning applications like SAP, accountants use numerous software and tools to accomplish a range of objectives. With the variety of software used in the profession, it becomes important for accounting educators to understand the following question: What specific technology software and tools should accounting programs emphasize?

The importance of information technology (IT) in accounting is recognized by the Pathways Commission (2012) , which calls for academic accounting programs to identify and integrate current and emerging accounting and business information technologies throughout the accounting curricula. Specifically, the Pathways Commission (2012, p.72) identifies specific technologies, such as “data visualization, enterprise business services, telecommunication, cloud infrastructure, integrated audit modules, database dashboard metrics…” as “dramatically reshaping the policies and processes of the profession.” The Pathways Commissions (p. 73) goes on to refer to the lack of focus on technologies in accounting programs as a “curricular deficit,” creating a risk for graduates who “are expected to effectively and efficiently utilize and understand technologies and their capabilities, impacts, risks, and opportunities to add value to their organization.”

Incorporating IT into the accounting curriculum is often problematic, in part due to the rapid pace of technology change and innovation ( Badua et al. 2011 ), the limited experience and education of faculty in the specific technologies ( Boritz and Stoner 2014 ), and the lack of recognition and incentives for faculty to focus on curriculum development ( Boulianne 2016 ). With these barriers, it becomes even more critical for accounting educators to hone in on the specific technology areas that should be emphasized in accounting programs.

This paper answers the call by the Pathway Commission (2012) for additional research focused on enhancing learning experiences to integrate technology into accounting courses and across the accounting curriculum. In an exploratory study, we develop a survey to assess accounting practitioners' evaluations of the importance of various software tools as well as the importance of data analytics and data visualization skills. Responses from 197 practitioners indicate that Excel is the most frequently utilized software / tool, the most important software tools for new hires, and that Excel should be emphasized in university accounting programs. The importance of Excel is consistent in different accounting areas (audit, tax, advisory, and corporate) and across all experience levels. In addition, Adobe Acrobat, PowerPoint, accounting / ERP software, and the FASB Codification were identified as frequently utilized across various accounting areas and experience levels. Finally, practitioners in each of the different accounting areas and at all experience levels indicate data analytic skills are more important than data visualization skills.

The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. First, we begin with a review of the accounting literature for recommendations on specific software and tools that should be integrated into accounting programs. Second, we develop and deploy a survey to explore the specific types of software and applications that are important to accounting professionals. Third, we present the results of the survey. Fourth, we develop recommendations based on the results and identify areas for future research.

Within the accounting discipline, a stream of research has investigated the general topics that should be covered in the AIS curriculum. One of the early works in this area is Davis and Leitch (1988) , who survey accounting professionals and faculty to develop a list of topics applicable to undergraduate and graduate AIS courses. Bain et al. (2002) focus on the topical coverage of the first AIS course in the undergraduate program and identify the following as especially important topics: 1) an introduction to systems; 2) internal control; and 3) transaction processing. Badua et al. (2011) recognize the swiftly changing nature of AIS and use content analysis to identify 70+ possible topics that have been addressed in AIS classes, from expert systems to flowcharts to XBRL. From a broader, IT perspective, Tam (2013) identifies 18 topics in IT knowledge and skills particularly relevant to accounting graduates. In contrast, Sledgianowski et al. (2017) focus on a specific timely topic of integrating big data competencies into the accounting curriculum. A common theme among these studies is the growing expectation that AIS educators in particular provide leadership in technology-related decisions relevant to the overall accounting curriculum.

As the list of technologies relevant to AIS grows longer and broader, one tool remains at the forefront in importance to the profession: Excel. Numerous articles concerning Excel have appeared in practitioner-oriented journals, e.g., Collins 2017 , Lenning 2014 . In the academic literature, Brown and Pike (2010) cite a KPMG study where Excel has been identified as being used almost twice as often as other software such as Audit Control Language (ACL) or Access. More recently, Ragland and Ramachandran (2014) confirm that public accounting firms are seeking graduates proficient in Excel and identify specific topics and functions of Excel particularly applicable to new graduates. Similarly, Rackliffe and Ragland (2016) explore Excel in the accounting curriculum from the perspective of accounting faculty, finding that faculty understand the importance of Excel in public accounting and the need to improve students' overall proficiency in Excel.

Excel's importance, however, is not limited to public accounting. For example, Bradbard et al. (2014) explore spreadsheet usage by management accountants and identify a list of 37 skills and competencies associated with spreadsheet expertise. Jacobs et al. (2016) position Excel as the tool of choice in facilitating strategic managerial decisions, and Ojua (2016) studies the perception of Excel usage and financial reporting in manufacturing firms, with emphasis on the control risks associated with spreadsheets.

With this prominence of Excel in the accounting profession, accounting educators have embraced Excel in the development of teaching cases. For example, Hinson et al. (2015) develop an instructional case related to billable hours using an Excel spreadsheet, while Cornell et al. (2014) use Excel as the foundation for a multi-year accounting cycle project. From an audit perspective, Bagley and Harp (2012) demonstrate the concept of electronic work papers and tick marks through an Excel-based case of auditing property, plant, and equipment.

It is within this rapidly changing technology environment and the conflicting objectives of breadth of exposure to various software tools versus depth of expertise in Excel, as well as the growing expectation that AIS faculty provide technology guidance and leadership, that AIS educators in particular are faced with this question: What specific software tools and technologies should be emphasized in accounting programs? To answer this fundamental question, we perform an exploratory study to better understand the relevant software tools applicable for today's graduates. Specifically, we address the following questions:

Q1: Is Excel the most important software tool for accounting professionals?

Q2: Are there other software tools that university accounting programs should prioritize?

Q3: To what extent should data analytics and data visualization be incorporated into the technology mix of university accounting programs?

Survey Development

In order to investigate our research questions, we developed a survey targeted at accounting professionals in various stages of their careers. The primary effort in the development of the survey focused on identifying the list of software tools applicable to the profession. We focus our survey on public accounting because public accounting represents the entry-level job placement for many graduates of accounting master's programs. We started the development of the list by identifying the current software tools that are used in our university's accounting program. We then reviewed this list with the accounting faculty members in the department to ensure we had coverage of the different topical areas in accounting (e.g., audit, tax, financial, managerial, and systems). Next, we reviewed our items with two practitioners from Big 4 accounting firms and one practitioner from a large regional firm. Our final list consists of the 14 software and tools presented in Table 1 . For our analysis, we grouped IDEA and ACL together and presented the combined results as “Audit Software,” and we grouped SAP, Quickbooks, and Peachtree as “Accounting / ERP Software.” 1

Software Tools Included in Survey

Software Tools Included in Survey

The survey first gathers participants' demographic information including years of accounting experience, gender, age, CPA certification, and primary accounting area. 2 Next, participants evaluate their frequency of use for each of the 14 software tools. Participants then evaluate how much emphasis they believe university accounting programs should place on teaching each of the 14 software tools, as well as select which of the software tools they believe are the most important for new hires during the first two years in the accounting profession. Finally, participants indicate the importance of incorporating data analytics and data visualization skills into a Masters of Accountancy program and the importance of those skills for audit associates, tax associates, and advisory associates. Data analytics is defined for participants as “the examination of data to uncover hidden patterns, correlations, and insights,” while data visualization is defined as “a general term that describes any effort to help people understand the significance of data by placing it in a visual context.”

The survey was implemented with Qualtrics and deployed online to graduates from the Masters of Science in Accountancy program from a regional university in the Southeast United States. The survey was emailed to 703 participants. We had 197 completed responses, for a response rate of 28.0 percent. As shown in Table 2 , participants have a mean age of 31.67 years and a mean of 6.44 years of accounting experience. Participants consist of 89 females (45.2 percent) and 106 males (53.8 percent) with two other participants choosing not to indicate their gender. One-hundred twenty-two (61.9 percent) participants have an active CPA license. Lastly, 63 (32.0 percent) participants indicate public accounting audit as the primary area of accounting in which they currently work, 39 (19.8 percent) in public accounting tax, 21 (10.7 percent) in public accounting advisory, 52 (26.4 percent) in corporate, nine (4.6 percent) as sole-practitioner / self-employed, seven (3.6 percent) in not-for-profit, three (1.5 percent) in education, and 30 (15.2 percent) in another area. 3

Sample Descriptive Statistics

Sample Descriptive Statistics

All of the statistical analyses presented in the following results section were also performed utilizing comparable nonparametric analyses. The nonparametric results were consistent with the parametric results except where specifically noted.

Research Questions One and Two

The first research question explores whether Excel is the most important tool for accounting professionals, while the second question explores what other software tools university accounting programs should prioritize in the curriculum. To investigate these questions, we ask participants to respond to three questions about each of the 14 software tools. First, participants indicate how frequently they use each software tool as part of their current job (or most recent accounting-related position). 4 Respondents ranked their frequency of use on a seven-point Likert-type scale with 1: “Not at all,” 2: “Infrequently,” 3: “Somewhat Infrequently,” 4: “Neither Frequently Nor Infrequently,” 5: “Somewhat Frequently,” 6: “Frequently,” and 7: “Very Frequently.” Second, participants indicate how much emphasis university accounting programs (undergraduate or graduate) should place on teaching and using each software tool. 5 Responses are on a five-point Likert-type scale with 1: “Do not emphasize at all,” 2: “Emphasize a little,” 3: “Emphasize somewhat,” 4: “Emphasize,” 5: “Emphasize strongly.” Third, participants select which of the 14 software tools they believe are the most important for new hires during their first two years in the accounting profession (participants may select more than one). 6

Frequency of Use

Results for the frequency of use question are shown in Table 3 . Participants indicate that Excel (6.92), Adobe Acrobat (6.34), PowerPoint (4.27), and accounting / ERP software (3.68) are the four most frequently utilized software tools. Each of these four are significantly different from each other (all p < 0.012, two-tailed), and they are each significantly different from each of the other seven software tools (all p < 0.001, two-tailed) with the exception of accounting / ERP software and the FASB codification (p = 0.207, two-tailed). Responses for the top four [Excel (p < 0.001, two-tailed), Adobe Acrobat (p < 0.001, two-tailed), PowerPoint (p = 0.052, two-tailed), and accounting / ERP software (p = 0.079, two-tailed] are also significantly greater than the scale midpoint of 4.0. Together, these results suggest that professionals utilize Excel the most, followed by Adobe Acrobat, PowerPoint, and accounting / ERP software.

To further analyze the frequency of use, we divide our participants into three groups based on years of accounting experience: 1) less than four years; 2) four to seven-and-a-half years; and 3) greater than seven-and-a-half years. As shown in Table 3 , for each subgroup, the top three most frequently used software tools are Excel, Adobe Acrobat, and PowerPoint. For the lowest experience group, the fourth most frequently used software is the FASB codification, while the fourth software for the two more experienced groups is accounting / ERP software. Interestingly, the frequency of use for PowerPoint is significantly greater (p = 0.003 for each, two-tailed) for the two more experienced groups (4.63 each) as compared to the lowest experience group (3.63). This may be due to changing roles as accountants advance in their careers, with more data analysis and detailed work at the beginning of their careers and more client and firm presentations at later points.

Frequency of Use in Participants' Current Job

Frequency of Use in Participants' Current Job

We also investigate the frequency of use for participants who identified a specific primary accounting area of audit, tax, advisory, or corporate. 7 As shown in Table 3 , audit associates most frequently utilize Excel (7.00), Adobe Acrobat (6.41), the FASB Codification (5.18), and PowerPoint (4.04). Tax associates most frequently utilize Excel (6.93), Adobe Acrobat (6.85), tax research software (4.85), and accounting / ERP software (3.93). Advisory associates most frequently use Excel (7.00), Adobe Acrobat (6.39), PowerPoint (5.62), and accounting / ERP software (4.46). Corporate accountants most frequently use Excel (6.98), Adobe Acrobat (6.00), PowerPoint (4.89), and accounting / ERP software (3.24). These findings suggest that regardless of accounting area, all accountants most frequently utilize Excel and Adobe Acrobat to perform their duties. Furthermore, PowerPoint is frequently used by the accountant groups, with the exception of tax professionals, and accounting / ERP software is frequently used by the accountant groups, with the exception of audit professionals.

University Accounting Programs

Table 4 highlights the software tools that should be emphasized in university accounting programs. Participants indicate that Excel (4.86), Adobe Acrobat (3.95), the FASB Codification (3.63), and PowerPoint (3.52) should be emphasized the most in accounting programs. Excel is significantly different than every other software tool (all p < 0.001, two-tailed), as is Adobe Acrobat (all p < 0.021, two-tailed). The FASB Codification and PowerPoint are not significantly different from each other (p = 0.442, two-tailed), but they are both significantly different from each of the other nine software tools (all p < 0.021, two-tailed). Responses for the top four (Excel, Adobe Acrobat, the FASB Codification, and PowerPoint) are also significantly greater than the scale midpoint of 3.0 (all p < 0.001, two-tailed). Together, these results suggest that accounting professionals believe that all four of these software tools should be emphasized in University accounting programs, with Excel receiving the most emphasis. To further analyze which software tools should be emphasized, we again divide our participants into subgroups. As shown in Table 4 , for each of our three subgroups based on years of accounting experience, the top four software tools to be emphasized continue to be Excel, Adobe Acrobat, the FASB Codification, and PowerPoint, although accounting / ERP software does move into a tie for fourth with the FASB Codification for participants in the middle experience group. Consistent with the findings for frequency of use, the emphasis to be placed on PowerPoint for the lowest experience group (3.16) is significantly less than the middle experience group (3.79, p = 0.008, two-tailed) and the most experienced group (3.74, p = 0.011, two-tailed) 8 . Again, this may be due to the changing roles as accountants advance in their careers, with more data analysis and detailed work at the beginning of their careers and more client and firm presentations at later points.

Emphasis of Software in University Accounting Program

Emphasis of Software in University Accounting Program

For each of the four subgroups based on a specific primary accounting area, we find that audit associates and corporate accountants identify Excel, Adobe Acrobat, the FASB Codification, and PowerPoint as the four software tools to emphasize the most. Tax associates select Excel and Adobe Acrobat as the two highest, followed by tax research software and accounting / ERP software. Advisory associates select Excel and PowerPoint as the two highest, followed by Adobe Acrobat and accounting / ERP software. These findings suggest that regardless of accounting experience or accounting area, accountants believe Excel and Adobe Acrobat should be emphasized in University accounting programs, whether in the accounting classes themselves or as part of the overall business curriculum. Furthermore, the results show that PowerPoint, accounting / ERP software, and the FASB Codification are also important to emphasize, as well as tax research software for tax accountants.

Table 5 identifies the software tools that are the most important for new hires in the accounting profession. For this question, participants were allowed to select more than one answer. Of the 196 participants that completed this question, 195 (99.5 percent) selected Excel, 118 (60.2 percent) selected Adobe Acrobat, 72 (36.7 percent) selected the FASB Codification, and 69 (35.2 percent) selected PowerPoint. For each of our three subgroups based on years of accounting experience, the top two software tools were always Excel and Adobe Acrobat. For the lowest experienced group the FASB Codification and audit software were third and fourth, respectively. For the middle experienced group, PowerPoint and accounting / ERP software were third and fourth, respectively. Consistent with the overall results, for the most experienced group, the FASB Codification and PowerPoint were the third and fourth, respectively. For each of the four subgroups based on a specific primary accounting area, Excel is the most selected software tool, with Adobe Acrobat in the top four for each group. Audit associates selected the FASB Codification and audit software in their top four; tax associates selected accounting / ERP software and tax research software in their top four; advisory associates selected PowerPoint and audit software in their top four; and corporate accountants selected the FASB Codification and PowerPoint in their top four. These findings suggest that regardless of accounting experience or accounting area, accountants believe Excel and Adobe Acrobat are two of the most important software tools for new hires in accounting.

Most Important Software for New Hires

Most Important Software for New Hires

Overall, the analysis of these three areas (frequency of use, emphasis in accounting programs, and importance for new hires) reveal a consistent story. Regardless of experience or accounting area of expertise, Excel and Adobe Acrobat are perceived as essential skills for all accountants. Clearly, university accounting programs need to provide students with enough knowledge and hands-on learning exercises for both of these tools. Furthermore, programs that can provide students with strong PowerPoint skills, exposure to accounting / ERP software, and experience with the FASB Codification will help their graduates succeed in the accounting profession throughout their career. The results also show that university accounting programs with different accounting tracks or concentrations (e.g., audit, tax, advisory, corporate) may benefit from including area-specific software tools in the tracks' curriculum instead of or in addition to the above core software tools. For example, students in a program with a tax track may benefit from less coverage of the FASB Codification and PowerPoint and more coverage of tax research software and accounting / ERP software. Likewise, students in an advisory track may benefit from less FASB Codification coverage and more emphasis on accounting / ERP software.

Research Question Three

The third research question explores the extent that data analytics and data visualization should be incorporated into the technology mix of university accounting programs at the graduate level. To investigate this question, we ask participants to respond to two questions. First, participants assess the importance of incorporating data analytics into a Masters of Accountancy curriculum and then assess the importance of incorporating data visualization into the curriculum. Second, participants assess the importance of data analytic skills and data visualization skills for audit associates, tax associates, and advisory associates. Responses for all of these data analytic and data visualization questions are on a five-point Likert-type scale with 1: “Not at all important,” 2: “A little important,” 3: “Somewhat important,” 4: “Important,” 5: “Extremely important.”

Masters of Accountancy Programs

Results exploring the importance of incorporating data analytics and data visualization into Masters of Accountancy programs are presented in Table 6 . Participants assess the importance of incorporating both data analytics and data visualization as significantly above the scale midpoint of 3.0 (p < 0.001). However, the mean for the importance of incorporating data analytics (3.98) is significantly greater than the mean for incorporating data visualization (3.52) (p < .001, two-tailed). When looking at results across the three groups based on accounting experience, data analytics is assessed as more important by all three groups (all p < 0.001, two-tailed). Interestingly, the lowest experienced group assessed the importance of data analytics (3.65) significantly lower than the middle experienced group (4.10, p = 0.017, two-tailed) and the highest experienced group (4.18, p = 0.004, two-tailed). 9 The lowest experienced group also assessed the importance of data visualization (3.18) significantly lower than the middle experienced group (3.57, p = 0.061, two-tailed) and the highest experienced group (3.79, p = 0.002, two-tailed). 10 This may suggest that the importance of data analytics and data visualization increases as accountants gain more experience.

Importance of Data Analytics and Data Visualization

Importance of Data Analytics and Data Visualization

For groups based on the specific primary accounting area, audit associates and corporate accountants assess the importance of data analytics significantly higher than data visualization (p < 0.001 two-tailed and p = 0.002 two-tailed, respectively). While advisory associates and tax associates also assess the importance of incorporating data analytics higher than data visualization, the differences are not significant (p = 0.463 two-tailed and p = 0.746 two-tailed, respectively). Responses for data analytics for both audit associates and corporate accountants are significantly higher than responses from advisory and tax associates (all p <0.043, two-tailed). 11 Together, these results suggest it is more important to incorporate data analytic skills (rather than data visualization skills) into Masters of Accountancy programs, especially for students planning to become auditors or entering corporate accounting.

Different Public Accounting Areas

Table 6 also presents the results exploring the importance of data analytic and data visualization skills for audit, tax, and advisory associates. 12 Audit associates assess the importance of data analytic skills for auditors (4.33) as significantly above the scale midpoint of 3.0 (p < 0.001, two-tailed). Tax associates (3.04) and advisory associates (3.67) did not assess the importance of data analytic skills for tax associates and advisory associates as significantly greater than the scale midpoint (p = 0.877 two-tailed and p = 0.136 two-tailed, respectively). Similarly, audit associates assess the importance of data visualization skills for auditors (3.52) significantly greater than the scale midpoint of 3.0 (p = 0.003, two-tailed), whereas tax (2.92) and advisory (3.50) associates did not assess the importance of data visualization skills for tax and advisory associates as significantly greater than the scale midpoint (p = 0.765 two-tailed and p = 0.256 two tailed, respectively). It is important to note that while the raw assessments by advisory associates appear to be significantly greater than the scale midpoints, the small sample size of advisory associates (n=12) limits the power of our statistical test. Together, the results suggest that data analytic and data visualization skills may be important for future audit associates and perhaps advisory associates.

In this exploratory study utilizing 197 accounting practitioners, we find continuing strong evidence of the dominance of Excel in the accounting profession as consistent with prior research, e.g., Ragland and Ramachandran (2014) ; Rackliffe and Ragland (2016) . Excel is the software tool most frequently used by accountants, both by new hires and by experienced accountants. In addition, Excel is identified as the tool that should be the most emphasized in university accounting programs. This finding is consistent across audit, tax, advisory, and corporate accounting.

A somewhat surprising finding is the extent of usage of Adobe Acrobat in the accounting profession. Our results indicate that Adobe Acrobat is an important software tool across all accounting areas and experience levels and should also be emphasized in accounting curriculums. However, this study does not address the reasons Adobe Acrobat is important. Future research could delve further into the specific features of Adobe Acrobat that are useful to accountants, especially in support of document creation and the editing of workpapers. Relevant features in Adobe Acrobat include editing / version control, document security, comment management, and document approvals. Perhaps general word processing software (i.e., Microsoft Word) is used for initial document preparation and editing, and then Adobe Acrobat is used later in the document management process for creating final versions and publication. The creation, management, and tracking of workpapers is a possible area to incorporate into a case study or exercise in an accounting context that could be beneficial to accounting students.

In addition to Excel and Adobe Acrobat, this study finds that PowerPoint, accounting / ERP software, and the FASB Codification are three other important software tools for accountants across accounting areas and experience levels. Accounting programs can benefit students if the curriculum includes hands-on experiences with these software tools.

In the burgeoning area of data analytics and data visualization, we find that data analytics is perceived to be an important skill for most accounting areas and experience levels. Our line of inquiry makes the distinction between data analytics and data visualization, with the results indicating that while data visualization is somewhat important, it is currently not perceived to be as important as data analytics. Future research is needed to explore the reasons for the different perceptions between data analytics and data visualization and determine if these differences are indeed consistent over time. Future research should also investigate whether these perceptions are consistent across firms (e.g., Big Four, national, regional, local). The results also suggest that the two more experienced groups assessed the importance of data analytics and data visualization as greater than the lowest experience group. This may suggest that accountants early in their career focus on learning the “basics” of their area and then progress later in their career to focus on more complex data analytics and data visualization. Future research could explore when accountants start utilizing data analytic and data visualization in their career and for what specific tasks.

Like all research studies, this study has limitations. First, the initial list of software tools was generated from the primary perspective of public accounting. Because public accounting represents the entry-level job placement for many graduates of accounting master's programs, we focused our software tools list for applicability in public accounting. We recognize this as a limitation in that we did not actively seek to include the perspective of other accounting areas, such as systems, corporate, or governmental accounting. This represents an opportunity for future research on assessing any differences in Excel skills required by the different accounting areas. Second, while the participants did come from a variety of accounting firms and corporations, the participants were obtained from the alumni contact list of one Southeastern United States regional university. Future research could investigate the generalizability of our findings across different geographic regions, accounting firms, and companies. Of particular interest may be the differences in software tools utilized in firms of different sizes. Finally, the relatively low sample size for our tax and advisory subgroups limits the power of our statistical tests and generalizability of our findings for these subgroups.

From the results of this study, we provide six recommendations to university accounting programs. Each of these recommendations is made with the understanding that programs cannot cover everything due to resource constraints such as contact hours with students, faculty expertise, funds for training and obtaining the software tools. First, it is clear that programs should emphasize Excel heavily throughout the accounting curriculum. Second, programs should also be emphasizing Adobe Acrobat or the concepts underlying Acrobat. Third, PowerPoint, accounting / ERP software, and the FASB Codification should receive significant coverage in the accounting curriculum. Fourth, for programs that have specific tracks or concentrations (e.g., audit, tax, advisory, corporate) the top four software tools to emphasize may vary. For an advisory track, our results indicate that PowerPoint and accounting / ERP software should be emphasized, and for a tax track, accounting / ERP software and tax research software should receive considerable coverage. Fifth, accounting programs should encourage students to take elective courses outside of accounting in disciplines (e.g., management information systems, computer science) that may have courses with more advanced topics and exposure to additional software and tools. Sixth, accounting programs should attempt to incorporate at least introductory-level data analytics and data visualization skills into the accounting curriculum.

The results of this study also provide four suggestions for future research. First, additional studies investigating the importance of different software tools are needed to increase the generalizability of our findings across geographic regions, firms, companies, accounting areas, and experience levels. Second, future research should explore the specific ways that Adobe Acrobat is being used by accountants and incorporate labs / exercises with Adobe Acrobat that can be utilized in different accounting courses (e.g., accounting information systems, audit, tax). Third, with the resource constraints of accounting programs, future research could investigate to what extent (i.e., breadth of coverage) each software should be covered. Fourth, our survey was designed to focus on specific software tools (brands) rather than on broader technology areas such as database querying languages (e.g., SQL) or standards related to the exchange of financial information (e.g., XBRL). A complimentary approach could focus on broader categories not tied to specific vendors.

Our study contributes to the accounting information systems literature by identifying the specific software and tools that are relevant to the profession. As accounting educators, we want to ensure that students can think critically and solve problems using the applicable software and tools that are a part of the accounting profession. In order for accounting curricula to stay relevant, it is important to understand what software tools are being used. Future research should continue this line of inquiry and address how and why specific software tools are useful to the accounting profession.

1 We thank an anonymous reviewer for suggesting the grouping of similar software tools.

2 The full survey is available upon request from the lead author.

3 Participants were allowed to select multiple primary areas of accounting. Twenty participants did select multiple primary areas of accounting.

4 Participants evaluated their frequency of use for SAP, Quickbooks, and Peachtree. The highest assessment of the three software was utilized as their accounting / ERP software frequency assessment. Participants evaluated their frequency of use for IDEA and ACL audit software. The higher assessment of the two software was utilized as their audit software frequency assessment.

5 Participants evaluated their emphasis for SAP, Quickbooks, and Peachtree. The highest assessment of the three software was utilized as their accounting / ERP software emphasis assessment. Participants evaluated their emphasis for IDEA and ACL audit software. The higher assessment of the two software was utilized as their audit software emphasis assessment.

6 If a participant selected SAP, Quickbooks, or Peachtree as most important, the participant was counted as having evaluated accounting / ERP software as most important. If a participant selected IDEA or ACL audit software as most important, the participant was counted as having evaluated audit software as most important.

7 We excluded the twenty participants who selected multiple primary areas of accounting in order to focus on participants with a sole primary area of accounting. We believe this gives us the best sub-samples to investigate software tools use separately for audit associates, tax associates, advisory associates, and corporate accountants.

8 Nonparametric comparisons of medians across groups provide inconsistent results suggesting the lowest experienced group assessed the emphasis for PowerPoint as significantly lower than the highest group (p = 0.021, two-tailed) but not the middle group (p = 0.297, two-tailed).

9 Nonparametric comparisons of medians across groups provide inconsistent results suggesting the lowest experienced group is not significantly different from the middle group (p = 0.483, two-tailed) nor the highest group (p = 0.159, two-tailed).

10 Nonparametric comparisons of medians across groups provide inconsistent results suggesting the lowest experienced group is not significantly different from the middle group (p = 0.247, two-tailed) but are different than the highest group (p = 0.043, two-tailed).

11 Nonparametric comparisons of medians across groups provide inconsistent results with audit and tax associates assessing data analytics significantly higher than tax associates (p = 0.056, two-tailed and p = 0.055, two-tailed, respectively) but neither audit nor tax assessed data analytics significantly higher than advisory associates (p = 0.558, two-tailed and p = 0.569, two-tailed, respectively).

12 We focused on public accounting areas as the majority of Master of Accountancy students secure jobs in public accounting.

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Friday 13 July 2018

Accounting cycle.

Accounting cycle

Document proof of the transaction

Record the transaction in a journal (diary), compiling a balance sheet balances, create a balance sheet columns, compose verse journal adjustment, drafting financial statements, compose journal covering and reflexive journals, no comments:, post a comment.

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  1. The An Excel-Based, Multi-Year Accounting Cycle Project for either the

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    2019 - Complete Excel Printout - CH 1-3 general journal description date debit 9,500 1,350 1,080 4,800 300 8,800 7,600 3,200 170 4,480 200 insurance. Skip to document. ... ACCT 2301 Accounting Cycle Project - Solutions . 2019 - Complete Excel Printout - CH 1-3. Course. Principles of Financial Accounting ( ACCT 2301)

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    An accounting journal is an accounting worksheet that allows you to track each of the steps of the accounting process, side by side. This accounting journal template includes each step with sections for their debits and credits, and pre-built formulas to calculate the total balances for each column.

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    Article by Madhuri Thakur Updated July 4, 2023 What is the Accounting Cycle? An accounting cycle is a step-by-step process that businesses use to identify, analyze, and sort all payments made & received in an accounting period and finally document them in financial statements .

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  13. Accounting cycle project 2 excel template 1

    View Accounting cycle project 2 excel template(1) from ACCT 101 at Richland Community College. Date General Journal Description Debit 1-Dec Equipment cash # 1-Dec Notes receivable Cash # 6-Dec ... The Accounting Cycle Project.xlsx. Solutions Available. University of Maryland, University College. ACCT 220 & 221. homework. C4+Cycle+Problem+4-2 ...

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    ACCOUNTING CYCLE PROJECT Rubric Students will be graded based on completion, accuracy, and formatting/professionalism. The use of Excel formulas and links are required. For example, the adjusted TB should link unadjusted TB amounts from the Unadjusted TB tab, and should also link to the Adjusting JE tab. Numbers should not be manually entered (hard-keyed) unless absolutely necessary.

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  20. Beyond Excel: Software Tools and the Accounting Curriculum

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    The cash that is received is from the new customer for the job that was completed on July 3. One of the original mowers purchased in Jan of 2016 broke down and is repaired by the mower dealer. The cost of the Mower repair job is $885. Lenny's will pay the mower dealer in 30 days. Purchase for cash $31,000 of supplies.

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