Washington Corp. purchased a 24-month insurance policy on March 1, 20X6 for $480. At the time of the purchase, the "Insurance Expense" account was debited and the "Cash" account was credited for the full $480. How would you write this journal entry?
The Effect Of Prepaid Taxes On Assets And Liabilities
Many businesses estimate tax liability and make payments throughout the year (often quarterly). When a company overestimates its tax liability, this results in the business paying a prepaid tax. Prepaid taxes will be reversed within one year but can result in prepaid assets and liabilities.
Final Accounts
Financial accounting is one of the branches of accounting in which the transactions arising in the business over a particular period are recorded.
Ledger Posting
A ledger is an account that provides information on all the transactions that have taken place during a particular period. It is also known as General Ledger. For example, your bank account statement is a general ledger that gives information about the amount paid/debited or received/ credited from your bank account over some time.
Trial Balance and Final Accounts
In accounting we start with recording transaction with journal entries then we make separate ledger account for each type of transaction. It is very necessary to check and verify that the transaction transferred to ledgers from the journal are accurately recorded or not. Trial balance helps in this. Trial balance helps to check the accuracy of posting the ledger accounts. It helps the accountant to assist in preparing final accounts. It also helps the accountant to check whether all the debits and credits of items are recorded and posted accurately. Like in a balance sheet debit and credit side should be equal, similarly in trial balance debit balance and credit balance should tally.
Adjustment Entries
At the end of every accounting period Adjustment Entries are made in order to adjust the accounts precisely replicate the expenses and revenue of the current period. It is also known as end of period adjustment. It can also be referred as financial reporting that corrects the errors made previously in the accounting period. The basic characteristics of every adjustment entry is that it affects at least one real account and one nominal account.
WORKING NOTE 1-
If Washington Corp. follows Calendar year accounting system which is 1 jan. 20XX - 31 dec. 20XX then the calculation of prepaid expense is as follows
Total insurance expense= $480
Total number of months=24 months
Total number of months in current year= 10 months
Remaining months=24months-10 months
=14 months
So the insurance expense of current year will be booked for 10 months which is
=$480*(10 months÷ 24 months)
=$200
And the remaining months prepaid expense will be booked which is
=$480*(14 months ÷ 24 months)
=$280
WORKING NOTE 2-
If Washington Corp. follows Financial year accounting System which is 1 april 20XX- 31 march 20XXthen the calculation of prepaid expense is as follows
Total insurance expense= $480
Total number of months=24 months
Total number of months in current year= 1 months
Remaining months=24months-1 months
=23 months
So the insurance expense of current year will be booked for 10 months which is
=$480*(1 months÷ 24 months)
=$20
And the remaining months prepaid expense will be booked which is
=$480*(23 months ÷ 24 months)
=$460
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