Journal Entry Overview Guide
The journal entry is one of the fundamentals of accounting, and the double entry ledger system. Each journal entry includes at least one debit, and one credit. The total debits and credits in each journal entry must equal each other to balance.
Journal entries are booked regularly to record financial transactions such as a sale of merchandise, recording interest expense, depreciation on a fixed asset, etc. These ultimately make their way into the general ledger, and show up in the balance sheet and income statement. They can be booked manually or they can be systematically driven by accounting systems processing routine transactions. Often times it is easy to figure out what account to hit, however choosing to debit or credit it – and what the corresponding account is, can be a challenge. See below for our illustrative guide on the several different types of journal entries and how to book them.
Journal entry for cash
Use these whenever cash is either given or received in exchange for something.
Journal entry for expense
Expenses occur daily for many entities and this shows how they should be recorded.
Journal entry for sales
Revenues drive the bottom line, so entries to record these are crucial.
Journal entry for inventory
Inventory goes through many different processes at a company, read this to understand the journal entry process.
Journal entry for interest
Interest expense and revenue take place, and the payment on such accrue and get paid out. The journal entries for these are located within.
Journal entry for depreciation
Depreciation is a common entry made to fixed assets and therefore a fundamental entry one should learn.
Journal entry for bonds
Journal entry for accounts receivable
Journal entry for insurance
Journal entry for rent
Journal entry for prepaid expense
Journal entry for amortization
Journal entry for accounts payable
Journal entry for fixed asset
Journal entry for tax
Journal entry for accrual
Journal entry for notes payable
Journal entry for provisions
Journal entry for impairment
Journal entry for accrued expense
Journal entry for deferred tax
Journal entry for deferred revenue
Journal entry for goodwill
Journal entry for prepaid insurance
Journal entry for notes receivable
Journal entry for retained earnings
Journal entry for goodwill impairment
Congratulations, if you have come this far then you have mastered the fundamentals. Once you know how to book transactions as listed above, you can move on to some of the more intermediate aspects of financial accounting. One of the best places to do that is right here on our site, as we specialize in providing useful information in all topics accounting. Best of luck looking around and don’t forget to leave us feedback on what you see!
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