Suppose you have an accounting blog .. like .. HART (1-800-HART) … and you want to show off your accounting knowledge ….
READER: Dear HART … I just purchased a new car that was financed over 3 years, for $25,000.00 .. I put down $3,000.00 which included the first month’s loan payment of $500.00. What’s my journal entry?
HART (1-800-HART): Congratulations on your new purchase .. I hope you have many years enjoyment with your new car. Here’s how to “book” the journal entry into your accounting records.
JOURNAL ENTRY DEBIT
CREDIT
(1) DR. AUTOMOBILES $25,000
CR. CAR LOAN (Down Pmt) $22,500
DR. CAR LOAN (1st Pmt) $ 500
CR. BANK ACCOUNT / CASH $ 3,000
NEAT .. EH?
It’s all in the presentation … I could have easily just posted something like this …
DEBIT: Automobile $25,000.00
CREDIT: Car Loan ($22,000.00)
CREDIT: Bank Account/Cash ($3,000.00)
… but didn’t it look nicer with the colors and the debits and credits lined up like the first example? Of course it did! However .. it is quite a feat to reproduce the code for that – everytime you wanted to make a journal entry. The code makes use of tables. So .. this is how I do it here at http://1800HART.com/blog/ ..
I have several DRAFT articles with templates that I like to use over and over .. just in case. I never post them. I just have them saved up there in my blog – for use in the future when I need it. It’s the same thing with this code. I know it’s not fancy, but I have created a table and have this code inside a ready-made post that is my template to make:
* The Header (with Journal Entry, Debit and Credit headings)
* The Debit column (in a green variation color)
* The Credit column (in a pale orange variation color)
In the above case, my template only has the one debit and credit, but because I needed two more credits in my answer, I just copy/paste that again and again below the original code.
You’re Welcome To Use This Code For Your Own Blog
I have copied my template and put a little instructions inside it .. into a text file. You are welcome to take this template and use it for your own purposes. You are also free to pass it along (because it’s not that big of a deal), although I hope that you remember where you got the idea and give me credit Maybe stroke my EGO here, and give me a blog comment to let me know that you have taken this template. Better yet …. Did you redesign it? You don’t have to use my colours .. I would like to see your new design .. Why don’t you link me your blog posts that uses this code!
I just used EDITPAD to create this text file … I would suggest opening it in another text program like Notepad, Editpad, etc etc .. and not Microsoft Word or other program that might massage it a little. (You just never know)
1800HART_Template_How-to-enter-accounting-columns.txt —-> Just SAVE TARGET AS to Disk .. and open in Notepad .. then copy it manually into a sample blog post. I’m not sure it will even display properly in a browser.
Take care.
HART (1-800-HART)
NOTE: This is part of Darren Rowse’s Problogger Group Writing Project with the theme “HOW TO”. Participants may be eligible to earn or win a random prize graciously provided by his readers. This is the second group writing project that I have entered .. (the first for the theme “LISTS” called Three Reasons Why I Might Be Poor When I Retire over on my And You Retire Blog. If you know “HOW TO” do something special or unique or anything really (just know how to write in your blog!) .. check out Problogger
AFTERTHOUGHT:
If someone reading this can create something with CSS .. I would be interested in seeing your code and testing it out! 🙂
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Great how to! I also would like to see a CSS example. Thanks for contributing to the Group Writing Project at ProBlogger. My How To is up also.
Neat..I love to learn new things, and templates rock! They take the work out of it, and leave the fun!
Thanks for dropping by and reading this people from Darren’s group! I’ll be reading everyone of course by the way – don’t worry!
Matt .. If I do more journal entries, I’ll try and figure out some CSS (like class=debit or something). I know the above tables could be formatted a little better, the same tables shows up differently in different templates too (spacing).
Jersey Girl .. if these type of excel/word/etc templates interest you .. Check out the “Stuff for the Taking” category in my sidebar. That, and my button at the top to random surf my site are my favorites.
Molto interessante
For the example of buying a car above I would like to see the entry for the interest, how do you post it? Let’s say the total interest is $2K and financed in 5 years. Do you expense all the interest at once?
I’d like to see this one in colors too.
Txs
Lussoli … You don’t book all the interest in a single year nor setup the interest payable on the loan. If you go to an amortization site or if you have the program … you can calculate what principal and interest would be. Then, your journal entry would be (for 12 x $500 payments)
DR. Car Loan (principal) $5,500.00
DR. Interest Expense $ 500.00
(or whatever interest was in year 1.
CR. BANK/Cash ($6,000.00)
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