The Happy Accountant

If you ever wondered if what you get out of business blogging, have a look at Michelle Golden’s post on some of the benefits that she’s gained from her  Golden Practices blog.
In the two years I’ve been blogging, I’ve shaken hands with, and looked directly into the eyes of, dozens of bloggers whom I follow and [...]

To use the purchase ledger spreadsheet is easy.  Just record all purchase invoices, receipts and other payments on the spreadsheet.  Allow one row per invoice/receipt.
Enter the total amounts in columns D/E/F (allowing for the VAT split if VAT registered) and then allocate the relevent amounts in the appropriate analysis columns (column I to N in [...]

To finish off this simple spreadsheet, it might be helpful to make it look slightly more presentable.Select Row 1 (by clicking on the 1) and then bring up the Format Cells dialog box (either by Menu|Format, keyboard shortcut or right mouse button menu) and then you can make the text bold (Font tab), colour in [...]

To format the numbers (in columns D,E,F,H onwards) so that they all have 2 decimal places, select these columns (by clicking at the top (where the column letter is) and then chosing Format|Cells and then (on the number tab) click number and make sure that there is a 2 in decimal places.
I also check the [...]

First begin by heading up the columns, in cell A1:

date
supplier
ref/invoice number
net amount (if registered for VAT, if not registered for VAT, then head this column “gross amount”)
VAT (omit this if not registered for VAT)
date paid
check zero
stationery (analysis column)
postage (analysis column)
telephone (analysis column)
electricity (analysis column)
prof fees (analysis column)
[add more analysis columns, as relevant to your business]
description
notes

If [...]

I don’t normally have a lot of time to surf the net between work and family committments, but I have noticed Daily Dose of Excel, who have been kind enough to include the Happy Accountant in their extensive blogroll.
The Daily Dose has been running since the start of 2004 and has lots of great tips and [...]

Most businesses keep a small amount of petty cash to buy odd small items, such as stamps and so on and to receive the occasional small receipt such as reimbursement for a private phone call or photocopying.  This is called the cash float or petty cash account.
Normally, there are more payments than receipts and therefore, [...]

Cash Book
The cash book is also a day book.  It lists the money paid into and out of the business bank account (as opposed to petty cash).  These transactions would include bank transfers, standing orders, direct debits, bank interest and charges.

The cash book is normally split into two halves, one for payments and one for [...]

Purchase Day Book
The Purchase Day Book records all the invoices it receives under the following headings:

date
supplier
purchase ledger folio (reference to the page number of the purchase ledger, in a manual system)
total amount invoiced
purchases
analysis of purchases (eg. telephone, electricity, etc….)

 The invoice number is not recorded because this is a record of other people’s invoices, which will [...]

Sales Day Book 
The sales day book is used to list all the invoices sent out to customers each day.  It’s headings might be:

data
invoice number
customer
sales ledger folio (cross reference to the sales ledger page number, which a computerised system will reference automatically)
total amount of invoice)
analysis of tye of sale (eg, there might be a column for [...]