Excel Accounting 1–Transactions for Common Data Input Forms

Learn how to build an accounting system using Excel and how to enter common transactions from a CPA

In this course we will build an accounting system starting with a blank Excel worksheet, creating a general journal, a general ledger, a trial balance, subledgers, and financial statements.

For each new step in the process, you will have access to a downloadable Excel Workbook, containing at least two tabs, one with the answer, the new steps having been completed, the other starting out where the prior presentation left off.

Once we have created our accounting system worksheet, we will use it to record common transactions, entering the journal entries into the general journal, posting to the general ledger, creating the trial balance, adjusting the subsidiary ledgers, and constructing the financial statements.

As we enter each transaction, we will consider the data input often used in accounting software like QuickBooks. Accounting software will use data input forms like bills, invoices, credit memos, checks, sales receipts, and more, to simplify the data input process, allowing users with little accounting experience to learn data input.

Accountants are generally more valuable when they understand both the accounting theory, the impact on financial statements of each transaction, as well as how an accounting database program like QuickBooks works, including the data input forms used to enter normal financial transactions.

Because spreadsheets are so transparent, they are the perfect tool to gain and understanding of both, accounting theory and accounting software.

Conversely, building an accounting system in Excel is a great way, one of the best ways, to improve your Excel skills.