What is a sales journal? Cash receipts journal?

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  • #815490
    .
    Participant

    What are these things? I used QuickBooks for over two years and never heard of such a thing. Is this from the time before computers?

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  • #815526
    Tax lady
    Participant

    These are subsidiary ledgers. They contain the supporting information that ties to the G/L. Example: an A/R sub ledger lists all the customers and balances owed and the total ties to the A/R balance in the G/L.

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    #815601
    GitRDone2017
    Participant

    They are subsidiary journals, Quickbooks doesn't include them because it's not really set up for people who know accounting. A sales journal is where you record all sales made and then post to GL and a cash receipts journal is where you record all cash sales and then post to GL. These are important journals, and while they were started way before computers took over, they are still important. I know that Peachtree includes them in their software programs, but their program is geared more toward accounting than Quickbooks is.

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    #815616
    .
    Participant

    That sounds annoying to have a two step process like that. I remember at my old job, they really wanted to switch to this other accounting software (Yardi) from QuickBooks. I played with it a little bit but found you couldn't edit anything once it was posted to the GL. Supposedly that is better for control reasons. Not very user friendly though.

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    #815646
    CPAKING
    Participant

    When you upgrade to more robust softwares like SAP or Microsoft Dynamics, you will find where the two step process helps with controls to keep your main ledger clean. You will have the option to post all daily sales ledgers in a batch to the GL. So your G/L can have only one position per month. I agree it can also create its headaches in the reconciliation process if not done correctly. Yes, not user friendly at all. 🙂

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    #815688
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Think of a deposit ticket: It lists (if filled out properly, which few people do 😛 ) 27 checks by name and amount, but has 1 total amount of the deposit, and that 1 total amount is the amount that shows up on your bank statement. The detail is in your deposit book's carbon copies. If your records have a cash receipts journal separate from the general ledger, then they'd mimic your bank statement and deposit book; the cash receipts journal would list each check received individually, and the general ledger bank account would have one total for the day which matched the total on the bank statement.

    I think the practicality of having a cash receipts ledger that posts totals to the general ledger varies based on the size of the company that is being discussed. A company that can operate within QuickBooks would likely find it way more hassle than it's worth. However, if you consider a huge company – for example, Walmart – then you can see how having every individual sale be entered as a separate entry against the bank cash account within its ledger would result in a ridiculous number of transactions and make any reconciliations nearly impossible.

    My employer is a small college, so we have a fair number of transactions flowing through our system, though not nearly as many as a company with a similar revenue stream but smaller transactions (like a retail environment). I've been considering the usefulness of separating it within our GL, since right now at certain times of the month the history for a given day in the cash account is very long. Since it's something to consider at our size, I can see what it would be absolutely necessary for a larger organization.

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