[Scared-cpa]

I just completed a TBS on Wiley CPAexcel and noticed I was marked wrong because accounts were in the “wrong” order?

The TBS wanted me to record the transaction between two companies for purchase of equipment and trade of equipment with A/D. So I recorded the following:

Dr. Equipment 280,000
Dr. A/D 176,000
Cr. Cash 20,000
Cr. Equipment 420,000
Cr. Gain 16,000

It counted the two Cr. accts of Equipment and Cash wrong because they were in the wrong order. The amounts of 20,000 and 420,000 were correct (and with the correct acct title) but it put Equipment as the first Cr. and Cash second. This is the “correct” answer:

Dr. Equipment 280,000
Dr. A/D 176,000
Cr. Equipment 420,000
Cr. Cash 20,000
Cr. Gain 16,000

My question is: Is the real exam this tedious? I’ve never heard of JE being wrong because Cr. or Dr. was in the “wrong” order (unless of course you put Cr. first or something). But how can it be counted wrong simply because I put the Cr. of Cash before the Cr. of Equipment? The only reason I can think is because the amounts were not in the proper descending order? But does the actual exam care? It didn’t specify to put them in descending order so is that something I should just assume?

Thanks for any responses – I’ve never taken the exam before so I apologize if this is a silly question.

"The more I practice, the luckier I get."

FAR - 67, 82 (Expires 07/31/18)
AUD - 68, 79
REG - 75
BEC - 82

Wiley CPAexcel + Ninja

I cannot believe I am done.

[Anonymous]

I've never been able to see an answer key for an actual exam, but I doubt seriously your answer on the exam would be counted wrong because you put equipment before cash in a journal entry.

I remember something similar happening to me in the Becker software. It takes an added level of intelligence for software to be able to consider journal entries with accounts listed in a different order than the official answer key, and many of them just aren't that sophisticated.

I'm almost certain the exam software is smarter than that, but it can't hurt to order your accounts based on how they're listed on a balance sheet. So if you're debiting two assets, list the most liquid asset first. If you're crediting two liabilities, list them according to their due dates (soonest first). If you're debiting an asset AND a liability, the asset goes first, etc.

[Scared-cpa]

Thank you (-:

"The more I practice, the luckier I get."

FAR - 67, 82 (Expires 07/31/18)
AUD - 68, 79
REG - 75
BEC - 82

Wiley CPAexcel + Ninja

I cannot believe I am done.

[Author]

Replies