This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Summary
This chapter has shown how you can use Excel to create an account structure in a workbook that contains both a general journal and special journals, and in a workbook that contains both a general ledger and subsidiary ledgers. As they occur, transactions are entered into the journals in chronological order. The transactions are then posted to the appropriate accounts in the ledger workbook. This accounts for the bulk of the work involved in creating both the Assets and the Liabilities sections of a balance sheet.
You also learned in this chapter some VBA techniques for automating the process of posting from journals to their associated ledger accounts and how to use Excel's pivot table facility to determine the current outstanding balance of an account. Those techniques, such as structuring a procedure and using With blocks, apply to many coding problems, not just posting from journals to ledgers.
Chapter 5, "Working Capital and Cash Flow Analysis," discusses an important technique for determining your company's financial position. Although the accrual method of accounting is, for most companies, the most accurate way to match revenue and expenses to determine profit, it tends to obscure the way the company handles its most liquid asset, cash. You will learn techniques for tracking the flow of cash and working capital in Chapter 5.