General Ledger Tutorial

Written by Jerry Belch

Day 3: Entering startup costs for service business

The information for these start up costs came from Chapter two janetbelch.com Accounting Tutorial
Owners invested seed money $85,000 Loan $150,800 Furniture, office supplies, office equipment, other assets purchased Enter these amounts into the serviceTemplate.html on the following lines. Save and Run.
Line numberBalanceAccount name
4085000Cash
5747000Furniture & Fixtures
691500Office Supplies
75100000Other Assets
872300Office Equipment
110150800Notes Payable
17885000Common Stock

Your trial balance should be in balance as well as your balance sheet. The income statement and retained earning statements were not affected by these transactions. Save your program using an html extension. Run it and see what your get.

Code to add up trial balance debit and credit numbers

313//trial balance totals
314 var totalDebits = account0.Balance + account1.Balance + account2.Balance + account4.Balance + account5.Balance + account7.Balance + account9.Balance + account23.Balance + account25.Balance+ account26.Balance+ account27.Balance+ account28.Balance+ account29.Balance+ account30.Balance+ account31.Balance+ account32.Balance+ account33.Balance+ account34.Balance+ account35.Balance+ account36.Balance+ account37.Balance +account38.Balance

317 var totalCredits = account3.Balance +account6.Balance + account8.Balance + account10.Balance + account11.Balance+ account12.Balance+ account13.Balance+ account14.Balance+ account15.Balance+ account16.Balance+ account17.Balance+ account18.Balance+ account19.Balance+ account20.Balance+ account21.Balance+ account22.Balance+ account24.Balance;

321 document.getElementById("a40").innerHTML = "Totals" + tab20 + tab + totalDebits.toFixed(2) + space+space +totalCredits.toFixed(2);



Code to add up all accounts that are assets.

103 totalAssets = account0.Balance +account1.Balance + account2.Balance + account4.Balance + account5.Balance + account7.Balance + account9.Balance - (account3.Balance + account6.Balance + account8.Balance);

104 document.getElementById("b9b").innerHTML = "Total Assets" + tab20 + tab + tab + totalAssets.toFixed(2);


Code to add up all accounts that are liabilities.

168 totalLiabilities = account10.Balance + account11.Balance + account12.Balance + account13.Balance + account14.Balance + account15.Balance + account16.Balance + account17.Balance + account18.Balance + account19.Balance

169 document.getElementById("b19b").innerHTML = "Total Liabilities" + tab20 + space + space + space + totalLiabilities.toFixed(2);


All equations need to be placed where they have enough information to make calculations. For example, you can't ask for a total of the assets before you have all the balances for asset accounts.
Using the same html program enter the following information which represents the monthly transactions for our tuxedo rental shop. Save and run.
Line numberBalanceAccount name
207119166.67VE Sales Contract Sales
21960000Other Income
38179166.67Cash
231119166.67Salary Expense
2373750Rent Expense
2851500Alterations
29818915Dry Cleaning Expense
2492000Advertising Expense
255150Supplies
2613268.12Depreciation
273100Misc. Expense
2922087.50Uilities Expense
3041508Interest Expense
27923556.67Payroll Taxes Expense
267812.50Insurance Expense
39176664.46Cash Credit


The reports for a service business are very simple. The trial balance is a listing of all accounts and their balances. Assets, things that have value, have debit balances. Liabilties, money owed to creditors have credit balances. Stockholders' equity shows the investment by the owners and has a credit balance. Revenue, which is the money generated by sales has a credit balance. Expenses, which are moneys used to generate sales have debit balances. The balance sheet has the assets, liabilities and stockholder's equity sections. The income statement has the revenue and expenses. Here are some check figures. Compare your results to these numbers. Correct your program if needed.
  1. Trial balance debit and credit totals: 414,966.67
  2. Total assets on balance sheet: 238,302.21
  3. Total Liabilities on balance sheet: 150,800
  4. Total Revenue on income statement : 179,166.67
  5. Total Expenses on income statement: 176,664.46
  6. Net income on income statement: 2,502.21

Printing Reports


Answer Key for service business financial statement

Service businesss financial statement

Day 4: Closing the books

Most businesses need to see financial statements on a monthly basis. To see what the income, expenses and net profit are each month, the expense and revenue accounts must be zeroed out and the balance transferred to the retained earnings account. Since revenue accounts have credit balances, in order to zero them out, we need to debit each of the two revenue accounts Use the tables shown below to enter closing amounts into the program. Save html program under a different name, so as to preserve the monthly file.

Closing amounts for Revenue accounts

Line numberDebitAccount name
203119116.67Sales
21560000Other Income

Closing Amounts for Expense Accounts

Line numberCreditAccount name
228119116.67Salary Expense
2343750Rent Expense
24050Repairs Expense
2462000Advertsing Expense
252150Supplies Expense
2583260.12Depreciation Expense
264812.50Insurance Expense
270100Misc. Expense
27623356.67Payroll Taxes Expense
2821500Alterations Expense
2892087.50Utilities Expense
29418915Dry Cleaning Expense
3011508Interest Expense
1862502.21Retained Earnings

The net income increases the retained earnings account and needs to show that as its balance.
A net loss will decrease the retained earnings. Closed service business file key
You will use the closed file for next month's work. Before we start entering posted amounts for next month, we need to do a little clean up. Currently all revenue and expense accounts have a zero balance. Make sure that the debit and credit postings have a zero balance and that the account balance says zero. Delete the debit and credit posting amounts for all revenue and expense accounts. Save the file under a name that reflefts the name of the file for next month. We need to adjust the Cash account as well. Enter the cash balance from the trial balance into the balance place on the form. Delete the debit and credit postings. Save and check the trial balance and balance sheet for correct amounts. Now go ahead and process next month's work.