Journal Entries Examples

Bookkeeping Journals

The best way to learn about bookkeeping journals is to look at a variety of different journal entries examples and to practice entering them, which you can do using the journal template in Excel which is free to download, see below.

Further down this page is a practice list of transactions in a pdf document that you can practice entering into the journals template.

Save it to a folder on your device or filing system somewhere you know you can find it again.

When you open it you will see four main sheets:

1. Income Journal Sheet
2. Expense Journal Sheet
3. Data Lists
4. Record of Journals

Income journal Entries Example

Here is a business transaction for a sale:

On September 1, Wow Plumbers installed a new bath and sink in Mr and Mrs. Jackson's house. The Jacksons paid $1,000.

Below is what the journal looks like after entering the details of the above transaction.

There are several items of information that change with each and every journal:

• The date - the date the payment was made.
  
• The details - The two accounts that are affected in the bookkeeping system, in this case the bank account in to which the money was deposited, and the labor and parts accounts where the income is recorded.
• The debit and the credit columns - which should always add up to the same amount.
  
• A line describing the reason for the journal - in this case the sale to the Jacksons.
  

Expense Journal Entries Example

This journal is based on the following business transaction:-

On October 31, Wow Plumbers paid $25.00 to 101 Office Supplies for paper and ink for the printer.

Below is what the journal result looks like after entering the details of the this transaction.

As with the sales, there are specific items of information that change with every journal.

The headings: Date, Details, Debit, Credit. You can also include a 'Journal No./ID' starting with as simple as J1, then J2 etc.

Journal Entries Example Template Input Sheets

The Excel template has input sections. Here is the one for the sale:

Here is the input window for an expense.

Journal Entry Data Lists

Both the income and expenses journal practice sheets are linked to the Data Lists sheet.

You can add account categories to this sheet or change the information currently in there.

Saving the journals

If you want to keep a record of all journals you enter you will need to copy and paste (values only) the journal results into a new sheet after every journal you enter. This template will not do it automatically. Here's an example:

Basic Accounting Journal Entries

You can download and/or print this list of business transactions and practice entering them into the excel template.

The accounts to use are in red.

You need to make sure you enter the sales transactions into the income sheet.

Enter the purchases transactions into the expenses sheet.

Or just hand-write them out using this lined journal paper template.

The journal entry examples are here, so you can check if you got them right.

The description line is slightly different on the examples.

They say 'payment to' instead of 'purchase from' as per excel template above but it is fine to use these different phrases which mean the same thing.

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