Hello all, I’m taking an online, accelerated Accounting 101 course this semester and I just don’t get it. I’m pretty good with my numbers and have a handle on working with equations. I just can’t seem to make the accounting information click in my head.
My textbook is alright, it just seems to overcomplicate and underexplain stuff.Anyone know any books or websites that simplifies or explains things in great detail???
Any and all help would greatly be aprreciated. Graci.
Debits on the left. Credits on the right.
What is it you are having problems with?
Everything has to balance - just like a math equation.
things to remeber
Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders Equity
Assets and Expenses increase in DR and decrease in CR
Revenue and liabilites increase in CR and decrease in DR
All transactions need to balance
T-account is you friend.
even now as an accountant I use them at work to understand the flow of transaction
things to remeber
Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders Equity
Assets and Expenses increase in DR and decrease in CR
Revenue and liabilites increase in CR and decrease in DR
All transactions need to balance
T-account is you friend.
even now as an accountant I use them at work to understand the flow of transaction
things to remeber
Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders Equity
Assets and Expenses increase in DR and decrease in CR
Revenue and liabilites increase in CR and decrease in DR
All transactions need to balance
T-account is you friend.
even now as an accountant I use them at work to understand the flow of transaction
[quote]TheSicilian wrote:
Hello all, I’m taking an online, accelerated Accounting 101 course this semester and I just don’t get it. I’m pretty good with my numbers and have a handle on working with equations. I just can’t seem to make the accounting information click in my head.
My textbook is alright, it just seems to overcomplicate and underexplain stuff.Anyone know any books or websites that simplifies or explains things in great detail???
Any and all help would greatly be aprreciated. Graci.[/quote]
What are you having a hard time with? Which textbook are you using? I will see if I can help.
My textbook is Financial and Managerial Accounting, The Basis for Business Decisions 14th Edition.
It’s authors are Williams, Haka,Bettner, and Carcello.
Publisher is McGraw Hill.
I guess my biggest issues are that all the accounting lingo and steps used in the equations seem overcomplicated to me. I can usually “see” how to get a certain answer without having to write everything down.
I guess I need everything broken down more simply with more WHY explanations for what is happenening. I find myself reading things over and over and it doesn’t stick or I get more confused. Normally, I can read things once and get the gist of them and if I read them more, I understand everything.
Any tips??? Thanks
Don’t really know exactly what you need help with but I can tell you if you don’t grasp the basics now, your only going to get yourself much more confused once more variables get thrown in.
Here is a trick I used memorize the 6 basic accounts.
Think of the name ALE DRE. Imagine Dr. Dre had a little girl and named it Ale, pronounced “Ali”.
Each letter stands for a word…
A–Assets
L–Liabilities
E–Equity
If you notice this is also how you get the major accounting balance equation.
(equity=liabilities + assets)
Now the last name of Dr.Dre’s daughter “Dre”.
Each letter also stands for a word…
D–Dividends
R–Revenues
E–Expenses
I hope this helps with the six accounts.
Another trick I used to memorized how a debit or credit increased or decreased an account was by this chart coupled with the whole “ALE DRE” acronym.
First write your 6 accounts using the “Ali Dre” name
A
L
E
D
R
E
Always remember DEBITS ON THE LEFT CREDITS ON THE RIGHT.
So here is what the chart looks like.
Account name Debit Credit
Assets------------------I D
Liabilities-------------D I
Equity------------------D I
Dividends---------------I D
Revenues----------------D I
Expenses----------------I D
Here is the trick for the chart. I made a sentence out of the debit column.
I didnt do it did I?
I-I
D-didnt
D-do
I-it
D-did
I-I
That is how I memorized the increase and decrease chart. I first memorized the name “Ali Dre” then once I got that down, I made up the sentence for the debit column “I didnt do it did I?”
This was so stupid I had no choice but to memorize it all. Hey it worked so that is all I cared about. I hope this helps some.
Don’t really know exactly what you need help with but I can tell you if you don’t grasp the basics now, your only going to get yourself much more confused once more variables get thrown in.
Here is a trick I used memorize the 6 basic accounts.
Think of the name ALE DRE. Imagine Dr. Dre had a little girl and named it Ale, pronounced “Ali”.
Each letter stands for a word…
A–Assets
L–Liabilities
E–Equity
If you notice this is also how you get the major accounting balance equation.
(equity=liabilities + assets)
Now the last name of Dr.Dre’s daughter “Dre”.
Each letter also stands for a word…
D–Dividends
R–Revenues
E–Expenses
I hope this helps with the six accounts.
Another trick I used to memorized how a debit or credit increased or decreased an account was by this chart coupled with the whole “ALE DRE” acronym.
First write your 6 accounts using the “Ali Dre” name
A
L
E
D
R
E
Always remember DEBITS ON THE LEFT CREDITS ON THE RIGHT.
So here is what the chart looks like.
Account name Debit Credit
Assets------------------I D
Liabilities-------------D I
Equity------------------D I
Dividends---------------I D
Revenues----------------D I
Expenses----------------I D
Here is the trick for the chart. I made a sentence out of the debit column.
I didnt do it did I?
I-I
D-didnt
D-do
I-it
D-did
I-I
That is how I memorized the increase and decrease chart. I first memorized the name “Ali Dre” then once I got that down, I made up the sentence for the debit column “I didnt do it did I?”
This was so stupid I had no choice but to memorize it all. Hey it worked so that is all I cared about. I hope this helps some.
[quote]TheSicilian wrote:
My textbook is Financial and Managerial Accounting, The Basis for Business Decisions 14th Edition.
It’s authors are Williams, Haka,Bettner, and Carcello.
Publisher is McGraw Hill.
I guess my biggest issues are that all the accounting lingo and steps used in the equations seem overcomplicated to me. I can usually “see” how to get a certain answer without having to write everything down.
I guess I need everything broken down more simply with more WHY explanations for what is happenening. I find myself reading things over and over and it doesn’t stick or I get more confused. Normally, I can read things once and get the gist of them and if I read them more, I understand everything.
Any tips??? Thanks[/quote]
Do you know what a T account is? I found those very helpful when studying, and as a previous poster said, I still use them to think some transactions through at work.
Just remember that an Asset is a resource, a Liability is a creditors claim to the resources, and equity is the owners claim to the resources.
Debit increases a resource, and a credit increases a claim against them. These are permanent accounts.
Temporary accounts, Revenues, expenses, dividends, and contributions, are closed out to equity at the end of the accounting period.
Once you get the memorization of how to increase an account (kind of backwards on temporary accounts, revenues are increased with credits, and expenses with debits), it will become much easier to think through a transaction.
I had to drop my first accounting class because I just did not get it. I took the class a second time with a great instructor, who made a world of difference, I changed my major to accounting, and ended up getting a masters in accounting, so don’t get discouraged, it just takes a while to click for some.
The textbook I used was Intermediate Accounting by Kieso, Weygandt, Warfield. The first couple of chapters do a good job of breaking down basic accounting. You can get the first few chapters free via pdf on the student companion site here:
http://bcs.wiley.com/he-bcs/Books?action=resource&bcsId=1467&itemId=0471072087&resourceId=5661
Good Luck, I hope this helps.
Assets = Liability + Equity
never really made much sense to me. But do a little algebra on it, and it gets clearer. Subtract liability from both sides of the equation, and you get:
Equity = Assets - Liabilities
or in other words:
What you’re worth = What you have - What you owe
Hey man, looks like we meet again haha. This has been said and its the truth, coming from an accounting major this has helped me maintain no less then a B. debits to the left and credits to the right. On journal entrys, income statements, and balance sheets just make sure everything equals out. Are you having trouble with the statements, depreciation, cost of goods sold? keep in touch man cause im nice and refreshed in this shit and tutor 2 people…