Discussion Topic 1: What Should Marc Say to Kelly?
The following discussion took place between Marc Bolli, the office manager, the office manager of Landmark Data Company, and a new accountant, Kelly Holt.
Kelly: I have been thinking about our method of recording entries. It seems that it is inefficient.
Marc: In what way?
Kelly: Well — correct me if I am wrong — it seems like we have unnecessary steps in the process. We could easily develop a trial balance by posting our transactions directly into the ledger and bypassing the journal altogether. In this way, we could combine the recording and posting process into one step and save ourselves a lot of time. What do you think?
Marc: We need to have a talk.
What should Marc say to Kelly?
Just do responce each posted 1 to 3 down below only.
Posted 1
Marc should inform Kelly that this is not a step to omit and the importance of the journal. The company needs to have the ability to track the daily transactions and this is were the journal comes in as each daily transactions is recorded here. This is a more specified way if showing the transactions and the direct affect on the amounts in accounts. The ledger can be crosschecked also by first recording inside the journal before transferring the totals onto the ledger. The verification of the amounts holds value to ensure that the company has accurately reported the transactions and has been verified from the original recording. Therefore it is essential to record first in the journal than transfer to the ledger.
Posted 2
I can see your view point and I understand but there are steps that we do for a reason. Especially here it does appear we can be taking unnecessary steps but these extra steps allow for us to minimize errors or even better locate them. If we put everything in one book it would take much longer to see where an error could have taken place. There may be dates for our transactions but they would also need to be more detailed in the text to understand which account we are working with. We do track a lot of transactions and with that regardless of the extra steps it may seem it allows the company to better focus on the product or service instead of needing to worry about our finances. So I hope you can continue doing it the way have been, and I do want you to know I understand what you are saying and thank you for putting that out there. Not a bad idea but its also not one we can implement.
Posted 3
“The journal records all business transactions according to the date of the Journal, showing the chronological records of all business transactions. The journal can reduce the error and omission of transaction records or incomplete transaction records. The journal functions as a control system.” by AsiaBookkeeping.com
We can deduce that Kelly forgot a lot about her training. Bypassing journal entries can be catastrophic for any company and can create a chain of errors where all accounting may be wrong. I do not agree with Kelly, although sometimes the work is tedious and consumes our time and energy or we think that it is not necessary has its purpose and a job well done is better than an incomplete one.
Maybe there are opportunities where we can take “shortcuts,” but in my opinion, it is not worth it. Decisions like this can harm the level of work and quality. If I were Marc, I would be questioning Kelly’s capabilities and work ethics.