Accounting Demystified

Purchases Journal

The purchases journal is used whenever the credit goes to Accounts payable. The usual columns will be for Date, Vendor, Invoice Number, Amount, and whatever types of purchases the company usually makes. This might be Inventory, Office Supplies, Dues and Fees, and, of course, Other. (Every journal should have a column for Other, as trying to anticipate every transaction that can possibly occur usually doesn't work out. The Other column handles infrequent events nicely.)

The following is a typical purchases journal:

Date	Vendor	Invoice #	Amount	Inventory	Other	Account
1/02	Staples	12458	145		145	Office supplies
1/02	UVW Merch	3333	750	750
1/02	Con Edison		540		540	Utilities
1/02	Acme Suppl	2304	235		235	Store supplies
	Total		1,670	750	920

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