Financial Accounting – Merchandising Transactions

Learn how to record merchandising transactions involving inventory from a practicing CPA

What's Inside

Merchandising transaction, those transaction that deal with inventory, including the purchase of inventory and the sale of inventory. We will discuss related topics including sales discounts, purchase discounts, sales return and allowances, shrinkage and the cost of goods sold calculation. We will also compare and contrast a perpetual inventory system and periodic inventory system, listing and describing the pros and cons of each, explaining when each may be most appropriate in practice.

Summary of what will be covered:

Accounting Fundamentals

  • We will review the fundamentals the core concepts we always need to fall back on and practice, fundamentals including the double entry accounting process and the relationship of the financial statements. These are topics we can almost always still learn something new on even when we believe we have them fully understood.
  • Merchandising Transaction
    • Purchase of merchandise or inventory
    • Sale of merchandise or inventory
  • Perpetual and Periodic Inventory System
    • We will compare and contrast the perpetual and periodic inventory systems.
  • Sales Discount & Purchase Discount
    • It is easy to get the sales discount and purchase discount confused and mixed up. We will discuss both transactions and how to record them.
  • Inventory Shrinkage & Sales Returns.
    • Inventory Shrinkage has do do will loss of inventory, the problem being how to know it is lost and how to record the loss. Sales return are when inventory is returned after a sale. We will record transactions related to sales returns.
  • Financial Statements - Merchandising Company
    • Financial statements, especially the income statement, are typically more complex for merchandising companies then service companies.
  • Comprehensive Problems
    • We will have to comprehensive problems, on focused on financial transactions, more of a mid sized problem. The second comprehensive problem will cover the full accounting cycle for a merchandising company, the recording of financial transaction, adjusting entries, financial statements, and closing process.

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Robert (Bob) Steele CPA, CGMA, M.S. Tax, CPI

Through working with students from many different schools, Mr. Steele has learned best practices for helping people understand accounting fast. Learning new skills and finding the best way to share knowledge with people who can benefit from it is a passion of his.

Mr. Steele has experience working as a practicing Certified Public Accountant (CPA), an accounting and business instructor, and curriculum developer. He has enjoyed putting together quality tools to improve learning and has been teaching, making instructional resources, and building curriculum since 2009. He has been a practicing CPA since 2005. Mr. Steele is a practicing CPA, has a Certified Post-Secondary Instructor (CPI) credential, a Master of Science in taxation from Golden Gate University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Economics with an emphasis in accounting from The University of California Santa Barbara, and a Global Management Accounting Designation (CGMA) from The American Institute of CPA (AICPA).

Mr. Steele has also authored five books that can be found on Amazon or in audiobook format on Audible. He has developed bestselling courses in accounting topics including financial accounting and QuickBooks accounting software.

In addition to working as an accountant, teaching, and developing courses Mr. Steele has helped create an accounting website at accountinginstruction, a YouTube channel called Accounting Instruction, Help, and How Too, and has developed supplemental resources including a Facebook Page, Twitter Page, and Podcasts that can be found on I-tunes, Stitcher, or Soundcloud. Mr. Steele's teaching philosophy is to make content applicable, understandable, and accessible.

Adult learners are looking for application when they learn new skills. In other words, learners want to be able to apply skills in the real world to help their lives. Mr. Steele’s formal accounting education, practical work experience, and substantial teaching experience allow him to create a curriculum that combines traditional accounting education with practical knowledge and application. He accomplishes the goals of making accounting useful and applicable by combining theory with real-world software like Excel and QuickBooks.

Many courses teach QuickBooks data entry or Excel functions but are not providing the real value learners want. Real value is a result of learning technical skills like applications, in conjunction with specific goals, like accounting goals, including being able to interpret the performance of a business.

Mr. Steele makes knowledge understandable by breaking down complex concepts into smaller units with specific objectives and using step by step learning processes to understand each unit. Many accounting textbooks cram way too much information into a course, making it impossible to understand any unit fully. By breaking the content down into digestible chunks, we can move forward much faster.

Mr. Steele also makes use of color association in both presentations and Excel worksheets, a learning tool often overlooked in the accounting field, but one that can vastly improve the speed and comprehension of learning accounting concepts.

The material is also made understandable through the application of concepts learned. Courses will typically demonstrate the accounting concepts and then provide an Excel worksheet or practice problems to work through the concepts covered. The practice problems will be accompanied by an instructional video to work through the problem in step by step format. Excel worksheets will be preformatted, usually including an answer tab that shows the completed problem, and a practice tab where learners can complete the problem along with a step by step presentation video.

Mr. Steele makes learning accounting accessible by making use of technology and partnering with teaching platforms that have a vision of spreading knowledge.

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