Financial Accounting – Subsidiary Ledgers & Special Journals

Learn how to create and use subsidiary ledgers and special journals from a practicing CPA

What's Inside

We record transactions using special journals and track accounts receivable by customer and accounts payable by vendor using subsidiary ledger.

We should have a good understanding of debits and credits before this course and we have courses covering debits and credits. We can construct an accounting system where we record every financial transaction using debits and credits in a general journal, posting each journal entry to the general ledger, making the trial balance form the general ledger, and the financial statements from the trial balance. The process of recording every transaction using debits and credits is the process we have used in the past.

To reduce the amount of data input when using a manual system, we can group transactions by transaction type and create special journals to record them. An accounting system using special journals can reduce data input by limiting the amount data needed to be input for each transaction due to the format of the special journal. Special journals can also eliminate the need to post each transaction to the general ledger. Rather than posting each transaction to the general ledger special journals are added up at the end of the period and one transaction is then posted for the entire period.

Special journals are typically used in a manual system but understanding them helps any system because it helps to see what components of an accounting system are necessary to all accounting systems, which components can be changed, and when changing the format of the system would be beneficial. Automated systems also often general useful reports in a similar format as the special journals.

Subsidiary ledgers for accounts receivable and accounts payable are necessary for any system where we make sales on account and purchases on account. In other words, if we make sales and collect money at a later date, we will need to track who owes us money, and if we make purchases and pay at a later date, we will need to track who we owe money to.

Content Includes:

  • Accounts receivable subsidiary ledger
  • Accounts payable subsidiary ledger
  • Special journals
  • Sales journal
  • Purchases journal
  • Cash receipts journal
  • Cash payment journal
  • Accounting Cycle
  • Comprehensive problem
  • Excel
  • Definitions and key term

Course Curriculum

Get started now!



Certificate Available
5997+ Students
12 Lectures
2+ Hours of Video
Lifetime Access
24/7 Support
Instructor Rating
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.

Popular Bundles