Accountancy · Ch 12 — Accounts from Incomplete Records
Ascertainment of Missing Information through Summary of Cash
Ascertainment of Missing Information through Summary of Cash
Sometimes the amount paid to creditors, or the amount received from debtors, or the opening
or closing cash / bank balance, may be missing. To find any such missing receipt or payment, a
cash book summary is prepared showing all receipts and payments during the year, and the
balancing figure is taken as the missing item.
If both the amount paid to creditors and the amount received from debtors are missing, then one
of them is found first through the total creditors or total debtors account, and the other is then
found from the cash book summary in the same way.
Once all the missing figures have been traced, the final accounts can be prepared — either straight
away or after drawing up a trial balance. The components of the trial balance and where each is
obtained from are summarised below:
| Trial balance component | Source of information |
|---|---|
| Closing assets (except stock) and liabilities | Closing list |
| Opening assets (including opening stock) and liabilities | Opening list |
| Purchases | Credit purchases from the total creditors account; cash purchases from the summary of cash |
| Sales | Credit sales from the total debtors account; cash sales from the summary of cash |
| Opening capital | Opening statement of affairs |
| Expenses and revenues | Summary of cash plus subsidiary information |
| Losses and gains | From all the accounts and scattered information |
| Bills receivable received | Total bills receivable account |