1
Gail Dawson is the owner of a retail business. She has employed an inexperienced bookkeeper
to maintain her accounting records.
(a) On 31 March 2009, the end of the business’s accounting year, the bookkeeper extracted the
following trial balance from the business’s records:
Trial Balance at 31 March 2009
Required:
1 A corrected version of Gail Dawson’s trial balance dated 31 March 2009 based on the above
information, but with an amended figure for the suspense account.
(b) The following errors were found in the accounting system after a corrected version of the trial
balance above was prepared.
(i) The total of the sales day book for December 2008 had been overstated by £120.
(ii) In January 2009 some new office equipment had been purchased for £360; this had been
debited to the purchases account.
(iii) A payment by cheque to a creditor, £216, had been entered in the books as £261.
(iv) A credit note for £37 sent to a customer had been overlooked.
(v) The owner had withdrawn a cheque for £80 for private use in October 2008; both the
bank and drawings account had been credited with this amount.
Required:
In the books of Gail Dawson
2 Journal entries to correct each of these errors.
(Note: narratives are NOT required.)
3 The suspense account. (Start with the amount in the corrected trial balance given in answer
to Required 1 above, and include any entries arising from the correction of the errors.)
4 An explanation of the term ‘error of commission’. (Give an example of such an error to illustrate
your answer.)
(Southern Examining Group: GCSE)