Week 9 — Cash and the Bank Reconciliation

Why this matters

Whether you count the cash box at a farmers' market stall, take card payments at a dog-grooming service, or keep the books for a repair shop, simple cash controls and a monthly match to the bank show how much cash is really there.

In plain language

Cash is the asset every sale and every bill passes through, so a business needs everyday habits that keep it safe. Those habits are control activities (the actions a business builds into its daily work to protect its assets and its records). Each month the business also compares its own cash record with the bank's record in a bank reconciliation (a schedule that explains every difference between the two). This week you learn both, and you use them to find the bicycle shop's true cash at the end of Month 3. You also learn which differences need a journal entry and which do not.

• Already covered: Week 8's internal control and Week 3's journal entries.
• This week: cash controls, petty cash, and the bank reconciliation.
• How they connect: the reconciliation is a control, and its entries are journal entries.
• Where we're going next: Week 10, Receivables.

Focus

How does a business guard its cash, and how does it find its one true cash balance when the bank and the books disagree?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] match six control categories to cash examples
• [ ] explain segregation of duties and its limit
• [ ] prepare a bank reconciliation that ties on both sides
• [ ] journalize only the book-side items

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 9 (~35–45 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes).
3. Do the practice set (15–25 minutes).
4. Do the Accounting Workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
5. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: reconcile the bicycle shop's bank statement and Cash account to one balance, and record only the four book-side entries.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor if a step snags.

Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com