What are Purchase Journals?

Most organizations have a separate purchase department that takes care of the complete purchasing process, which is identifying required goods, classifying, asking for quotations, placing the order, and confirming the receipt of goods matching the desired description.

Components of Purchase Journal Entry

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#1 – Two parties

In every purchase, there are two parties, a buyer and a seller. Both parties agree to a price that the purchaser pays in consideration of goods or services. This purchase price is the transaction amount for all purchase journals. The person or organization from whom the purchase is made is called the supplier, and when the purchase is on credit, the supplier will appear as Creditors on the balance sheetBalance SheetA balance sheet is one of the financial statements of a company that presents the shareholders’ equity, liabilities, and assets of the company at a specific point in time. It is based on the accounting equation that states that the sum of the total liabilities and the owner’s capital equals the total assets of the company.read more till the time payment is made.

#2 – Credit Purchase

An organization acquires various goods and services from multiple Suppliers. When a good is purchased on credit, the following journal entry is posted – Let’s say X Ltd. purchased $500 worth of goods from Y Ltd. –

When payment is made –

#3 – Invoice

An invoice is a document that the seller issues to the purchaser. It is a detailed document. It contains the date of invoice, name, and address of the supplier, name of the organization to which it is billed, address and name of the organization where the goods ship, quantity and description of the goods, and payment method needed by the supplier, the currency of the invoice, taxes, etc. An invoice is an important document, which is an issue along with goods, and when it reaches the purchaser, the purchaser will match the goods arrived with Purchase Order placed.

 #4 – Purchase Department

Most organizations have a separate purchase department responsible for the procurement of goods. So, when any person or department needs any goods, they have to send a request to the Purchase department; if the goods are already available in the stock or warehouse, the purchasing department will issue the goods. If the goods are not available, the purchasing team will identify the supplier who specializes in needed goods, and they will place the order. Once the order has arrived, they will check that it matches the required description and quantity matches what was requested. Once the purchasing department confirms that goods have been received, the invoice goes to accounts for payment.

 #5 – Credit Note

In cases where the goods supplied do not match the description or have quality issues or damage, the purchaser has to return them to the supplier. Then the supplier will issue a Credit Note document, which will be adjusted against the payments of goods in the future. For example, X Ltd. returned goods worth $1,000, and Y Ltd. issued a credit note for that value. So next time X Ltd. will purchase $5,000, it only has to pay $4,000 as $1,000 will be adjusted against credit noteCredit NoteA credit note is a financial document that sellers provide to buyers as a token of confirmation against registered returns. It acknowledges the cancellation and lets the sellers make a credit entry to the buyers’ account for the required amount. read more.

#6 – Purchase Book

The purchase book records all the credit purchases in one place, and details of Suppliers, invoice number, currency, quantity, and other details are mentioned there. The balances for these Suppliers from the Purchase book are transferred to individual ledgers, and a total of expense heads is debited to an expense accountExpense AccountExpense accounting is the accounting of business costs incurred to generate revenue. Accounting is done against the vouchers created at the time the expenses are incurred.read more. This is one of the basics books in the bookkeeping process, which is essential in preparing ledger balancesPreparing Ledger BalancesLedger in accounting records and processes a firm’s financial data, taken from journal entries. This becomes an important financial record for future reference. It is used for creating financial statements. It is also known as the second book of entry.read more, trial balanceTrial BalanceTrial Balance is the report of accounting in which ending balances of a different general ledger are presented into the debit/credit column as per their balances where debit amounts are listed on the debit column, and credit amounts are listed on the credit column. The total of both should be equal.read more, and final accounts. Below is a sample purchase book XYZ Ltd for August 2019. In this case, the balances of $500, $1,000, and $2,000 will be posted to individual ledgers of Nike, Adidas, and PUMA Ltd. Also, the Purchase account will be debited by $3,500.

Advantages of Purchase Journals

  • The details of all the suppliers are found in one place, which helps in reconciling ledger balances and trial balances.Easy to maintain and track data for Supplier analysisThe total credit purchase and type of purchase are found in one place.An essential document for the smooth functioning of the purchasing departmentDuring year-end audits, finding the invoice numbers related to any Suppliers becomes accessible from purchase journals.One of the famous and widely maintained books

Disadvantages of Purchase Journals

  • A separate accountant is needed, which costs time and money.If the wrong supplier account is selected in the purchase book, it leads to an error in preparing the trial balance and final accountsFinal AccountsFinal Accounts is the final stage of the accounting process, in which the various ledgers maintained in the Trial Balance (Books of Accounts) of the organization are presented in the specified way to provide the profitability and financial position of the entity for a specified period to stakeholders and other interested parties, i.e. Trading Account, Statement of Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, and so on.read more

Conclusion

Purchase journals are a vital part of the accounting process of any organization. When implemented carefully, a sound system will help in just-in-time purchases, which will lead to saving in time and money. Also, the purchase analysis extracted from these journals helps negotiate new contracts. Purchase journals also help in Creditors management, tracking returned goods status, credit notes, and updated ledger balancesLedger BalancesA ledger balance is an opening balance that remains available during the start of each business day. It comprises of all the deposits and withdrawals, used in the calculation of the total funds left in an account at the end of the previous day.read more of Suppliers, all of which are required for a business to be successful and up to date. It also helps in audit facilitation by providing the data needed by auditors.

This article has been a guide to Purchase Journals. Here we discuss components of purchase journals along with examples, advantages & disadvantages. You can learn more about accounting & bookkeeping from the following articles –

  • Special JournalWhat Does an Auditor Do?Examples of Expense Journal EntriesExamples of Deferred Tax Asset Journal Entry