This is a silly question I'm sure, and the answer is very simple, but it is driving me crazy... The problem is:

At the beginning of the year, The Office Equipment account of Gulf Coast Airlines had a debit balance of $126,900. During the year, debit entries of $23, 400 and credit entries of $38,200 were posted to the account. What was the balance of this account at the end of the year? (Indicate debit or credit balance)

I have thought long and hard about this, plus looked in all of my resources and online for anything that might give me a direction to proceed in to get the answer. The only thing that make sense to me is to take the starting debit balance of $126,900, and add the debit entries of $23,400 to it. Then take the $38,200 and subtract it from the sum of the two debit balances to give me a debit balance of $112,100.

This is too simple, it has to be! My instructor is too anal to give such an easy question, so if anyone has any ideas on another way to approach this, please let me know ASAP as the test is due by midnight tonight.

Thanks!

Mtgrizzly52

Even with anal instructors, sometimes the questions are not super hard.

Way to go mtgrizzly52!

Ok, so at the beginning of the year, you had $126,900 in Office Equipment. And that balance is a debit, which is the normal type of balance for Office Equipment.

During the year, $23,400 of debit entries were made. That basically means you made $23,400 of purchases of new, additional office equipment.

Also, you had $38,200 of credit entries. That means you sold $38,200 of your office equipment.

What was the final balance? Well, we know it should be a debit, but let’s make sure…

Opening Balance Debit 126,900
Plus Purchases Debit 23,400
Less Sales Credit 38,200

Closing Balance = $112,100