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cescalante
Jul 1, 2011, 04:05 PM
I'm stuck on my project! I'm "doing the books" for a company for the month of May. There's a transaction stating:

May 13 Paid wages to fishing guides, $30,000. (Don't forget wages payable.)

Then under "Adjustment information at the end of May," it says:

Wages earned, but not yet paid, at the end of May, $6,000.

In my general journal, I credited cash for $30,000 and it was marked correct, but it lists "wages expense" and "wages payable" for the same date, so apparently I'm supposed to put something for each of those, but as of May 13, there hadn't been any transactions regarding wages earned but not yet paid. I can't work on the ledger account until I figure this transaction out, but I'm stumped and we can only "check our work" so many times.

pready
Jul 2, 2011, 10:47 AM
Wages earned, but not yet paid was also a wage expense in the prior month, therefore you need to subtract the 6,000 from the paid wages so your journal entry should look like this:

Debit Wages Payable for 6,000
Debit Wages Expense for 24,000
Credit Cash for 30,000

Wages Payable and Cash are given so you just need to solve for Wages Expense.

Note: in journal entries your debits must equal credits. You know that you have a credit of 30,000 and a debit for 6,000 so you have to have another debit for 24,000 so that your debits will equal your credits.