This document is a user guide for the Elosimple excel accounting template, which provides a template for recording accounting transactions in Microsoft Excel. The template contains four sheets - Index, AccountSetup, CashJournal, and FinStatement. The CashJournal sheet contains a combined cashbook and journal where transactions are recorded. Formulas in the template automatically update the FinStatement sheet to produce financial statements like the balance sheet and income statement. The guide provides instructions on setting up accounts, recording transactions, producing reports for different time periods or individual accounts, and protecting the integrity of the template through password protection and backups.

1. Elosimple excel accounting User Guide
Elosimple
excel
accounting
User Guide
A user friendly MS Excel Accounting
Records Template; eases preparation of
financial statements
Peter Elolo Darrah, C.A.(Gh)
Tax Audit, DTRD, Ghana Revenue Authority
elodarah@yahoo.com
+233244592866
12/19/2012

2. elosimple excel accounting template
FOREWORD ................................................................................................................................... 3
GETTING STARTED ...................................................................................................................... 3
HOW TO OBTAIN A COPY OF THE elosimple excel accounting template ........................... 3
HOW TO SAVE A COPY OF THE elosimple excel accounting template ................................ 3
HOW TO OPEN THE elosimple excel accounting template .................................................... 3
OVERVIEW OF elosimple EXCEL TEMPLATE ........................................................................... 4
elosimple SHEETS ...................................................................................................................... 4
Index sheet ............................................................................................................................... 4
AccountSetup sheet.................................................................................................................. 5
CashJournal sheet .................................................................................................................... 5
FinStatement sheet .................................................................................................................. 6
HOW TO USE elosimple EXCEL TEMPLATE.......................................................................... 6
INDEXING .............................................................................................................................. 6
ACCOUNTS SETUP ................................................................................................................ 7
COMBINED CASHBOOK AND JOURNAL .......................................................................... 7
Making Entries .................................................................................................................... 8
Accounting Periods ............................................................................................................. 9
Ledgers ................................................................................................................................. 9
Management Accounts ..................................................................................................... 10
SECURITY..................................................................................................................................... 13
SHORTCUT KEYS ........................................................................................................................ 14
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 15
BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................... 15
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3. elosimple excel accounting template
FOREWORD
elosimple excel accounting template has been designed to ease preparation of accounting
records as well as relevant financial reports such as Income Statement and Balance Sheet
(Andrews). The user is not burdened with the drudgery of preparing columns for accounting
heads (items) on several worksheets involved in the record-keeping. All the user needs to do
is just to set up the required Chart of Accounts (with Account Codes) under desirable groups
of accounts just like any conventional accounting application system and begins to record
transactions in the combined Cash/Journal table.
However, the eloAccountRecords is only effective and accurate to the extent that the formula
cells are not inadvertently removed or altered by the user. The user, therefore, is ultimately
responsible for the accuracy of the records prepared; using this template.
GETTING STARTED
HOW TO OBTAIN A COPY OF THE elosimple excel accounting
template
The template can be obtained from the address on the Index and CashJournal sheets (i.e.
+233244592866, +233202441763 or elodarah@yahoo.com).
HOW TO SAVE A COPY OF THE elosimple excel accounting
template
It is important to have MS Office Application which should be of a version not lower than MS
Office 2007 before the template can be saved on your system. If there is a lower version like
MS Office 2003 on your system, then the template must be saved as MS Office Excel 2003
before copied for transfer (saving).
HOW TO OPEN THE elosimple excel accounting template
A password request may be prompted at each time that an attempt is made at opening a
protected template; which must be supplied by the user.
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OVERVIEW OF elosimple EXCEL TEMPLATE
elosimple SHEETS
We have the following sheets in elosimple excel accounting template Workbook:
Index sheet
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AccountSetup sheet
CashJournal sheet
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FinStatement sheet
HOW TO USE elosimple EXCEL TEMPLATE
INDEXING
All the resources in elosimple excel accounting template workbook are found in the index
sheet. Each of these is linked (i.e. hyperlinked) to its location in the workbook. The index
page is accessible on any resource in the workbook.
The headings for Account Codes in the CashJournal are linked to the AccountSetUp Sheet.
This is activated by just a click on the heading: Allocation.
After getting the code click on the CashJournal link in AccountSetUp to return to the
CashJournal to complete the record.
Alternatively, simply click on the sheet tabs:
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ACCOUNTS SETUP
This is the most important aspect of the recording process. With reference to the
AccountSetup sheet in OVERVIEW, type in the Business or Organisation Name, Start Date,
End Date and Accounting year
This is best explained in the table below:
CELL
NUMBER EXPECTED CONTENT
C3 Business or organisation name
C4 Start date; e.g. 01/01
E4 End date; e.g. 31/12 or 12/31 for US-English system
G4 Accounting or period year: e.g. 2012
Proceed to type in the Account codes and respective Account items (heads). Those Account
Codes with respective Account Groups found on the template are somewhat suggestive. User
may use or apply own codes, items and group of accounts. You may insert more rows while
ensuring that you maintain the serial numbering in column A.
Utmost care need to be taken when preparing the chart of accounts. The grouping of the
codes determines the outlook of the management reports; Balance Sheet and Income
Statement. You may employ the services of an accountant to set up the accounts to be
displayed in the management reports.
COMBINED CASHBOOK AND JOURNAL
There is a combined cashbook and journal table in the CashJournal sheet. We need to observe
this table carefully because this is where all the recording and posting of the transactions are
done:
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USER’S REQUIRED
COLUMN RESPONSE FUNCTION
Date Make entry Transaction date
Third party name or brief
Details Make entry description of transaction
Voucher/Document serial
Reference Make entry number
Cash Make entry View the balance in cell D11
Bank 1 Make entry View the balance in cell E11
Bank 2 Make entry View the balance in cell F11
Bank 3 Make entry View the balance in cell G11
View the balance in cell
journal_sum which must be
JOURNAL Make entry equal to zero (.00).
Formulated to post amounts
in Cash and Bank fields.
View balance for account
Allocation Amount No entry ledger in cell i11
Allocation Make entry Posts account names
Formulated to post Account
Account No entry names
Making Entries
The column headings, with specific reference to Banks, can be changed or replaced with real
bank accounts. Furthermore, more columns can be inserted to accommodate more banks.
Non cash transactions or opening entries can be made via the Journal. In all cases involving
amounts all credit entries should be preceded by a minus (-).
Cash (including bank) transaction amounts involving payments should be preceded by a
minus (-).
It is very important to enter the account code. Without the entry of an account code such a
record can never be complete.
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Please do not leave empty rows in between the records.
Accounting Periods
The user can get accounts for any period by selecting from the date heading any particular
date as illustrated below:
The user has selected the period up to October and transactions from January 1 to October 31
should be displayed.
Ledgers
The combined cashbook and journal table can, also, be manipulated to show transactions for
a particular account and thus produce a ledger account.
The user can get transactions for a particular account by selecting such an account from the
allocation heading as shown below:
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The user has selected the code 412 for ELAC (Insurance). Transactions, therefore, for ELAC
(Insurance) have been displayed as this:
Management Accounts
The Balance Sheet and the Income Statement in the FinStatement sheet are being referred to
as management accounts. The main function of any management account is the facilitation of
decision making, planning and control regarding a business concern. The user is in a position
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to employ these key management functions using the template to prepare live accounts which
measure profitability instantly. Similarly, even in the process of recording the accounts the
financial position (whether you owe or owed so much) is known right on time and to date.
The Balance Sheet and Income Statement happen to be the direct interpretation and summary
of the records on the Combined Cashbook and Journal Table.
Now, linking the serial numbers on the set up sheet to the specific cells on the FinStatetment
Sheet causes the account codes with descriptions to be properly positioned to display the
amounts in formulated cells accurately.
All that one needs to do on this sheet is to ensure that the serial numbers (i.e. on column A) of
the AccountSetUp sheet are properly linked to the cells in column A of FinStatements Sheet.
For instance, type in an ‘equal to’ (=) sign in cell A11 of Financial Statements sheet and
select the cell A59 of AccountSetUp sheet. To complete this link, hit the enter key once. You
have just finished linking up the cells identifying fixed assets on both sheets. The procedure
is repeated for linking other accounts.
This is illustrated below:
The equal to sign has been typed into cell A11 on the FinStatement Sheet.
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Cell A59 of AccountSetUp sheet has been selected.
The link has been completed by hitting the enter key once.
Simply fill A11 of Financial Statements sheet (i.e. after selecting A11, hover the mouse
pointer to the bottom right of that cell until it turns into a plus+) and drag downwards to the
desirable point.
You may perform fill and drag downwards procedure in any of the columns wherever
desirable. Copying and pasting is another alternative.
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However, the cash and bank account balances cells in the FinStatement sheet needed to be
linked to their balance cells in the CashJournal sheet.
The rest of the formulated cells be copied and pasted downwards or filled and dragged
downwards.
+
A demonstration of a fill and drag downwards procedure is illustrated above.
SECURITY
It is possible to loose all your documents unexpectedly due to the
presence of virus in your system; loss of soft materials. How about the
possibility of hardware loss through theft, robbery, fire, damage etc.?
That is all the more reason one needs to give prior attention to matters of
security in a computing environment.
To safeguard your work, please do the following from time to time:
 Check on your system’s health status; Go to start and click on
‘control panel’ and then on ‘Review your computer’s status’ or
‘Action Center’ to check on the effectiveness of your Anti Virus
Application.
 Scan your system and memory sticks (pen drives) on suspicion of a
virus.
 Ensure that you have a backup and get an external storage device
i.e. pen drive, hard drive etc for backing up important documents.
Hint: do not keep your system (computer) and the secondary drive
together.
 Important documents or files may be attached to emails or
uploaded to a trusted site (e.g. Google Drive) on a dedicated
remote server.
 Save Financial Statements and CashJournal (the combined
Cashbook and Journal) in a PDF to avoid unwanted alterations.
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 You may put a password on your documents to restrict or prevent
access. (Hint: please do remember the password).
SHORTCUT KEYS
The following shortcut keys could help in saving time spent on performing some basic but
important tasks:
Press this key To do this
F1 Display Help
Ctrl+C (or Ctrl+Insert) Copy the selected item
Ctrl+X Cut the selected item
Ctrl+V (or Shift+Insert) Paste the selected item
Ctrl+Z Undo an action
Ctrl+Y Redo an action
F2 or fn+F2 Rename the selected item
Ctrl+home Move the cursor to the beginning of the document
Ctrl+Right Arrow Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word
Ctrl+Left Arrow Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous word
Ctrl+Down Arrow Move the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph
Ctrl+Up Arrow Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph
Ctrl+end Move the cursor to the end of the document
Ctrl+Shift with an
arrow key Select a block of text
Ctrl+A Select all items in a document or window
F3 Search for a file or folder
Insert a selected row or column in MS Excel (Hint: select row or
Ctrl+Shift+plus column by clicking on the row or column label)
Delete a selected row or column in MS Excel (Hint: select row or
Ctrl+minus column by clicking on the row or column label)
Ctrl+;(colon) Insert date in an MS Excel cell
Ctrl+’(apostrophe) Repeat a an action in the previous MS Excel cell above
Alt+Tab Switch between open items
Alt+F4 Close the active item, or exit the active program
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CONCLUSION
The elosimple excel accounting template is a concept formulated for spreadsheet users
desirous of preparing accounting records for any entity. The entity could be a church, an
NGO, an enterprise, a partnership, a joint venture or any company.
This is no accounting software but rather an idea facilitating spreadsheet accounting.
The useful advantage offered is that; by making the entries in the CashJournal one
concurrently produces a Balance Sheet with Income Statement to state the entity’s financial
position and measure profitability, respectively, at any time.
This concept gives the same level of convenience, speed and accuracy offered by any other
accounting system.
To avert the possibility of unauthorised alterations and loss of data, the following actions are
recommended:
1. Set up your savings in a back up mode; go to Save As dialog box, select Excel
Workbook, then to tools, select general options and check the Always create backup
box, OK and save.
2. Periodically save the CashJournal and FinStatement sheets, weekly, monthly and
quarterly or to your own taste in a Portable Document Format (PDF).
This concept is very reliable as it is capable of preventing errors except for the fact that no
one else can be held accountable for your own inputs apart from your good self.
I am very grateful to all and sundry, especially Messrs. Sammy Ametefe of Total Ghana and
Vincent Sokpoli of Ghana Revenue Authority, who assisted in the development, testing and
deployment of this concept.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Andrews, J. J. Accounting Campus.
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