INSTRUCTIONS

Aggie Spirit

The “Accounting Cycle Project” is worth 30 points.

Google Docs messes with the formulas in the workbook.) You will answer individually (on Canvas) a
combination of multiple-choice questions covering the General Journal, the General Ledger, the Financial
Statements, etc.

1. Download the transactions for the month of February for Aggie Spirit. Also download the Excel
spreadsheet file and save to your own USB drive/disk/hard drive/etc. (Do not attempt to do any work
in the Excel file until you have saved it to your own drive/disk/etc. as none of your work will be
saved.) Enter transactions for the month of February as journal entries in the General Journal of the
electronic spreadsheet. Use the format we use in class to write these journal entries. (The debit line
comes first, then drop down one line, indent, and record the credit account title).

2. Post from the “General Journal” into the “General Ledger” You should use the cell referencing
feature of Excel. Post the debit or credit in the appropriate account, and make a note in the “notes”
column so that you will be able to track your entries when you make any changes. You should make
notes in the notes column! The spreadsheet will automatically compute a balance in the “Unadjusted
Balance” cell. Do not enter any negative numbers. There are enough lines for all necessary entries, so
if you run out of space, it means that you have not done it correctly (however, you may have some
extra lines. That is ok!). Start the entries on the top line of the account’s section. You should never get
a negative balance. If you do, re-check to see if you posted the entry correctly to either the debit or
credit column. I have protected cells in these sheets so that you shouldn’t be able to inadvertently
mess up the formulae. However, if you post an entry to the Ledger and later want to remove it…
DON’T hit the delete key…simply hit the backspace key to clear the cell. Hitting delete will cause
an error in the formulae and then your trial balance will not balance. Your instructor will have to
re-set the formulae in order for your group to finish the project.

Use the perpetual inventory method to update your inventory as discussed in class. The unadjusted
balances will post automatically into the Unadjusted Trial Balance on the “Worksheet” page of the
electronic spreadsheet. After you finish with the monthly transactions, you need to check the
Unadjusted Trial Balance to make sure it balances!

Check Figures: Debits and Credits BEFORE AJEs: $727,842

3. Enter the adjusting entries in the General Journal in the electronic spreadsheet. (Scroll down in the
General Journal tab…the section is titled “General Journal – Adjusting Entries”.) You are provided
with a partial listing of adjusting entries in the transaction packet (“Additional Information”). These
are only the adjusting entries that require additional information – you will need to go back to the
original transactions to determine what other accounts require adjustment and how much the
adjustment should be. Inventory shortfalls get debited to “Loss on Shrinkage.” You should have a
total of eight adjusting entries when you finish (depreciation counts as only one entry and loss on
shrinkage counts as only one entry).

4. Post the adjusting entries into the “General Ledger” using cell referencing. Do not use negative
numbers. Put the entry into the appropriate cell on the line below the “Unadjusted Balance”. The
adjusting entries will automatically post into the “Adjustments” column of the “Worksheet” page in the
electronic spreadsheet. When you are done with your adjustments, make sure that the debits and
credits in the “Adjustments” columns are equal. The adjusting entries will be combined automatically
with the unadjusted balances to provide the final “Adjusted Trial Balance” on the “Worksheet”. The
“Worksheet” page is automated; you will do all of your work on the “General Journal”,
“General Ledger” and the “Financial Statements” pages.
Check Figures: Debits and Credits AFTER AJEs: $738,698
5. Enter the closing entries in the “General Journal”, (scroll down in the General Journal tab…the section
titled “General Journal - Closing Entries”). Post these entries into the electronic spreadsheet on the
line above the “Ending Balance After Closing”. The Worksheet will be automatically updated after
closing entries are posted to reflect an after closing trial balance.

Check Figures: Debits and Credits AFTER Closing: $687,922

6. On the “Financial Statements” page, you need to set up a multi-step Income Statement, a Statement of
Retained Earnings, and a classified Balance Sheet. You should use the cell-referencing features
offered by Excel.

7. Congratulations! You have completed your practice problem for Aggie Spirit!

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING THE COMPLETED PROJECT

The due date for the project is Tuesday, February 14th.  To turn in the project, you will answer multiple-
choice questions on Canvas. 

EASY CELL-REFERENCING INSTRUCTIONS

Position your cursor in the cell where you want a given balance to appear, type an equal sign, and then
change worksheets, position the cursor on the cell that holds the value you want, and press Enter. This
should cause a “relative cell reference” to appear in the original cell. This means, more or less, that you
have copied the cell itself, and not the value – if you change the value in the source cell, it will
automatically change in the destination cell. This automatic updating is what makes electronic
spreadsheets so valuable in the business world for managers, investors, and accountants alike. It also
reduces the potential for error and makes working much more efficient and easier.

Example: To post a debit to the Cash t-account, position your cursor in the debit cell of the “Cash” t-
account in the “General Ledger” and type an equal sign. Click on the tab labeled “General Journal” at the
bottom of the screen to switch back to the journal entry, position the cursor on the debit cell that holds the
value you want, and press “Enter”. The value automatically transfers!