ICANFinancial AccountingDouble Entry and Books of Prime Entry2023

Bello Enterprises extracted a trial balance and discovered a suspense account balance of ₦180,000 (Cr). Investigation revealed two errors: (i) a credit sale of ₦300,000 to Customer Z was entered in the sales day book as ₦120,000; and (ii) discount received of ₦60,000 was debited to both the discount received account and the supplier's account instead of being credited to discount received. Which journal entry correctly clears the suspense account?

ADr Suspense ₦180,000; Cr Sales ₦180,000
BDr Suspense ₦180,000; Cr Customer Z (Receivables) ₦180,000
CDr Sales ₦120,000, Dr Discount Received ₦120,000; Cr Suspense ₦180,000; Cr Customer Z ₦60,000
DDr Customer Z (Receivables) ₦180,000; Cr Suspense ₦180,000CORRECT
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Why the answer is D, and why the others tempt you.
Error (i): Sales understated by ₦180,000 (₦300,000 − ₦120,000); debit Customer Z ₦180,000 and credit Sales ₦180,000 — this affects only one side of the trial balance (debit side short), creating a ₦180,000 credit suspense. Error (ii): Discount received debited instead of credited means the debit side is overstated by ₦120,000 (₦60,000 wrong debit + ₦60,000 missing credit = ₦120,000 net effect); however, this error affects both sides equally (both supplier and discount received accounts on the same side), so it does not cause a trial balance difference. Therefore only error (i) caused the ₦180,000 Cr suspense, and the correction is Dr Customer Z ₦180,000; Cr Suspense ₦180,000, with a separate Dr Suspense entry not needed since error (ii) is a compensating/self-balancing error. The net journal to clear suspense is Dr Customer Z ₦180,000; Cr Suspense ₦180,000.
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