75. Entering Cash Discounts in Cash Book. When we receive payment from a customer who has deducted the cash discount, the discount must be taken account of in entering the payment, as the customer is to receive credit for the full amount. We might enter the cash payment in the cash book, and make a journal entry of the cash discount, but this would necessitate two postings from separate books.
A better method, and one which has become standard, is to provide a cash discount column in the cash book. When a column has not been provided for this purpose, a narrow column can be ruled in on the cash received or debit side of the cash book. This is carried as a memorandum until the end of the month, when the total is posted to the debit of discount on sales. Two ways of making the entry are shown (p. 84).
In Example No. 1, the cash discount is entered in the discount column, and the net cash received is entered in the cash column. When the payment is posted, two entries are made in the ledger. One advantage in this is that reference to the account of R. L. Brown & Co. shows at a glance whether they are taking advantage of cash discounts.
In Example No. 2, the cash discount is entered in the proper column, but the gross amount is entered in the cash column. The payment is then posted in one item, and reference to the ledger account does not show whether the payment of $100.00 is all cash or part discount. It is necessary, also, to deduct the footing of the discount column from the footing of the cash column to ascertain the amount of cash received. For these reasons the method shown in Example No. 1 is recommended.
76. Cash Discounts Earned. When we take advantage of the discount offered for the prepayment of bills, the discount earned can be considered a legitimate source of profit. Our own selling prices for goods purchased to be resold are based on the prices at which they are billed to us, without considering a possible saving by discounting our bills. Whether or not we discount our bills is largely a question of capital, and such earnings are legitimate profits entirely outside of regular trading profits. Discounts earned should be treated as interest earned and credited to interest account, from which they will find their way into profit and loss account.
PROFIT AND LOSS