Question

You are told the column totals in a trial balance are not equal. After careful analysis, you discover only one error. Specifically, a correctly journalized credit purchase of an automobile for $18,950 is posted from the journal to the ledger with an $18,950 debit to Automobiles and another $18,950 debit to Accounts Payable. The Automobiles account has a debit balance of $37,100 on the trial balance. Answer each of the following questions and compute the dollar amount of any misstatement
Is the debit column total of the trial balance overstated, understated, or correctly stated?

Answer 1

Answer: The debit column of the trial balance was overstated.

Explanation: from the question, the asset purchased with a value of $18,950 was overstated in the asset asset account.

On the purchase of the asset, the asset account is to be debited and accounts payable account is to be credited and not debited. So the debit side of the trial balance was overstated by $18,950 * 2 = $37,900.