Cambridge IGCSE Accounting: Sources and Recording of Data — Practice Questions

Syllabus edition note. This resource follows the Cambridge IGCSE Accounting 0452 syllabus for exams in 2027, 2028 and 2029 (version 1), first examined in the March 2027 series in India and the June 2027 series elsewhere. If you sit 0452 in November 2026, you sit the 2026 syllabus (version 2), which differs: Paper 1 has 35 multiple-choice marks in 1 hour 15 minutes, not 40 marks in 1 hour 30 minutes; Topic 7 is “Accounting principles and policies”, without 7.2 Ethical considerations or 7.3 Technology and sustainability; 4.4 is “Irrecoverable debts and provision for doubtful debts”; income statements are named instead of statements of profit or loss; three-column running balance accounts are not required; Clubs and societies is 5.4 and Manufacturing accounts 5.5; and 6.3 is “Inter-firm comparison”. For this topic, the 2026 syllabus also asks candidates to complete pro-forma business documents and to explain the advantage of using books of prime entry, and it does not include digital ledger accounts or the benefits and limitations of keeping cash at the business property and of manual and digital original entry. If you sit in November 2026, work from the 2026 syllabus on the Cambridge International website.

These are original practice questions written in the style of Cambridge IGCSE Accounting (0452) assessment objectives. They are not taken from any past paper and are not endorsed by Cambridge International.

Use these questions alongside the Sources and Recording of Data study guide and revision notes. Accounting 0452 is not tiered, so every question below applies to all candidates.

Short-answer questions

Cambridge IGCSE Accounting 0452 question papers are not divided into lettered sections, so the questions below are grouped only by length.

1. State the double entry rule in one sentence, and apply it to a cash purchase of office supplies: name the account debited and the account credited. [3]

2. State one business document that is used to correct an overcharge on an invoice, and explain briefly why it is issued. [2]

3. Name the three divisions of the ledger, and state what type of account is kept in each. [3]

4. State how the amount needed to restore an imprest float is found. [1]

5. Explain the difference between trade discount and cash discount, and state which one is recorded in the accounts. [3]

Longer questions

6. A business sells goods on credit to a customer. Two weeks later, the customer returns some of the goods as faulty.

(a) State which business document is issued for the original sale, and which book of prime entry it is first recorded in. [2] (b) State which document is issued for the return, and which book of prime entry it is recorded in. [2] (c) A trainee bookkeeper reverses the return directly in the sales journal. Explain why this is incorrect. [2]

7. Explain why the cash book is described as having a “dual role,” and state what makes it different from the other six books of prime entry. [3]

8. A petty cashier operates an imprest of $200. At the end of the month, vouchers totalling $148 have been recorded.

(a) Calculate the amount needed to restore the float to $200. [1] (b) Explain what would happen to this calculation if the cashier had instead been given trade discount of $10 on a purchase recorded by one of the vouchers. [2]

9. A structured question presents a business’s transactions for one month: a credit purchase, a cash sale, a credit note received from a supplier, and a cheque payment to a supplier.

(a) For the credit purchase, state the correct book of prime entry. [1] (b) For the credit note received from a supplier, state the correct book of prime entry, and explain how this differs from a credit note the business issues to its own customers. [2]

10. On 1 March, K Lee, a credit customer, owes a business $300. On 8 March the business sells her goods on credit for $450. On 15 March she pays $500 by bank transfer. On 20 March she returns goods worth $50. Prepare K Lee’s account in the business’s sales ledger using the three-column running balance format. [4]

11. A small shop keeps cash on its premises and is deciding whether to move from handwritten books of prime entry to accounting software.

(a) State one benefit and one limitation of keeping cash at the business property. [2] (b) State one benefit and one limitation of using digital methods for the original entry of business transactions. [2]

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Answers

1. Debit the receiving account, credit the giving account [1]. For a cash purchase of office supplies: debit the office supplies (or purchases/expenses) account, as it is the account receiving value [1]; credit the cash or bank account, as it is the account giving value [1].

2. A credit note [1]. It is issued to correct an overcharge on an invoice or to record goods that have been returned, reducing the amount the customer owes [1].

3. The sales ledger, holding customers’ personal accounts [1]; the purchases ledger, holding suppliers’ personal accounts [1]; and the nominal (general) ledger, holding all other accounts such as assets, expenses, income and capital [1].

4. It is the total of the vouchers paid during the period (equal to the float minus the cash left) [1].

5. Trade discount is a reduction given at the point of sale, often for bulk purchase, and is never entered in the accounts — the invoice simply shows the discounted price [1–2]. Cash discount is a reduction offered for prompt payment and is recorded in the accounts, in the discount allowed or discount received columns of the cash book [1]. Only cash discount is recorded in the accounts.

6. (a) An invoice is issued for the sale [1], first recorded in the sales journal [1]. (b) A credit note is issued for the return [1], recorded in the sales returns journal [1]. (c) This is incorrect because a sales return must be recorded in the sales returns journal, not reversed directly in the sales journal [1]; the sales journal should continue to show the original sale figure, with the return tracked separately so the business retains an accurate record of both total sales and total returns [1].

7. The cash book has a dual role because it functions simultaneously as a book of prime entry (where cash and bank transactions are first recorded) and as a ledger account for cash and bank [1–2]. This makes it different from the other six books of prime entry, which are all posted to a separate ledger account after the transaction is first recorded, whereas the cash book is never itself posted elsewhere in this way [1].

8. (a) $148, the total of the vouchers, which restores the float from the $52 left to $200 [1]. (b) Trade discount is never entered in the accounts at all, so the voucher would simply show the already-discounted price paid; it would not appear as a separate adjustment to the reimbursement calculation [1]. Only if the discount had been a cash discount would it need separate treatment, since cash discount is recorded in the accounts [1].

9. (a) The purchases journal [1]. (b) A credit note received from a supplier is recorded in the purchases returns journal [1]. This differs from a credit note the business issues to its own customers, which is recorded in the sales returns journal instead — the direction of the document (received versus issued) determines which journal it belongs in [1].

10.

K Lee account
Date      Details          Debit $   Credit $   Balance $
1 Mar     Balance b/d                               300 Dr
8 Mar     Sales               450                   750 Dr
15 Mar    Bank                          500         250 Dr
20 Mar    Sales returns                  50         200 Dr

Sales $450 on the debit side with balance $750 Dr [1]; bank $500 on the credit side with balance $250 Dr [1]; sales returns $50 on the credit side with balance $200 Dr [1]; every balance labelled Dr [1].

11. (a) Benefit, any one: cash is available for small, immediate payments or for giving change without going to the bank [1]. Limitation, any one: risk of theft, loss or miscounting; the cost of secure storage or insurance; cash on the premises earns no interest [1]. (b) Benefit, any one: faster recording; totals and postings are calculated automatically, reducing arithmetic errors; records are easy to back up, search and report from [1]. Limitation, any one: cost of equipment, software and training; risk of system failure or data loss; an input error is posted automatically throughout the records [1].

A note on exam technique for this topic

The highest-value exam skill on this topic is tracing a single transaction end to end — from the business document that triggers it, through the correct book of prime entry, to its final ledger posting — rather than memorising each of the seven books as an isolated definition. Paper 2’s structured questions routinely present a mixed bag of documents in one scenario and expect each to be routed correctly, so practise building this document-to-book-to-ledger trace as a fast, automatic three-step lookup. Keep the recurring confusions — book of prime entry versus ledger, trade discount versus cash discount, and the cash book’s unique dual role — as a short, dedicated checklist you revisit close to the exam, since these are the errors examiners report seeing most often in structured answers.