OxfordAQA IGCSE Accounting: Verification of Accounting Records — Practice Questions (9215)

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Verification of accounting records study guide

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Section A

1. Name two types of error that a trial balance will NOT reveal. [2]

2. State one item that would appear on a bank statement but not yet in the cash book. [2]

Section B

3. A business’s purchases account is understated by $150 and its sales account is also understated by $150. Explain why this compensating error will not be revealed by the trial balance, and state its effect on reported profit. [5]

4. Explain the purpose of a trade receivables ledger control account. [4]

5. A cash book shows a balance of $2,400. The bank statement shows a balance of $2,650. On comparing the two, it is found that a standing order of $80 has not yet been entered in the cash book, and a cheque for $330 paid to a supplier has not yet been presented at the bank. Prepare an updated cash book balance and a bank reconciliation statement. [8]

6. Explain how a suspense account is used to correct an error in the double-entry records. [4]

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Answers

1. Any two of: commission, complete reversal, compensating, omission, original entry, principle [1] [1].

2. Any one of: bank charges, interest charged/received, a direct debit, a standing order, a credit transfer paid in directly, an error made by the bank [2].

3. The trial balance only checks that total debits equal total credits [1]. Because both errors understate an account by the same amount ($150 each), the totals of debits and credits remain equal despite both accounts being wrong, so the trial balance still balances and gives no indication of an error [1] [1]. Effect on profit: profit is understated, because both sales revenue and purchases cost (an expense) are understated, and these do not cancel out in the profit calculation the way they do in the trial balance’s simple debit/credit totals [1] [1].

4. A trade receivables ledger control account is a memorandum record that summarises the total owed by all credit customers in one place [1] [1], used to check that the sum of the individual customer accounts in the receivables ledger agrees with this total [1], helping to identify errors in the individual ledger accounts without needing to check every single account individually [1].

5.

Updated cash book:
  Balance b/d                 2,400
  Less: standing order          (80)
  Updated cash book balance   2,320                          [1] [1]

Bank reconciliation statement:
  Balance per bank statement   2,650
  Less: unpresented cheque      (330)
  Balance per updated cash book 2,320                        [1] [1] [1] [1]

(Marks for correctly updating the cash book for the standing order, and correctly adjusting the bank statement balance for the unpresented cheque, with the two final figures agreeing.)

6. When a trial balance does not balance, the difference between total debits and total credits is recorded in a suspense account so the trial balance can still be completed while the error is investigated [1] [1]. Once the specific error is found, a journal entry is made to correct the original account(s) affected and to remove the balance from the suspense account, reducing it to zero once the error is fully corrected [1] [1].

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Exam technique for this topic

Bank reconciliation questions like Q5 are best approached as a two-step process rather than one combined calculation: first update the cash book for items the bank already knows about but the business has not yet recorded (bank charges, standing orders, direct debits), then use the resulting updated cash book balance as the starting point for reconciling against the bank statement for items the business has recorded but the bank has not yet processed (unpresented cheques, outstanding lodgements). Attempting both adjustments in a single step, rather than updating the cash book first, is a common source of confusion and lost marks. For error-correction questions, always state both the double-entry journal correction and, where asked, the resulting effect on the suspense account or on profit — many mark schemes award marks for each of these separately, so a technically correct journal entry alone may not earn full marks if the effect on profit is also required.

Practising the error-correction sequence

Error-correction questions on this topic are best approached as a fixed three-step sequence: identify which type of error has occurred (using the six-error list for undetected errors, or the trial-balance imbalance for detected ones), write the journal entry needed to correct it, and state the resulting effect on the suspense account balance or on reported profit if asked. Practising this sequence end-to-end on several different error types — not just calculating the journal entry in isolation — is what builds the fluency needed for the longer structured questions this topic typically includes, since exam questions rarely stop at the journal entry alone.

Where marks are usually lost

• Assuming a balanced trial balance proves the accounts are error-free, rather than only that debits and credits are numerically equal.
• Placing a bank reconciliation adjustment on the wrong side, confusing an outstanding lodgement with an unpresented cheque.
• Forgetting that a control account is a memorandum check, not a replacement for the individual customer or supplier accounts it summarises.
• Correcting an error in the ledger but omitting its knock-on effect on reported profit when a question asks for it explicitly.