Final accounts

1) Examination questions – two types of problems arise in examinations:

• transfers between head office and branch are made at cost; or
• Transfers between head office and branch are made at “wholesale” price which will include a small element of profit.  In such cases the examiner frequently requires the final columnar accounts to show in the branch column, goods from head office and stocks at invoiced price, but not reduce these the head office cost in the combined column.

2) Trading Account – head office column records transactions from the point of view of the head office.  It show all purchase made by the head office, sales to customers and transfers to the branch at “wholesale” price.

3) Trading Account – branch column records transactions from the point of view of the branch. It shows goods received from head office at “wholesale” price and local purchases at cost, and stocks of goods from head office valued at “wholesale” price (i.e. includes an element of unrealized profit from the point of view of the business as a whole) and stocks of local purchases valued at cost.

4) Trading Account – combined column records transaction from the point of view of the business as a whole, profits between head office and branch being eliminated – gross profit figures will not cross-cast to the combined gross profit.

5) Profit and loss account – provisions for unrealized profits on closing stock held by the branch an on goods in transit are entered in the head office column.  Net profit figures will cross cast to the combined net profit.

6) Balance Sheet – current accounts will appear in the head office and the branch columns but not in the combined column;

7) The provision for unrealized profit on branch stock and goods in transit will appear under current liabilities in the head office column but will be deducted from the stock figures in the combined column.

8) The ‘combined’ column in the trading and profit and loss account and in the balance sheet are derived from the head office figures and the branch figures; normally the head office figures and the branch figures should be prepared first and the combined columns are then prepared from the individual columns.