{"id":4127,"date":"2025-05-13T19:10:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T19:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yaveni.com\/blog\/?p=4127"},"modified":"2025-05-13T19:10:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T19:10:20","slug":"what-is-the-journal-entry-to-record-an-nsf-check-from-j-smith-for-250","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/what-is-the-journal-entry-to-record-an-nsf-check-from-j-smith-for-250\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the journal entry to record an NSF check, from J. Smith for $250"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the journal entry to record an NSF check, from J. Smith for $250, that is returned with the bank statement?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>a. Cash $250 DR; NSF Check $250 CR<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>b. Accounts Receivable $250 DR; Cash $250 CR<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>c. NSF Check $250 DR; Accounts Receivable $250 CR<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>d. Cash $250 DR; Accounts Receivable $250 CR<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>e. Cash $250 DR; Miscellaneous Expense $250 DR<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"><strong>The correct answer and explanation is :<\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The correct journal entry to record an NSF check from J. Smith for $250 that is returned with the bank statement is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>b. Accounts Receivable $250 DR; Cash $250 CR<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Explanation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a company initially receives a check from a customer like J. Smith for payment on an account, the usual entry is to debit Cash (or Bank) and credit Accounts Receivable. This increases the company&#8217;s cash balance and reduces the amount the customer owes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, when the bank returns the check as NSF (Non-Sufficient Funds), it means the customer&#8217;s bank account did not have enough money to cover the check. The bank will deduct the amount of the check from the company&#8217;s bank account. This requires an adjustment to the accounting records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cash Account: Since the bank is taking the money back out of the company&#8217;s account, the company&#8217;s Cash balance decreases. To decrease an asset account like Cash, you must credit it. Therefore, Cash is credited for $250.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Accounts Receivable Account: The customer, J. Smith, did not actually pay the $250 because the check bounced. They still owe the money. The original entry that credited (reduced) J. Smith&#8217;s Accounts Receivable balance needs to be reversed for this amount. To show that J. Smith now owes the $250 again, you must increase their Accounts Receivable balance. To increase an asset account like Accounts Receivable, you must debit it. Therefore, Accounts Receivable is debited for $250.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This entry effectively reverses the impact of the bounced check, reducing the Cash balance to reflect the bank&#8217;s deduction and reinstating the amount owed by the customer in Accounts Receivable, allowing the company to pursue collection efforts from J. Smith. While the bank might also charge a service fee for the NSF check, that fee would be recorded with a separate debit to Bank Service Charges or Miscellaneous Expense and a credit to Cash. The entry shown above deals only with the $250 principal amount of the bounced check.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the journal entry to record an NSF check, from J. Smith for $250, that is returned with the bank statement? a. Cash $250 DR; NSF Check $250 CR b. Accounts Receivable $250 DR; Cash $250 CR c. NSF Check $250 DR; Accounts Receivable $250 CR d. Cash $250 DR; Accounts Receivable $250 CR [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4128,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127\/revisions\/4128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}