July 9, 2023 
Greetings! I am working on developing a new project for introductory financial accounting and I am trying to decide whether to include journal entries as part of the project, or to focus on understanding and the use of the information. The project I am working on would apply to several topics within introductory financial accounting, so it would be appropriate later in the term. Anyways, I would appreciate your feedback on how relevant you find journal entries in teaching introductory financial accounting.
If you want to share more of your thoughts in the comments to this blog post, that would be fantastic.
Of course, I will be sharing the project with you all once I have finished it:) Have a great day – and thank you in advance for your input.
Accounting in the Headlines 
Journal entries are the foundation of financial accounting. Many of the students I tutor do not understand how to analyze a transaction. As a result, they’re not able to follow along in class and fall behind. This lack of foundational understanding also affects business. Accounting software automation greatly reduced the amount of data entry, but significantly increased the amount of data analysis. Without a strong understanding of journal entries, how do you recognize incorrect categorization, account types & normal balance and make adjusting & reclassifying entries. The Automation can’t do that part!
I worked in Accounting for 14 years. We always had to use General Journal entrues
I think journal entries and especially T-accounts are a valuable tool in the accountant’s toolkit. Using journal entries as an entry point to the accounting cycle enables the student to better understand how the accounts are related.
It is a always a struggle to find the balance of how in depth to go with journal entries in an intro to financial accounting course given the needs of declared accounting majors and those declared as other business majors…. Declared accounting majors will do better in the long run with a sound basis of journal entries from the start, but non accounting majors (other business majors) are served best with a solid understanding of using and interpreting financial statement information. Many of them will not deal with journal entries again. I am a fan of cohorting accounting majors in intro to financial accounting courses if enrollment allows.
As a student, I was challenged by them, especially AJEs. As an instructor, I viewed them as necessary, and the more the students practice them, the more comfortable they will become with them.
Your results so far are fascinating! I have definitely changed my tune over the years. Personally I’ve come to think that we’re shooting ourselves in the foot by focusing on journal entries. We turn off students who would be great accountants and end up with the rest of the students memorizing to get through and squandering the opportunity to engage meaningfully with skills and material they will actually need (despite what they think!). ________________________________
Hi Wendy! I am at a school that teaches without using journal entries in the first accounting class and while I believe they are important, I would love the opportunity to use one of your projects in my class 🙂 Thanks for all you do!
I view the AJEs as telling the current story of the financial year, as the year progresses. I realize it is very easy to get way down “into the weeds” with the AJEs, and perhaps non-accountant classes might do fine with out them, I can’t imagine not giving accountants this non AJE approach- I think Intermediate Accounting would be an absolute beast, without some knowledge of the going into Intermediate
Thank you Wendy for creating this topic. I have been teaching accounting for 14 years and have always felt the students need to know why we do journal entries and the importance of T accounts. Since we are a computer based society, students think they can just put the transaction in the computer and that is it. They do need to know the how and the why it affects certain accounts and in return the business.
In Financial Accounting it depends how it is being taught. We break Financial Accounting into 2 – 7 week courses. The first course concentrates on financial statements and what can be learned from them. The second course is when the “nitty gritty” comes in and students definitely need to know the mechanics of journal entries, T-accounts and the Trial Balance. It is additional knowledge to learning how the financial statement are prepared. Thanks Wendy!
Thanks for the invitation to participate in this survey. I enjoy, and use, a lot of your work in my class and I am eager to see this new addition.
Re: journal entries, I think it depends on the perspective from which the course is taught. If it’s a user orientation, I don’t think JEs are helpful. If it’s a preparer orientation, however, I think JEs are vital.
Thanks again for all of your work. All the best with this new project.
I teach Accounting to liberal arts students, none of whom will become accountants. I teach the class as the language of business–we need to understand the relationship between the financial statements for analysis and higher business-making decisions. So while I do explain the general journal and debits and credits, we don’t focus on that in class. I use a horizontal format to demonstrate the double-entry nature of each accounting event, focusing on the effect it will have on the statements. Which in a way is a journal entry, just not in the traditional sense. Therefore, I agree with the others who have stated it depends on the orientation of the class. Preparer’s need to understand the foundation, but users need only understand the relationship.
Thank you Wendy for all that you provide via this blog. It’s been a great resource!
Thanks, Wendy, for all your work for finding accounting concepts in the real world and thanks for asking this question.
I’ve been teaching this course on a high school level for over 11 years and I agree with my colleagues – even in the age of automation – it still needs to be covered. Thank you for providing this service to us in the trenches.