Small Business Accounting Spreadsheet: A Checked Cash Practice Sheet

Open the input and keep the source intact

The input CSV contains an opening balance, four confirmed movements and one explicitly confirmed repeated export row. Dates, identifiers and amounts are fictional. Open it in a spreadsheet application or text viewer and retain an unchanged input copy before editing a practice version.

CSV stores values, not workbook formatting or live formulas. The checked file contains static answer values. Changing an input will not automatically recalculate those values; use the stated recurrence in your own working copy and compare against the answer.

Work through the running balance

Treat the 1,000 opening row as a starting balance, not as the period’s customer receipts. Process each confirmed movement once.

Prove the result in two ways

The row recurrence is prior balance + cash in − cash out. Separately, period receipts are 480 + 220 = 700 and payments are 85 + 300 = 385. Opening 1,000 + 700 − 385 gives the same closing 1,315.

A raw sum counting the duplicated 85 would instead give 1,230. The retained source note establishes the duplication for this fixture. In actual work, verify a repeated record against its source rather than deleting every repeated amount or identifier.

Separate inputs from derived answers

Date, source ID and confirmed cash movements are input facts. Running balance is a calculation. A useful working sheet labels those roles clearly so a later editor does not replace a calculation with an unexplained preferred number.

OpenStax describes the source-to-record accounting flow. This sheet practices a small part of that flow. A cash receipt can settle an earlier receivable, and a payment can settle a liability, so the 315 increase in cash is not automatically profit.

Explain the worksheet and its limits

A clear practice explanation is: “I retained the raw six rows, used each confirmed movement once, and reconciled the row calculation to the separate 700 receipts and 385 payments. Closing cash is 1,315. The answer file is a static reference, not an automatically recalculating workbook.”

The exercise excludes taxes, loans, noncash entries and financial statements. Use synthetic records for rehearsal; do not upload real customer or payment data to a personal spreadsheet account just to copy the example.