Accounting



What is the meaning of sundry and sundry debtors?

Sundry can mean various, miscellaneous, or diverse. Sundry debtors might refer to a company’s customers who rarely make purchases on credit and the amounts they purchase are not significant.

I suspect that the term sundry was more common when bookkeeping was a manual task. In other words, prior to the low cost of computers and accounting software, a bookkeeper had to add a page to the company’s ledger book for every new customer. If a new page was added for every occasional customer, the ledger book would become unwieldly. It was more practical to have one page entitled sundry on which those occasional customers’ small transactions were entered.

With the efficiency and low cost of today’s accounting systems, I believe the need for classifying customers and accounts as sundry has been greatly reduced.

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About the Author: Harold Averkamp (CPA) has worked as an accountant, consultant, and university accounting instructor for more than 25 years.

He is the author of the 2010 Master Accounting Download Package which has been praised for it's ability to simplify accounting in a way that anybody can understand.




Comments

13 Responses to “What is the meaning of sundry and sundry debtors?”

  1. abadi on December 2nd, 2009 7:21 am

    clear and concise defination satified me

  2. samreen/dolll on December 4th, 2009 12:00 am

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  3. Mama D on December 4th, 2009 8:20 am

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  4. BARIKIELI on December 4th, 2009 8:39 am

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  6. salman on December 8th, 2009 9:02 am

    Cool ! Beautifully explained.

  7. naseer on December 9th, 2009 3:47 am

    Salaam

    Nice defnition,

  8. Saint Ebenezer on December 10th, 2009 9:09 am

    Good,nice explained

  9. Pinton on December 15th, 2009 6:01 am

    I like your definitions,but please,kindly qoute the title of your books.Thank you.

  10. ranjani on December 18th, 2009 2:52 am

    good nice explained

  11. shazia on December 26th, 2009 6:00 am

    i liked explanation good work

  12. aswar on January 21st, 2010 12:22 am

    Mr. Ali is running “Hyper Star Traders” a sole proprietorship business located at the Mall
    Road, Lahore. At the year end the business has:
    Furniture Rs. 40,000
    Plant 200,000
    Capital 280,000
    On 30th November 2009 Mr. Ali submitted a tender for sale of goods of Rs. 20,000 which
    is likely to be confirmed shortly. Bank debited service charges Rs. 150 and interest on
    loan Rs. 500 and credited dividend for Rs. 2,000 in the month of December (intimation
    from bank was received on 7th January 2010). Mr. Ali also estimates that 5% of the
    amount will not be collectable from sundry debtors. House rent allowance Rs. 5,000 has
    been paid on 31st December from his personal account, on the same date stock was
    valued at Rs. 200,000 and plant Rs. 160,000 because of its wear and tear.
    The following balances (in the books of Hyper Star Traders) are also given along with
    above information as on 31st December 2009:
    Particulars Rs. Particulars Rs.
    Opening stock 120,000 Bank balance 36,000
    Sundry Debtors 100,000 Bills payable 20,000
    Long term Investments 60,000 Returns outwards 4,800
    Returns inwards 8,000 Commission 2,000
    Purchases 680,000 Sales 924,000
    Cash in hand 4,000 Interest received 800
    Bills receivable 44,000 Sundry Creditors 160,000
    Carriage out 3,600 Salaries 48,000
    Insurance paid 2,800 Wages 45,200
    Required:
    A. Pass necessary adjusting entries.
    B. Prepare the Income statement of Hyper Star Traders for the year ending on
    31st December, 2009.
    C. Prepare the Balance sheet of Hyper Star Traders as on 31st December, 2009.

  13. Mano on April 15th, 2010 11:19 am

    Thanks For explaining.really like the website.

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