Check Registers and Balancing Your Checkbook

Introduction

You have just received a notice from your bank saying that a check has bounced and that they are charging you a $5 penalty! You could have sworn that you had enough money in the bank. The bank has to be wrong, but how do you prove it? Maybe it's time you learned how to balance your checkbook. That's what this webquest is all about.

The Task

Your check register is the table that you are supposed to write the amounts of your checks in. It's usually in a separate booklet and is shipped in the same box as your checks. You'll find that there's a slot for it in your checkbook and if you are good, you will have put it in along with your checks.

Check registers are a form of ledger in which debits, money you paid to other people, and credits, money they paid to you, are entered. Your balance is the sum (adding it all together) of all your debits and credits. That's how much money you still have to spend. If your debits are greater than your credits, then you're overdrawn!

The trick is to regularly add up your debits and credits so you won't have too many to do at once. If you wait too long, you can get overwhelmed and lose track. (If it's already too late, at the end of the lesson I'll show you how to recover your balance from your bank statement) That's the task we're going to learn here, how to add them up and to check your answer to make sure you make no mistakes.

Process

Balancing a ledger is a two step process, first you compute your balance, and then you check it. It's so easy to skip the second step when you're in a hurry, but it's just as easy to make a big mistake that will come back to haunt you later. You must check your answers!

The first step is to compute your balance after each check so you know how much is left when you write the next one. Every check you write is a debit and that means that you subtract it from your balance. Every deposit is a credit and that means that you add it to your balance.

So let's do the first computation as an example. On 11/2, you wrote a check for your car payment. The balance before you wrote the check was $544.60. The check was for $312.34. You subtract the debit from your balance and enter the new balance in the ledger:

So I've done the first one for you. Now use the ledger below to compute your balance after each of the four checks you have written (and it's OK to use a calculator):

Evaluation

At the completion of the assignment you will receive a certificate of completion. Print the page by using the print page button on your browser and turn the certificate in to your teacher for credit!

Teacher's Page

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