JAMB Principles of Accounts 2009 past questions

Checked by the Skolra question team · Last updated 23 October 2026

Ten questions from the 2009 JAMB Principles of Accounts paper, with answers and explanations. We hold 44 questions from this paper, and the Skolra app has all of them.

JAMB Principles of Accounts 2009 questions and answers

1.Cash discount is often recorded on?
1. A
  the purchases day book
2. B
  the discount columns of the cash book
  Correct
3. C
  the sales day book
4. D
  the journal proper
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Answer: B
Cash discount is the small allowance a business gives (or receives) for prompt payment of an account. Since it only arises at the very moment money is actually paid or received, it is recorded in the same book that records the money — hence the discount columns of the cash book is correct.
2.Which of the should not be added or subtracted from the bank statement balance to determine the adjust cash balance?
1. A
  Uncredited lodgements paid into the bank
2. B
  Bank charges deducted by the bank
  Correct
3. C
  Unpresented cheques issued to creditors
4. D
  Errors committed by the bank on the statement
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Answer: B
In bank reconciliation, always ask yourself one simple question: who already knows about this item? That tells you which balance to adjust.
Bank charges deducted by the bank are already on the bank statement — the bank debited the account and printed it. So the statement balance has already been reduced by them. If you add or subtract them from the statement balance again, you double count. Bank charges (and commission, standing orders, direct debits, dishonoured cheques, bank interest) are used to adjust the cash book balance, because it is the trader who has not yet recorded them.
3.Which of the following is an item in the debit side of the sales ledger control account?
1. A
  Returns inwards from customers
2. B
  Discount allowed to customers
3. C
  Bad debts written off during the year
4. D
  Cheques received from customers dishonoured
  Correct
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Answer: D
The sales ledger control account is simply a summary of all your credit customers put together, so treat it like one big debtor account — an asset. Anything that increases what customers owe you goes on the debit side; anything that reduces the debt goes on the credit side.
Debit side: opening balance b/d, credit sales, interest charged on overdue accounts, carriage charged to customers, refunds to customers, and dishonoured cheques.
Credit side: cash and cheques received, discount allowed, returns inwards, bad debts written off, and contra/set-off with the purchases ledger control account.
4.If the capital of the partnership is unfixed, what is K's current accounts?
1. A
  It records his drawings, salary and share of profit only
2. B
  It carries the same balance as his opening capital
3. C
  It is closed off to the appropriation account at year end
4. D
  There is none, as all his entries go into his capital account
  Correct
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Answer: D
Remember this rule: a current account exists only where partners' capital is FIXED.
A partnership may keep its capital in one of two ways:
1. Fixed capital – the capital account is frozen at the agreed contribution. Every yearly item (drawings, interest on capital, interest on drawings, partner's salary and share of profit or loss) is then posted to a separate current account for each partner.
2. Fluctuating (unfixed) capital – no current account is opened at all. Those same items are debited and credited straight into the partner's capital account, so the balance rises and falls from year to year.
5.Musa, a prepaid customer of XYZ and KLM, bought ₦1500 recharge card from XYZ, and ₦2000 recharge recharge card from KLM, for business calls. The entry to record these transaction is debit?
1. A
  XYZ account with ₦1,500 and KLM account with ₦2,000
2. B
  Cash account with ₦3,500
3. C
  Telephone expenses account with ₦3,500
  Correct
4. D
  Purchases account with ₦3,500
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Answer: C
Look at whose books we are writing. Musa is the trader; XYZ and KLM are only the networks that sold him airtime. He bought the cards for business calls, so the money spent is a running cost of the business — a telephone (communication) expense.
Add the two cards together, because they are the same kind of expense:
₦1,500 (XYZ) + ₦2,000 (KLM) = ₦3,500.
The double entry in Musa's books is:
Dr Telephone expenses account ₦3,500
Cr Cash account ₦3,500
Remember the rule: debit the account that receives value (the expense), credit the account that gives value (cash).
6.The process of bookkeeping includes records produced from?
1. A
  bank reconciliation statements
2. B
  source documents
  Correct
3. C
  audited financial statements
4. D
  trial balance extracts
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Answer: B
Bookkeeping is the day-to-day recording of business transactions in the books of account. Before any entry can be made, there must be written evidence that the transaction actually happened — and that evidence is the source document: the invoice, receipt, credit note, debit note, cheque counterfoil, payment voucher or till roll. The bookkeeper reads the source document, then writes the transaction into the book of original entry (cash book, sales day book, purchases day book, journal) and posts it to the ledger. So the records bookkeeping produces are produced from source documents.
7.Which of the following methods gives a conservative closing stock value during a period of rising prices?
1. A
  Last In First Out (LIFO) method
  Correct
2. B
  Replacement Cost method
3. C
  First In First Out (FIFO) method
4. D
  Weighted Average Cost method
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Answer: A
Conservatism in accounting means that when there is a choice of value, the accountant should pick the one that does not overstate assets or profit. During a period of rising prices, this makes the Last In First Out (LIFO) method the conservative choice.
8.If Odukoya takes money out of business bank account for his own private use, the effect of the transaction is?
1. A
  Decrease in bank balance and increase in liabilities
2. B
  Increase in capital and decrease in bank balance
3. C
  Decrease in capital and decrease in bank balance
  Correct
4. D
  Decrease in bank balance and increase in business expenses
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Answer: C
Odukoya is the owner of the business, so money he takes out of the business bank account for his private use is drawings. The double entry is:
Dr Drawings ... ₦x
Cr Bank ... ₦x
Follow both entries through the accounting equation, Assets = Capital + Liabilities. The credit to Bank reduces an asset, so the bank balance falls. Drawings are deducted from the owner's capital (Capital = Opening capital + Net profit − Drawings), so capital falls by the same amount. Both sides drop equally and the equation stays in balance — that is why a decrease in capital and a decrease in bank balance is the correct effect.
9.The accounting convention which states that the performance of a business should be determined by matching all expenses against revenues is?
1. A
  realisation concept
2. B
  going concern concept
3. C
  matching concept
  Correct
4. D
  consistency concept
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Answer: C
The correct answer is the matching concept (also called the accrual concept).
The idea is simple: to know how a business truly performed in a period, you must place against the revenue of that period all the expenses that helped to earn it — whether or not the cash has actually been paid. This is exactly why we make adjustments for accrued expenses, prepayments, depreciation and closing stock before arriving at net profit. Revenue for the year against expenses for the same year: that is matching.
Remember: whenever a question mentions expenses matched against revenues of the same period, the answer is the matching (accrual) concept.
10.The book value per share is obtained by dividing?
1. A
  dividend paid to ordinary shareholders by the number of ordinary shares issued
2. B
  profit after tax by the number of ordinary shares issued
3. C
  net assets of the company by the number of ordinary shares issued
  Correct
4. D
  total assets of the company by the number of ordinary shares issued
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Answer: C
Book value per share tells you how much of the company's own net worth is standing behind each ordinary share. So the formula is:
Book value per share = Net assets attributable to ordinary shareholders ÷ Number of ordinary shares issued
Remember that net assets = total assets − total liabilities (and where the company has preference shares, you also take out the preference share capital). Net assets is simply another name for the ordinary shareholders' funds — ordinary share capital plus reserves. That is why dividing the net assets by the number of ordinary shares issued is the correct answer.
Now look at where the other three go wrong.

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JAMB Principles of Accounts 2009 past questions

JAMB Principles of Accounts 2009 questions and answers

Practise all 44 questions we hold from the 2009 paper, on a timed CBT screen

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