JAMB Principles of Accounts 2010 past questions

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

Ten questions from the 2010 JAMB Principles of Accounts paper, with answers and explanations. We hold 46 questions from this paper, and the Skolra app has all of them.

JAMB Principles of Accounts 2010 questions and answers

1. 1.Which of the following is mostly used in treating partners' current earnings?
   1. A
      Partners' drawings account
   2. B
      Partners' capital account
   3. C
      Partners' current account
      Correct
   4. D
      Profit and loss appropriation account
   Show answerHide answer

   Answer: C

   In partnership accounting there are two ways of keeping partners' accounts: the fluctuating capital method, where everything is thrown into one capital account, and the fixed capital method, where the capital account is held fixed at the amount the partner brought in and a separate account carries all the year-to-year items. The fixed capital method is the one mostly used, and the account it uses for those year-to-year items is the partners' current account.

2. 2.The cost of goods available for sale is?
   1. A
      Opening stock plus net purchases and carriage outwards
   2. B
      Opening stock plus net purchases less closing stock
   3. C
      Net purchases plus carriage inwards and closing stock
   4. D
      Opening stock plus net purchases and carriage inwards
      Correct
   Show answerHide answer

   Answer: D

   Cost of goods available for sale = Opening stock + Net purchases + Carriage inwards.

   Look at it the way a trader looks at his shop. Everything he could possibly have sold during the year is made up of the goods he carried over from last year (opening stock) plus the goods he bought this year. The purchases must be taken net — purchases less returns outwards, because goods you sent back to your supplier were never yours to sell. Carriage inwards is then added, since the cost of transporting goods into the business forms part of the cost of those very goods.

3. 3.The account which refers to the tangible assets of a company that is of permanent nature is the?
   1. A
      Fictitious assets account
   2. B
      Current assets account
   3. C
      Intangible assets account
   4. D
      Fixed assets account
      Correct
   Show answerHide answer

   Answer: D

   Two words in the question do all the work: tangible and permanent.

   Tangible means the asset can be seen and touched — it has physical substance. Permanent (long-term) nature means the company buys it to use in running the business over many years, not to resell. The account that carries such items — land and buildings, plant and machinery, motor vehicles, furniture and fittings — is the fixed assets account (in modern terminology, non-current assets). These are the items you depreciate year by year and show at cost less accumulated depreciation in the statement of financial position.

   Now see where the others fail:

   Current assets (cash, bank, stock, debtors, prepayments) are indeed tangible in most cases, but they are the opposite of permanent — they are held for a short period and converted into cash within the operating cycle. They fail the "permanent" test.

   Therefore the fixed assets account is the correct answer.

4. 4.The source documents include?
   1. A
      general ledger, sales ledger and purchases ledger
   2. B
      trading account, profit and loss account and balance sheet
   3. C
      sales day book, purchases day book and journal proper
   4. D
      invoice, receipt, credit note and debit note
      Correct
   Show answerHide answer

   Answer: D

   Source documents (also called original or prime documents) are the papers raised at the very moment a transaction takes place. They carry the evidence and the figures that the book-keeper needs before any entry can be made at all.

   So the simple test in the exam hall is this: ask yourself, "is this a piece of paper that comes in from outside the business (or goes out to a customer) when the transaction happens, or is it a book we ourselves write up afterwards?" Only the first kind is a source document.

5. 5.The rules which govern the internal management of a firm and its financial affairs in a partnership business is a?
   1. A
      Articles of association
   2. B
      Partnership deed
      Correct
   3. C
      Partnership Act
   4. D
      Memorandum of association
   Show answerHide answer

   Answer: B

   When two or more persons come together to trade as partners, they draw up a written agreement called the partnership deed (also known as the articles of partnership). This deed is the firm's own rule book: it states how much capital each partner brings in, the profit and loss sharing ratio, interest on capital, interest on drawings, partners' salaries, how a new partner is admitted, and how the firm is dissolved. It is from this deed that you take the figures for the profit and loss appropriation account and the partners' current accounts.

6. 6.Goods returned to branch by customers is recorded in the head office books be debiting?
   1. A
      branch stock account
      Correct
   2. B
      branch adjustment account
   3. C
      branch debtors account
   4. D
      goods sent to branch account
   Show answerHide answer

   Answer: A

   Under the stock and debtors system, the head office keeps a Branch Stock Account (kept at selling price) and a Branch Debtors Account for the branch.

   When the branch sells on credit, the entry is: Dr Branch Debtors, Cr Branch Stock. So when a customer returns the goods to the branch, you simply reverse that sale — the goods walk back into branch stock, and the customer stops owing for them:
   Dr Branch Stock Account
   Cr Branch Debtors Account

   That is why the branch stock account is the one debited.

7. 7.The prime cost is the total of the?
   1. A
      direct labour, direct expenses and administrative overheads
   2. B
      direct materials, direct labour and direct expenses
      Correct
   3. C
      direct materials, indirect labour and indirect expenses
   4. D
      direct materials, direct labour and factory overheads
   Show answerHide answer

   Answer: B

   In the manufacturing account, costs are first separated into direct costs (those you can trace straight to the item being produced) and indirect costs or overheads (those shared by everything the factory makes).

   Prime cost is simply the total of all the direct costs:
   Prime cost = Direct materials consumed + Direct labour (direct wages) + Direct expenses
   Direct expenses are things like royalties per unit produced, hire of a special machine for one job, or carriage inwards on direct raw materials. So direct materials, direct labour and direct expenses is the correct combination.

8. 8.An ordinary share of ₦80 was issued at ₦96. The share was issued at?
   1. A
      At a premium of ₦176
   2. B
      At a premium of ₦16
      Correct
   3. C
      At a discount of ₦16
   4. D
      At par value of ₦96
   Show answerHide answer

   Answer: B

   Every share has a nominal (par) value printed on it — here that is ₦80. What the company actually collects from the subscriber is the issue price — here ₦96. Compare the two and the answer follows:

   Issue price ₦96 > nominal value ₦80, so the share was issued above par, that is, at a premium.
   Premium per share = ₦96 − ₦80 = ₦16

   In the books the ₦80 goes to Ordinary Share Capital and the extra ₦16 is credited to a separate Share Premium Account, which appears under capital and reserves in the balance sheet and may only be used for the purposes the law allows (writing off preliminary expenses, issuing bonus shares, and so on).

9. 9.The major feature of an invoice is that it?
   1. A
      contains the details of goods sold on credit
      Correct
   2. B
      states the total amount a debtor owes at the end of the month
   3. C
      acknowledges the receipt of cash paid by a customer
   4. D
      corrects an overcharge on goods returned by a customer
   Show answerHide answer

   Answer: A

   An invoice is the source document the seller prepares and sends to the buyer whenever goods are supplied on credit. On its face you will find the date, the quantity and description of the goods, the unit price, the trade discount, the total amount and the terms of payment. That is why the correct description is that it contains the details of goods sold on credit — it is the evidence of a credit transaction, and it is the very document from which the seller writes up the Sales Day Book and the buyer writes up the Purchases Day Book.

10. 10.In the not-for-profit-making organization, the excess of income over expenditure is
    1. A
       deficit
    2. B
       surplus
       Correct
    3. C
       accumulated fund
    4. D
       net profit
    Show answerHide answer

    Answer: B

    A club, society or association does not exist to trade for profit, so it does not prepare a Trading, Profit and Loss Account. It prepares an Income and Expenditure Account, and the balancing figure on that account has its own name.

    When the income of the year is more than the expenditure of the year, the balance is called a surplus (the full expression is "excess of income over expenditure"). That surplus is then added to the Accumulated Fund in the balance sheet, in the same way a sole trader adds net profit to capital.

    So remember the pairing: sole trader → net profit and capital; club → surplus and accumulated fund.

The questions come from past JAMB, WAEC and NECO papers. We use software to help write the answer options and explanations, and every answer is checked twice before it goes on the site. How we check

Spotted a wrong answer? Tell us from the app or on the contact page and we check it.

Practise all 46 questions we hold from the 2010 paper, on a timed CBT screen

Every question has the answer and an explanation, in the Skolra app.

Download for WindowsDownload for Mac

About the app · Skolra for Windows · Skolra for Mac