Explain the basic features of Income and Expenditure Account and of Receipt and Payment Account.

Income and Expenditure Account (I&E) Account is a Nominal Account and is prepared on the accrual basis. It records all transactions of revenue nature that are related to the current accounting period (whether outstanding or prepaid) for which the books are maintained. All expenses and losses are recorded on the debit side (Expenditure side) and all income and gains are recorded on the credit side (Income side) of I&E Account. The closing balance or the balancing figure of I&E Account is termed as surplus (or deficit), if the sum total of the Income side exceeds (is lesser than) the sum total of the Expenditure side.

The following are the basic features of Income and Expenditure Account

1. Nature: It is a Nominal Account. The debit side of I&E records all expenses and losses and the credit side records all incomes and gains related to the current accounting period.

2. Basis: It is prepared on the basis of Receipt and Payment Account (R&P). All the revenues items whether incomes or expenditures are transferred from R&P.

3. Excludes Capital Transactions: The transactions those are capital in nature are excluded from this account. For example, only profit or loss on sale of fixed assets is recorded but the total amount of sales is not recorded since sale of fixed asset is considered as a capital receipt.

4. Akin to Profit and Loss Account: Income and Expenditure Account (I&E) is similar to the Profit and Loss Account in the sense that while the former is prepared to ascertain surplus or deficit during an accounting period the latter is prepared to ascertain net profit or net loss incurred during an accounting period.

5. Records only Current Year’s items: This account records only those transactions that are related to current accounting year. In other words, transactions related to the preceding or succeeding accounting period are excluded even if these transactions are realised in the current period.

6. Adjustments: Various cash and non-cash items like, outstanding expenses, prepaid expenses, income received in advance, income due but not received, depreciation, bad debts, etc. can be adjusted in this account.

7. Balancing Figure: The balancing figure of this account is expressed in terms of either surplus (if incomes > expenses) or deficit (if expenses > incomes). The surplus balance, if any, is added to the Capital Fund, whereas, the deficit balance, if any, is deducted from the Capital Fund.

Receipts and Payments Account is a summary of the Cash Book. All the cash receipts are recorded on the Receipts side (i.e. Debit side) and all the cash payments are recorded on the Payments side (i.e. Credit side) of Receipts and Payments Account. It is prepared on the basis of cash and bank transactions recorded in the Cash Book. It begins with the opening balance of cash and bank and ends with the closing balances of cash and bank (balancing figure) at the end of the accounting period. It records all the cash and bank transactions both of capital and revenue nature. It not only records the cash and bank transactions relating to the current accounting period but also cash and bank receipts (or payments) received during the current accounting period that may be related to the previous or next accounting period.

The following are the features of Receipt and Payment Account.

1. Nature: It is a Real Account. It is a summarised version of the Cash Book.

2. Nature of Transactions: It records only cash and bank transactions. Transactions other than cash and bank like depreciation, loss/ profit on sale of assets, etc. are not recorded in this account.

3. No distinction between Capital and Revenue items: It records all cash and bank receipts and payments of both capital and revenue nature.

4. Opening and closing balance: It begins with the opening balance of cash and bank and ends with the closing balance of the cash and bank (balancing figure) at the end of the accounting period.

5. Purpose: It reveals the cash position of an organisation. It helps to ascertain the total amount paid and received during an accounting period.