Can you draw a perfect score in the accounting game?

More than 1,000 questions inspired by content in accounting textbooks are featured in a new online game created for high school students.

The AICPA helped develop the game, called “Bank On It,” which is available at startheregoplaces.com. The game is intended to be a fun, engaging way for educators to reinforce the accounting principles being taught in class while giving their students a taste of real working-world scenarios in the accounting profession.

The concept for the game was designed by a team of high school students who won the AICPA’s Project Innovation Competition. The game is won by reaching a winning bank balance set prior to starting. Players earn money by answering questions correctly and landing on other strategic spaces as they move around the board.

Players can play the game at the “Staff Accountant” or “CEO” level, focusing on business and industry, public accounting, or not-for-profit accounting. Sample questions below are pulled from “Staff Accountant” and “CEO” levels for business and industry.

Can you get all the answers correct?

Questions

Staff accountant:

1. This term refers to the left side of a T account.

2. In the chart of accounts, liability accounts are usually assigned which number group based on a standard numbering system?

• 1000_1999
• 5000_5999
• 400_40000
• 2000_2999

3. True or False? A corporation must file an income tax return even if it doesn’t have any income for the year.

4. FICA taxes include Social Security and __________.

5. On Dec. 1, 2012, Ralph’s Repair Shop hired Steve to start work on Jan. 2, 2013, making a monthly salary of $2,700. Ralph’s Repair Shop’s balance sheet of Dec. 31, 2012, will show a liability for which amount.

• $2,700
• $32,400
• No liability
• $2,013

CEO:

1. If Lamar Brown, the manager of Pace Athletic Wear, agreed to pay Athletic Equipment Inc. the principal plus interest 90 days from Sept. 14, what would be the maturity date for his promissory note?

2. This term refers to the system of recordkeeping in which each business transaction affects at least two accounts.

3. True or False? A preferred stockholder receives dividends before a common stockholder.

4. The Flying Pig paper corporation brought in net income of $235,999 for the year. If it issued 3,400 shares of $5 par common stock and the board of directors declared a cash dividend of $5 per share, how much of the net income was retained by the corporation?

5. Ernie White is the sole proprietor of his business. He took two $700 laptops he personally owned and transferred them to his business, which increased the asset account Office Equipment by $1,400. How did it affect the account Ernie White, Capital and by how much?

• Increased by $700
• Increased by $1,400
• Decreased by $700
• Decreased by $1,400

Answers

Staff accountant:

1. Debit

2. 2000_2999

3. True

4. Medicare taxes

5. No liability, because Steve has not performed any work as of the balance sheet date
 

CEO:

1. Dec. 13

2. Double-entry accounting

3. True

4. $218,999

5. Increased by $1,400

Note: An earlier version of the quiz contained a question that was incomplete because it did not specify whether interest would be compounded. That question asked: You want to earn $750 in interest so you’ll have enough to buy a used car. So you decide to put $3,000 into an account that earns 2.5% interest. How long will you need to leave your money in the account to earn $750 in interest?

• 1 year
• 5 years
• 10 years

The original answer of 10 years failed to take into account compounding interest. With compounded interest, it would take approximately nine years to earn $750.

—Ken Tysiac (ktysiac@aicpa.org) is a JofA senior editor.