While preparing the final accounts from incomplete records you had some& idea of the Receipts and Payments Account. So, you know that it is simply a summary of cash and bank transactions for the year. It gives full information about all receipts and payments under different heads and is prepared with the help of the Cash Book.

The Cash Book contains a record of all receipts and payments in a chronological order but the Receipts & Payments Account will simply show the total amount received or paid under each head. For example, a club receives subscriptions from its members on different dates in a year. These are recorded in the Cash Book . separately on those dates.

But in Receipts & Payments Account, the total amount of subscriptions received during the year will appear as one item on its debit side. Similarly, salaries paid to the staff will appear in Cash Book every month whereas the Receipts & Payments Account will simply show the total amount for salaries paid during the year on its credit side.

You will recall that the opening balance in Receipts and Payments Account represents the cash and bank balances at the beginning of the year whereas the difference between the totals of the two sides reflects the closing cash and bank balances.