Accounting for Joint Ventures: Introduction, Meaning, Objectives

An association of two or more persons or we may say temporary partnership combined for the carrying out a specific business, and divide profit or loss thereof in agreed ratio is called a Joint Venture. Concerned parties to joint venture are known as co-venturers. The liabilities of co-venturers are limited to their profit sharing ratio or as per agreed terms:

Suppose ‘A’ and ‘B’ undertake the job to develop a park for a consideration of Rs. 10,000/- Lacs. Since they come together for a work on a specific project, it will termed as joint venture and each of them (A and B) will be called as a co-venturer. Further, this venture will automatically terminate once the project is completed.

Major Features and Characteristics of Joint Venture

• There is an agreement between two or more persons.
• Joint venture is made for the specific execution of a business plan/project.
• It is a temporary partnership without the use of a firm name.
• Agreement for joint ventures is automatically dissolved as soon as specific project is over.
• Profit & Share are shared on the same terms and conditions agreed upon. However, in the absence of any agreement, profit & share will be divided equally.

Salient Features of Joint Venture

1. Agreement: Two or more firms come to an agreement, to undertake a business, for a definite purpose and are bound by it.
2. Joint Control: There exist a joint control of the co-venturers over business assets, operations, administration and even the venture.
3. Pooling of resources and expertise: Firms pool their resources like capital, manpower, technical know-how, and expertise, which helps in large-scale production.
4. Sharing of profit and loss: The co-venturers agree to share the profits and losses of the business in an agreed ratio. The computation of the profit and loss is usually done at the end of the venture, however, when it continues for the long duration, the profit and loss is calculated annually.
5. Access to advanced technology: By entering into joint venture firms get access to various techniques of production, marketing and doing business, which decreases the overall cost and also improves quality.
6. Dissolution: Once the term or purpose of the joint venture is complete, the agreement comes to an end, and the accounts of the coventurers, are settled, as and when it is dissolved.

The co-venturers are free to carry on their own business, unless otherwise provided in the joint venture agreement, during the life of the venture.

Partnership and Joint Venture

There are following differences between partnership and joint venture −

• Partnership always carried on with firm’s name, but for the joint venture, no such firm’s name is required.
• The persons who run the business on partnership are called as partners and the persons who agreed to take the project as joint venture are called as co-venturers.
• Normally, a partnership is constituted for a long period (including various projects), whereas joint venture is formed to complete a specific job/project.
• Partnership is governed under the Partnership Act, 1932, whereas there is no enactment of such kind for the joint ventures. However, as a matter of fact in law, a joint venture is treated as a partnership.
• There is no limit specified for the numbers of co-venturers, but the number of partners is limited to 10 under banking business and 20 for any other trade or business.
• Liability of a partner is unlimited and may extent of his business and personal estate, whereas under joint venture, liabilities of co-venturers are limited to the particular assignment or project agreed upon.

Joint Venture and Consignment

Major differences between joint venture and consignment may be summarized as −

• Relationship: The co-venturers of a Joint venture are the owners of a Joint venture, whereas relationship of a consignor and consignee is of owner and Agent.
• Sharing of Profits: There is no distribution of profit between a consignor and consignee, consignee only gets commission on sale made by him. On the other hand, the co-venturers of a joint venture share profits as per the agreed profit sharing ratio.
• Ownership of Goods: Ownership of the goods remains with the consignor. Consignor transfers only possession to the consignee, but every co-venturer of a joint venture is the co-owner of the goods/project.
• Contribution of Funds: Investment is done by the consignor only. On the other hand, funds are contributed by all co-ventures in a certain agreed proportion.
• Continuity of Business: In case of a joint venture, there is no continuity of the business once project is completed. On the other hand, if, everything goes smooth, consignment is a continuous process.

Accounting Records

To keep a record of the joint venture transactions, there are three following types of accounting methods:

• When one of the Venturers keeps Accounts,
• When Separate Books of Accounts are kept for the Joint Venture, and
• When Separate Books of Accounts are not kept for the Joint Venture.

Let’s discuss each of them separately:

When one of the Venturers keeps Accounts

If one of the co-venturers is appointed to manage the joint venture, he is awarded an extra commission or remuneration out of the profit for his services.

Journal Entries

When share of investment received from other co-venturers	Cash/Bank A/cDr To Co-venturers A/c
When goods are purchased	Joint Venture A/cDr To Cash A/c (in case of cash purchase) Or To Creditors A/c (for credit purchase)
When expenses incurred	Joint Venture A/cDr To Cash A/c
When goods are sold	Cash A/cDr Or Debtors A/cDr To Joint Venture A/c
When commission allowed to working co-venturer	Joint Venture A/cDr To Commission A/c
In case of Profit balance of joint venture, account will be transferred to profit & Loss (own share of working co-venturer) and other co-venture’s personal accounts	Joint Venture A/cDr To Profit & Loss A/c To Co-venturers personal A/c
In case of Loss	Profit & Loss A/cDr To Joint Venture A/c
On settlement of accounts	All Co-venturer A/cDr To Cash/Bank A/c

When Separate Books of Accounts are kept for the Joint Venture

Under this method, all co-venturers contribute their share of investment and deposit their shares in a Joint Bank account — newly opened for the specific purpose of the Joint Venture. They may use this bank account to make any kind of payments and to deposit sale proceeds or any other kind of receipts.

In addition to Bank account, a Joint venture account is also opened in the books to keep records of all transactions routed through this account.

This category of accounts is a personal account of the each co-venturer. Thus following three accounts are opened −

• Joint Bank Account
• Joint Venture Account
• Personal account of co-venturers

When Separate Books of Accounts are not kept for the Joint Venture

It is of two types:

• When all venturers keep separate accounts
• Memorandum joint venture method

When all Venturers keep Separate Accounts:

• Separate Joint venture account and personal accounts of other co-venturers are opened under this method of accounting.
• Joint venture account is debited and bank account or creditor account is credited on the account of goods purchased or expensed.
• Joint venture account is credited and a bank account or debtor account is debited in case of either cash sale or credit sale.
• Each co-venturer debits joint venture account and credits personal accounts of other co-venturer on the account of either goods purchased or expensed by other co-venturers.
• Joint venture account is credited and personal account of others co-venturer account is debited in case of sale made by other co-venturers.
• Joint venture account is debited and commission account is credited if, commission is receivable, but if commission is receivable by other co-venturer, then the concerned co-venturer account will be credited instead of the commission account.
• If unsold stock is taken, then goods account will be debited by crediting Joint venture account. On the other hand, if unsold stock is taken by any other co-venturer, then personal account of the co-venturer will be debited.
• Balance in the joint venture accounts represents profit or loss and later that amount of profit or loss will be transferred to the personal accounts of co-venturers.

Note: Above transactions are possible only when all the co-venturers exchange information’s on regular basis.

Objectives of Joint Venture

• To enter foreign market and even new or emerging market.
• To reduce the risk factor for heavy investment.
• To make optimum utilisation of resources.
• To gain economies of scale.
• To achieve synergy.

Joint ventures are primarily formed for construction of dams and roads, film production, buying and selling of goods etc.

The type of joint venture is based on the various factors like, the purpose for which it is formed, number of firms involved and the term for which it is formed.