A journal i s also called d a book of original entity. The process of re- cording entries in the journal is called journalizing’. The record of each transaction in the journal is called the journal.Under double-entry bookkeeping the written record which is made of the debit and credit elements of a transaction is called the “entry’’ for the transaction. The sum of the debit values of each entity is, of course, especial to the sum of the credit values.
Although these debit and credit values could be placed directly in the accounts of a ledger, it is customary practice
1. to record all transactions, first, in a preliminary record called in journal;
2. to transfer each of the debit and credit values in the journal to the accounts of the general ledger.
Each journal entry should contain the following information:
1. ‘^idie date of the transaction
2. The account to be debited and the amount
3. The account to be credited and the amount
4. An adequate explanation of the entry if the meaning of the journal entry is not clear from the formal debits and credits themselves
A journal entry which embraces more than two accounts is called a compound journal entity.
An entry in the journal of a business may be looked upon as the official record of, as well as an authorization for, a change in the balances of designated ledger accounts. No debit or credit value, therefore, should ever be placed in a ledger account unless a complete entry for the transaction in (question has just been recorded in the journal.
The following points should be noted in the construction of this journal.
The year is written in small figures just above the recording of the first month-date. The year-date is written just once to a page if all entries on the page come within the year-date recorded at the head of the page.
2. The name of the account to be debited is written close to the date column. The amount is placed in the first, or debit, column.
3. The name of the account to be credited is written directly below the debit account but indented one-half inch or more to the right. This is done in order to distinguish the credit account from the debit account. The amount is placed in the second, or credit, money column.
4. The explanation for an entry is written directly below the last credit account.
5. One line should be left blank between journal entries in order to clearly separate transactions from each other.
6. The small column immediately to the left of the two money columns is a “ledger folio column. The use of this column is explained below.
The debit and credit values of all transactions recorded in the journal must sooner or later be transferred to the proper accounts in the general ledger. This “transferring^^ process is called “posting.” The detailed procedure of posting is as follows:
1. The debit member of a journal entry is posted first.
2. Turn to the ledger account to be debited. On the debit side of this account enter the following:
a) The date — year, month, day. For succeeding entries in an account, the year and month should be recorded only if a change has occurred in the year-date or the month-date.
b) The journal page from which the debit was taken, Jl, J2, J3, etc. The recording of the journal page should be made in the “reference” or “folio” column.
