BOOKS OF ORIGINAL ENTRY 85 



the books of original entry when the ledger or trial balance 

 was found to be off. 



5. To reduce the amount of detail recorded in the ledger, 

 and thus make it a more compact and permanent record 

 without destroying its usefulness. This is accomplished 

 by the use of any or all of the books of original entry with 

 the exception of the simple journal when used alone. In 

 all books except the latter, provision is made for classify- 

 ing transactions in such a way that a number of debits or 

 credits to the same account may be transferred in total to 

 the ledger account involved. 



With the exception of the third, that of the division of 

 labor, the reasons given above would apply to farm ac- 

 counting as well as to commercial accounting. Therefore, 

 the use of books of original entry is advantageous on the 

 farm, if the proper book or books can be selected. Such 

 books should satisfy the conditions mentioned above with- 

 out requiring any more work than would be encountered 

 in using the ledger alone. 



Posting. Books of original entry are used for the pur- 

 pose of expressing debits and credits as transactions arise. 

 The actual debit or credit to the account does not occur 

 until the debit or credit so expressed is transferred to the 

 ledger account. The process of transferring debits and 

 credits from books of original entry to the ledger accounts 

 is called posting. Posting might refer to the transfer of 

 one expressed debit or credit at a time, or it might refer 

 to the transfer of a total obtained in a book of original 

 entry having special columns. 



It follows that if the ledger is to get its data second 

 hand, so to speak, the books of original entry should show 

 at least as much information concerning the transaction 

 as would be shown in the ledger when it is used alone. All 

 books of original entry are so designed as to show this 

 much, and most of them show more. 



