BOOKS OF ORIGINAL ENTRY 97 



the debit side of Cash account in the ledger because every 

 item on the cash received or left hand page expresses a 

 debit to cash. The same result is obtained by posting only 

 the total of all the items. Similarly, the total of the cash 

 paid out is posted to the credit side of Cash account. It 

 is noted that the abbreviated way of expressing debits and 

 credits in the cash book requires the writing of the amount 

 only once, while in the journal the amount was expressed 

 twice in each entry. The writing of the words "cash re- 

 ceived" at the top of the page in the cash book is equiva- 

 lent to writing "Each amount on this page expresses a debit 

 to Cash account and a credit to the account named on the 

 same horizontal line to the left of the amount." Similarly, 

 the use of the words "cash paid out" at the top of the right- 

 hand page is equivalent to writing "Each amount on this 

 page expresses a credit to Cash account and a debit to the 

 account named on the same horizontal line to the left of 

 the amount." 



These facts give rise to a procedure which many begin- 

 ners in bookkeeping find difficult to master, namely, that in 

 posting from the left hand page of the cash book, the indi- 

 vidual items are posted to the credit side of the ledger ac- 

 counts named ; and in posting from the right hand page of 

 the cash book, the individual items are posted to the debit 

 side of the ledger accounts named. The reason for the 

 apparent difficulty lies in the fact that the average begin- 

 ner does not have a clear conception of ledger accounts be- 

 fore he learns about posting. Debits and credits may be 

 expressed in a variety of ways in books of original entry. 

 In order to post intelligently one must know that a debit 

 expressed anywhere must ultimately be posted to the debit 

 side of some account in the ledger. 



The Cash Journal. The cash journal as used in com- 

 mercial enterprises is a book that is criticized by auditors, 

 but the criticisms in that connection do not hold in farm 



