Kinds of Books 29 



counts. In order to keep books, different kinds 

 of books are required; that is, there must be books 

 for the different stages or epochs in the account. 

 The principal book used in keeping accounts is 

 the ledger. It is the only book essential in a 

 small business having few transactions. It will 

 usually be found more convenient to have a smaller 

 book of some sort in which to record all trans- 

 actions in the order in which they occur. Once 

 a month, or at any other regular interval, the en- 

 tries may be transferred or " posted ' ' from this 

 to the proper accounts in the ledger. This smaller 

 book is often called a blotter or day book. In- 

 termediate between the blotter and the ledger is 

 the journal, a kind of condensed blotter; but this 

 is not always used, and it is not described in this 

 handbook. 



The blotter may be of the simplest form, and 

 the work reports need not be expensive. Com- 

 mon sheets of foolscap paper may be easily ruled 

 into as many columns as required, since only a 

 few sheets will be needed each month. A small 

 ledger suitably ruled (see ruling on page 25) 

 should be purchased. 



SUB -DIVISIONS OF ACCOUNTS 



We must now decide into how many classes 

 the various operations shall be divided. For 



