95. The Model Journal. On pages 60 and 61 you will find the model journal; you should study it carefully, noting especially the following features: 1. When a personal account is debited or credited, the name of the person need not be repeated in the explanation. 2. The record for one transaction is separated from the one which follows by a line on which only the date of the following transaction is written. 3. The date for the first entry at the top of any page is usually written in full, including the day, month, and year. 4. No matter how many different items may have been bought or sold in one transaction, it is better to enter only one item on a line. 5. The name of each debit account should be written close to the line at the left, and each date and each explanation should be written close to the line down the middle of the page. 6. Usually a transaction will require only one debit and one credit; but in the model journal the transaction of the 22d required one debit and two credits, but the sum of the two credits is equal to the one debit. Some transactions will require two debits and one credit, and others will require several debits and several credits; but always the sum of the debits must be equal to the sum of the credits for each transaction. 7. Do not divide the record for a transaction at the bottom of a page. If there is insufficient space for the whole entry, begin a new page at once. 8. At the bottom of a page the two amount-columns should be ruled and footed, and the footings should be carried to the top of the next page. 9. The final footings for the month show that the sum of the debit items is equal to the sum of the credit items. If the two footings are not equal, the error should be found and corrected at once. Do not add one column and assume that the footing of that column is also the footing of the other, but always add each column, in order to be certain that the footings are the same. 96. Directions. Take a sheet of journal paper and make an exact copy of the model journal, except that in writing the date you should substitute the year in which you are doing the work. A page of your journal will probably be longer than the illustration, and, if so, you can copy one or two additional transactions on the first page. When this has been approved, you may copy it into your journal. journal sheet for the work of the next exercise. Keep this Next take a sheet of journal paper and journalize the following Transactions. Feb. 1. You (the student) will invest $1000 in cash in the grain business. 2. Buy of H. B. Moulton for cash, 500 bu. wheat @ 60¢. 8. Sell George W. Balch on his note at 10 days, 100 bu. wheat @ 10. Buy of Wm. J. Howard on your note at 30 days, 500 bu. barley @ 53¢. 11. Receive from F. L. Waite a note at 10 days with interest, for the sale of the 5th inst. 13. Give Davis & Co. your note at 10 days with interest for their invoice of the 7th inst. 14. Sell Robert E. Lane 100 bu. wheat @71, 100 bu. corn @ 471⁄2¢, and 100 bu. barley @ 62; and receive in payment a note at 10. days with interest for one half the bill and cash for the balance. The following illustration will assist you in making the entry for this transaction. 16. Pay Henry Johnson's bill for printing and stationery, $9.75. and 100 bu. barley @ 63 ¢. Feb. 18. Receive cash from George W. Balch to pay his note of the 8th inst. 20. Buy of H. B. Moulton 500 bu. wheat @ 61%, and give him in payment a note at 30 days with interest for $200 and cash for the balance. 21. Receive cash from F. L. Waite for his note of the 11th inst. and the interest. 23. Pay your note of the 13th inst. and the interest. 24. Receive cash from Robert E. Lane for his note of the 14th inst. 27. Prepay your note of the 10th inst., less the discount to maturity. wheat @ 71%. After this work has been approved by your teacher, you may copy it into your journal, beginning at the top of the page immediately following the pages used for the model journal. Keep this journal sheet for the work of the next exercise. Questions. 1. What is a business transaction? 2. What is bookkeeping? 3. What is essential to a good record of a business transaction? 4. What is a book of original entry? 5. When may the ledger be used advantageously as a book of original entry? 6. Describe the journal. 7. Why should a person keep a record of his business transactions? EXERCISE VIII. THE LEDGER. 97. The purpose of this exercise is to explain the method of transferring entries from the journal to the ledger. No record of a series of transactions is complete until the journal entries have been summarized in the ledger, for the ledger exhibits the results of the business in the form of accounts. The work of carrying the entries from the journal to the ledger is called posting. Each debit amount must be carried to the debit side of the proper account, and each credit amount must be carried to the credit side of the proper account in the ledger. Each entry in the ledger must show the date and amount of the transaction, and also the page of the journal from which the entry is posted. 98. Posting. Take a sheet of ledger paper and post the entries from your copy of the model journal. You will first open the necessary accounts, as directed in § 47, placing four accounts on a page. One of the most common errors in bookkeeping is to post an entry to the wrong side of the account. The best way to guard against this is to post all the debits first, and then the credits, instead of posting debits and credits alternately. The first debit entry in your journal belongs in cash account, and you may post the amount, $1000, to the debit side of this account. You may also write the date of the transaction, including the year, and the page of the journal from which the item is posted. As the journal contains a complete record of each transaction, it is not necessary to write anything in the explanation column of the ledger, and hereafter you may omit these explanations. A ledger from which such explanations have been omitted is called a skeleton ledger. The illustration on the preceding page shows this entry properly posted. You must next indicate in your journal that this entry has been posted, and this is done by writing in the square at the left of the entry the page of the ledger to which the entry was posted. The following illustration shows the manner of doing this. HH Cash H.D.Brown Began business 1000 You may now post the other debits in your journal, after which you may post the credits in the same manner. Be careful to post each amount to the right side of the ledger, to post it to the right account, and to post the right amount. One error that is frequently made by pupils in posting is the transposition of the figures of a number, such as writing $278 for $287, and posting dollars as cents or cents as dollars, as $.29 for $29. You should look at each amount very sharply, both in the journal and after you have written it in the ledger. The ledger page should not be entered in the journal till after the entry has been posted. If you should write the ledger page in the journal first, and your work should be interrupted at that moment, you would probably omit to post the entry when you resumed your work. 99. Checking Postings. Some bookkeepers check their postings before taking a trial balance, doing the work at odd moments, in order to be certain that there are no errors in the postings when they take a trial balance at the end of the month. The work of checking should be done with the utmost care, checking all the debits first and then the credits. You may turn to the first debit item in your journal, and, if it has been correctly posted, place a small check mark (√) with a pencil on |