the double-ruled line at the left of the amount in your ledger and a similar mark beside the amount in your journal. No item should be checked a second time; for a second check mark would indicate that an error had been made either by checking the wrong item, or by posting an entry twice. When you have finished checking, look carefully through both journal and ledger for any unchecked amounts, for such items indicate errors.

100. Directions. After you have checked your postings, prepare a trial balance, as explained in §§ 62 and 63, and submit your work for approval. Compare your work with the model ledger on pages 68 and 69.

Take another sheet of ledger paper and post your journal for the February transactions on page 63, giving each account one-fourth of a page. Check your postings, take a trial balance, and submit your work for approval. Your work for this exercise should be copied into your ledger and trial balance book.

101. Errors in Trial Balances. You will probably make some errors in your work, but many of them can easily be found, if you go about your work systematically. The following suggestions will help you to find the errors in your trial balances:

1. Verify the footings of the trial balance. If in adding a column the first time, you added from the top down, add from the bottom up the second time.

2. Having found the exact amount of the difference between the footings of the trial balance, look in your journal for such an amount. If the credit footing is the larger, you may have omitted to post a debit item for the difference; and if the debit footing is the larger, you may have omitted to post a credit item for the difference.

3. Any item posted to the wrong side of the ledger will cause a difference of twice the amount of the item. If the difference is divisible by two, and the credit footing is the larger, look in your journal for a debit item for one-half the amount of the difference, and if you find such an item, see if it has been properly posted. If the debit footing is the larger, look in your journal for a credit item for one-half the amount of the difference.

4. If the difference between the footings of your trial balance is 1, 104, $1, $10, $100, etc., the error is probably in one of your additions, and may be in your trial balance or in one of the accounts in your ledger, or possibly in a book of original entry. 5. If the difference is divisible by 9, your error may have been caused by such a transposition of figures as is described in $ 98.

6. Verify the footings of the accounts in the ledger. Find the balances again, and make sure that there has been no error in carrying these balances to the trial balance.

7. If the error cannot be found by these methods, you must check your postings as explained in § 99. If the error is not found this time, you must check again until the error is found.

102. Correcting Errors. If the error is in your journal or any other book of original entry, do not erase it or scratch it out, but rule a line through the wrong entry or amount and place the right entry or amount above it (see illustration below). If an amount has been posted to the wrong place in your ledger, rule it out and make the entry in the proper place. If the wrong amount has been posted, rule it out and place the right amount above it. When a correction is made in this manner, it is self-explanatory.

103. Avoiding Errors. The following suggestions will help you to avoid errors:

1. Learn to do your work systematically. Follow a definite plan for each part of your work, - journalizing, posting, taking a trial balance, and closing accounts.

2. Be certain of the accuracy of each computation and the correctness of each entry before making the entry.

3. Be certain that each column in your journal and other books of

original entry is footed correctly before beginning a new page.

By doing this you will be sure of equal debits and credits in these books.

4. When an error has been made and discovered, correct it at once. If there is a wrong amount in a column that has been footed, correct the footings as well as the amount, or you may have trouble with it again.

5. Never seek aid of a fellow-pupil. He may give you the correct entry, but he will not give you the explanation that will help you

2. How many accounts may be affected by a transaction? Illustrate.

3. If your books were necessary to prove an account in a court of law, which would

be the more important, your journal or your ledger? Why?

4. What are the errors one is most likely to make in posting?

5. How may these errors be avoided?

6. Why should an error be canceled by ruling it out instead of erasing it?

7. When should an error be corrected? Why?