The Best Teacher

Journal is a book used to record business transaction in the order of occurrence. It is the book in which the transactions are recorded first of all under the double entry system. So it is also known as the books of original entry or the books of primary entry. It is also known as day book because it records daily transactions in the order in which they take place.

The process of recording transaction in a journal is termed as “Journalising”.

After transactions are recorded in the journal it will be in the form of "Journal Entry".

The format of Journal is given below:

Journal

1.Date:
It is the first column of the Journal. In this we record the date of the transaction. Year and month are written once in the beginning of the page till they change.

 2.Particulars:
It is the main portion of Journal. It is used for recording the name of accounts which has to be debited and credited for each transaction. In the first line the account name to be debited is recorded with the symbol “Dr” at the end of the line. In the second line the account to be credited are recorded which starts with the symbol “To”. After recorded the debit and credit entries write a narration in this column.

Narration
Narration is a brief description about the transaction made after the journal entry in the same column within brackets. It must be short and clear.

3.Ledger Folio:
It is a small column used to note the page number of Ledger on which the same accounts appears. It act as an index used to identify in which page of ledger the same account is appeared.

4. Debit Amount and Credit Amount: It is the columns used to record amount of the transactions. In the debit amount column record the amount to be debited and write the amount to be credited in the credit amount column.