Block 1 Unit 2
Block 1 Unit 2
Unit 2
ACCOUNTING PROCESS:
First of all financial transactions or events are identified & measure in terms of money.
Then they are classified & posted to the main book of account known as the ‘ledger’
Then they are summarized in a manner which is understandable & useful to internal as well as
JOURNAL
1) Personal Accounts: It include the accounts of persons with whom the business deals these
(i) Natural Personal Accounts: The term natural persons means persons who arem creation of
god. For example, Mohan’s account, Sohan’s Account, Abha’s Account, etc.
(ii) Artificial Personal Accounts: These accounts include accounts of corporate bodies or
institutions which are recognized as persons in business dealings. For example, the accounts of a
limited company, the account of a co-operative society, the account of a club, the account of the
government, etc.
(iii) Representative Personal Account: These are the accounts which represent a certain person
or group of persons. For example, if the rent is due to the landlord and outstanding rent account
will be opened in the books. Similarly for salaries due to the employees, an outstanding salaries
account will be opened. All such accounts are therefore termed as ‘Representative Personal
Accounts’.
For example, if the cash has been paid to Ram, the account of Ram will have to be debited.
Similarly, if cash has been received from Keshav, the account of Keshav will have to be credited.
(i) Tangible Real Accounts: Tangible real accounts are those which relate to such things which
can be touched, felt, measured, etc. Examples of such accounts are cash account, building
account, furniture account, stock account etc. It should be noted that bank account is a personal
account, since it represents the account of the banking company-an artificial person.
(ii) Intangible Real Accounts: These accounts represent such things which cannot be touched.
Of course, they can be measured in terms of money. For example, Patents account, goodwill
account, etc.
For Example, if building has been purchased for cash, building account should be debited (since
it is coming in the business) while cash account should be credited (since cash is going out the
business)
3) Nominal Accounts: These accounts are opened in the books to simply explain the nature of the
transactions. They do not really exist. For example, in a business, salary is paid to the Manager,
rent is paid to the landlord, commission is paid to the salesman, cash goes out of the business
and its is something real; while salary, rent or commission as such do not exist. Nominal
accounts include accounts of all expenses, losses, incomes and gains. The examples of such
accounts are rent, rates lighting, insurance,, dividends, loss by fire, etc.
Jan3 Bought goods from M/s Singh & Co. on credit 2000
Jan31 Paid rent (Half of building is used by the proprietor as residence) 500
It is common to keep ledger in the form of loose leaf cards these days. This helps in posting
transactions when mechanised system of accounting is used and nowadays almost all the
business organisations, whether big or small, use computerised system of accounting.
The journal and the ledger are the most important books of the double entry system of
accounting. Their relationship can be expressed as follows.
1) The journal is the book of first entry (original entry); the ledger is the book of second
entry.
2) The journal is the book of chronological record; the ledger is the book for the analytical
record.
3) The journal, as a book of source entry, ordinarily has greater weight as legal evidence
than the ledger.
4) The process of recording in the journal is called journalising; the process of recording in
the ledger is called posting.
Posting
1) Separate accounts should be opened in the ledger for posting transactions relating to different
accounts recorded in the journal.
2) The concerned account which has been debited in the journal should also be debited in the
ledger. However, a reference should be made of the other account which has been credited in the
journal. For example, for salaries paid, the salaries account should be debited in the ledger, but
reference should be given of the cash account which has been credited in the journal.
3) The concerned account which has been credited in the journal should also be credited in the
ledger. However, a reference should be made of the other account which has been debited in the
journal. For example, for salaries paid, cash account has been credited in the journal, it will be
credited in the ledger also but reference will be given of the salaries account in the ledger.
Example:
2012
Journal
Date Particulars L.F. Debit Credit
2012 Salary A/c Dr. 5,000
Aug., 31 To Cash A/c 5,000
(Being salary paid )
Ledgers
Salary A/c
Dr. Cr.
Cash A/c
Dr. Cr.
Balancing of an account
The technique of finding out the net balance of an account, after considering the totals of both
debits and credits appearing in the accounts is known as ‘Balancing the Account’. The balance is
put on the side of the account which is smaller and a reference is given that it has been carried
forward or carried down (c/f or c/d) to the next period. On the other hand, in the next period a
reference is given that the opening has been brought forward or brought down (b/f or b/d) from
the previous period.