American Journal

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The American journal, or American bookkeeping, is the simplest form of double entry bookkeeping . It can be done manually or with the help of a spreadsheet and is suitable for small businesses that only need a few accounts . In the American Journal, the accounts and business transactions of the accounting are summarized in a single table. The accounts form the columns and the business transactions form the rows of this table.

advantage

In the standard double-entry bookkeeping procedure, each transaction must be recorded twice: First, it is entered in the journal in chronological order , then the factual breakdown into the accounts in the general ledger follows . In the American journal, the chronological order and the factual breakdown are posted in a single operation.

method

For each posting, the amount is entered in two account columns on the same line, once in debit and credit . The date and the text are entered in this line. For the sake of clarity, the amount can be listed a third time in an information column after the text:

date text cashbox Bank Cost of goods ...
Should To have Should To have Should To have Should To have
1.1. Opening balance 500.00
2.1. Cash withdrawal 200.00 200.00
3.1. Purchase supplies 100.00 100.00
...
to hum 200.00 100.00 500.00 200.00 100.00 0.00
balance 100.00 300.00 100.00

Annual accounts

The annual financial statements are made using the closing table. This table takes over the debit and credit sums and compares them in a test balance; Total equality serves to control the completeness of the entries. Then further totals columns can be inserted, which take on the function of the balance sheet and profit and loss account (trial balance sheet, balance balance sheet , closing balance sheet 1, income statement , closing balance sheet 2 after appropriation of profit)

literature