Accounting Journals

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Previous lesson: Basic Accounting Journal Entries
Next lesson: T Accounts

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It is common for a bookkeeper to keep seven different journals (i.e. seven books of first entry). Each journal covers a different aspect of the business.

The basic format for each of these journals is the debit and credit as listed previously. There is, however, a more exact format of each journal, and this is shown below...

Cash Receipts Journal (CRJ)

The cash receipts journal is the journal where you record all cash that has been received.

The format of the cash receipts journal is as follows:

Major categories of receipts, such as from income or from debtors, receive their own column.

The category called "sundry" is used to represent various miscellaneous (and less regular) items, such as capital or receiving cash from a loan. The word sundry actually means ‘various’, ‘miscellaneous’ or ‘general’.

The "bank" column is added up to show the total cash received for the period concerned.

Cash Payments Journal (CPJ)

The cash payments journal is the opposite of the cash receipts journal. It is the journal where you record all transactions where cash has been paid out.

Once again the "bank" column is added up to show the total payments. The totals of the other three columns show how much was paid to what. "Expenses" and "creditors" would be the major categories towards which payments would be made.

Bear in mind that the cash receipts journal and cash payments journal can be replaced by the cash book, which is simply a combination journal showing all receipts and all payments together.

The total of the cash book (and of the cash on hand) for George’s Catering after all the transactions would come to $14,800, which is the same as the total of the cash receipts journal ($35,500) minus the total of the cash payments journal ($20,700).

Additionally, petty cash, which is simply a sum of cash on hand kept to pay small expenses, can also have its own separate journals (similar to the above, comprising the petty cash receipts journal and petty cash payments journal). Petty cash is also often accounted for in a separate journal combining receipts and payments, called the petty cash book.

Sales Journal (SJ)

The sales journal is where all sales on credit are recorded (or in this case "services rendered" on credit).

The format of the journal is as follows:

Note that only the income on credit is recorded here. When the Smiths finally pay George’s Catering, this is recorded in the cash receipts journal.

Sales Returns Journal (SRJ)

This journal is used specifically for transactions where goods that were originally sold have now been returned. It would not really apply to a service business such as George’s Catering, but rather to a trading or manufacturing business that has products returned to them. (A trading business buys goods at a low price and sells them at a higher price. A manufacturing business makes products using materials and then sells the finished products. George's Catering is a service business.)

The format of this journal is:

Purchases Journal (PJ)

The purchases journal is used to record all purchases of inventory on credit. (Inventory are stock or goods. See the lesson entitled What is Inventory? for more information.)

The purchases journal does not apply to just any assets – only to inventory.

Also, note that the purchases journal applies only to a trading or manufacturing business that purchases inventory on credit.

Purchases Returns Journal (PRJ)

The purchases returns journal shows all returns of inventory that were originally purchased on credit (by your business). It is likewise only applicable to trading and manufacturing businesses.

General Journal (GJ)

The general journal shows all journals for anything not recorded in any of the journals above, such as adjustments of accounts.

This journal has the simple format that we saw earlier:

Depending on the syllabus of the course you are doing, the formats of the above journals may or may not be absolutely crucial. In any case they simply follow the debits and credits format that we have been getting used to up to now, so it isn't rocket science.

If the journals appear slightly differently in your accounting textbook than in these materials, then follow the format in your textbook (the journals above have been shown in their simplest forms so they're easier to grasp). The format in your accounting textbook is what you will be examined on anyway, right?

Let’s go to the next step of the accounting cycle.

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Previous lesson: Basic Accounting Journal Entries
Next lesson: T Accounts

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