EM2862 - Examining Accounts: Accounting Systems: Day Books

Again, day books will exist in a computerised system too.

Day books are written up from sales or purchases invoices, usually in chronological order. Returns may be noted in the book, written-up separately at the back, or relegated to a separate book. Entries are usually cross-referenced to the invoices to which they relate and the particular supplier or customer’s ledger account. Typical entries in a sales ledger (ignoring VAT) would be

December 2001
1	2	3	4	Amount £
1	G Hood	1521	H2	8,100.00
1	Newton Computers	1522	N1	2,400.00
2	Page Cycles	1523	P5	871.26

Column 1 shows the date

Column 2 shows the customer’s name

Column 3 shows the invoice number

Column 4 shows the number of the customer’s account in the sales ledger.

The double-entry is created by posting the individual items to the sales ledger accounts (Dr) and the monthly total to the sales account in the nominal ledger (Cr). The purchases day book will follow the same pattern except entries will be on the reverse side.