Definition of a Journal
In
accounting
and
bookkeeping
, a journal is a record of financial transactions in order by date. Traditionally, a journal has been defined as the
book of original entry
. The definition was more appropriate when transactions were written in a journal prior to manually posting them to the accounts in the
general ledger
or
subsidiary ledger
.
Examples of Journals in a Manual Accounting System
Manual systems usually had a variety of journals such as a sales journal, purchases journal, cash receipts journal, cash disbursements journal, and a general journal.
Computerized Accounting Systems
With today's computerized accounting systems, the recording and posting of most transactions will occur automatically when sales and vendor invoice information is entered, checks are written, etc. In other words, accounting software has eliminated the need to first record routine transactions into a journal. However, even with computerized accounting systems it is necessary to have a general journal in which
adjusting entries
and unique financial transactions are recorded.
