The

with it has, to a large extent, fallen out of use or been superseded. The expedient now adopted in lieu of the journal is the use of a separate book of entry for each distinct class of transactions. classification thus goes on as the original entries are made, and the labour of transcribing and arranging the items is consequently avoided. Hence we have the following separate books of entry :

Sales Day Book.
Purchases Day Book.
Returns Book.

Cash Book.

Each of these books is set apart solely for entering the class of transactions which its title denotes, and the total sum of the entries in each book is posted at stated periods.

It is of much importance that these separate books of entry should be properly organised and their rulings well adapted to the requirements of the business. It is one of the chief objects of this work to indicate the books and rulings suitable for Manufacturers.

Although the Journal may be dispensed with it is still of use in some businesses, and it is as well that the exact function of the book should be understood. We therefore give on page 23 a specimen of the most approved form of journal, recording the transactions employed in our previous illustration.

Each of the transactions might be journalised separately, thus:

and so on, but the items are grouped together on page 23 in order to show the method of journal classification.

The foregoing illustrations should sufficiently elucidate the main elementary principles of double-entry; but more or less experience will be required before these principles can be properly utilised in actual practice. Next to experience, skilled guidance in the treatment of details should be sought.

When once the theory is thoroughly mastered, any properly kept set of books may be intelligible from an analytical standpoint, but practice and experience only can efficiently equip the book-keeper for the discharge of his every-day duties.

JOURNAL recording the transactions set out on page 10.

CHAPTER III.

MANUFACTURER'S BOOKS. SET I.

SIMPLE TRANSACTIONS.

Having dealt with the elementary principles of book-keeping, the next step is to adapt those principles to the requirements of Manufacturers. In order effectually to accomplish this purpose, it is necessary to resort to practical detailed illustrations. These will consist, in the first place, of a complete set of books in which complicated transactions are avoided, and in the second place, of another complete set of books comprising all ordinary transactions that come within the scope of the legitimate business of a Manufacturer.

The outlines of the system are thus primarily explained by means of a series of simple and uniform transactions that require no departure from the ordinary beaten track. And after the general plan has been made clear, the treatment of unusual, complex, and intricate transactions will, it is hoped, be more readily comprehended.

To avoid a multiplicity of accounts, and to economise space, the imaginary transactions employed in the illustrations are confined to as few names and items as possible, in fact all the details are necessarily condensed. In other respects the accounts furnish an adequate idea of the affairs of a business in actual operation.

The set of books shewn and described in the following pages are supposed to belong to Abraham Crosland, a Manufacturer, residing in Huddersfield. The lists of commencing balances in his Ledgers on January 1st, 1884, are given on pages 26 & 27, and are arranged in the form of a Balance Sheet on the same pages.

It is assumed that on January 1st a new set of books is opened, and the balances are transferred into the new ledgers. The folios of the new ledgers, and the supposed folios of the old ledgers, are given alongside the balances on pages 26 and 27.

The method of opening the several accounts in the ledgers has already been explained on page 11, but the learner should trace each item to its respective account.

It will be observed that instead of the amount of the Stock on hand being passed to a Goods Account, as in our previous illustration, it is carried to the Dr. of the Trading Account. There are various classes of goods purchased, which are passed first to distinct accounts, and thence transferred to the Trading Account under their respective heads. The goods sold are likewise treated separately.

The transactions of the business for the six months ending June 30th, 1884, are recorded in the several books of entry.

At the end of that period, Stock is supposed to be taken, and a new Balance Sheet prepared.

(m) This amount represents the estimated discount to be allowed by creditors on accounts owing to them according to the Purchases Ledger. Observe that there is a Cr. as well as a Dr. balance to Discounts Account.