Books of Prime Entry

An alternative introduction is under the Journals entry. Books of Prime Entry are a more
efficient variation on double-entry accounting. In basic double entry, a double entry is made
in the general journal, which is posted in the general ledger accounts. Originally, the
Venetian method also suggested a preceding diary step, which makes sense as no thinking is
required in double entry, so it may have been faster. In a manual system, books of prime
entry act as the speed entry step: instead of trying to remember which accounts to debit and
which to credit, and writing the names down for each entry for each transaction in the general
journal, the general journal is reserved for infrequent accrual entries; the more frequent cash
entries, and the most frequent accrual entries are divided into specialized journals of cash
receipts and cash payments; credit sales journal and credit purchases journal ( credit means
'on credit' here) ; and for medium frequency accrual entries , sales returns and purchase
returns journal. Apart from not having to write account names each time, the column layout
in these specialized journal help systemize the double entry rules; most of them can be
totalled at the end of each month to provide monthly entries into control account ledgers, as
well as reconciliation with summary monthly totals when a schedule of subsidiary ledger
accounts is created. Cash reconciliation also is a monthly task, which is made easier by
tracking with numbered transactions such as numbered cheque books where cheque numbers
can be entered in the cash payments journal; for tracking cash receipts, it is recommended
banking occurs daily so that end of month bank reconciliation is easier. Bank reconciliation
involves looking at outstanding items from the last reconciliation then seeing which of these
occurred in this period's bank statement; then a search is made for unpresented cheques , and
unrecorded receipts, and then payments and receipits that occurred through the bank and not
through the business. This makes the cash receipts and cash payments journal essential for
reconciliation.

Books of prime entry OR books of original entry are books where transactions are first
recorded. These may or may not be part of the double entry system.