What are Special Journals?

Special journals are all accounting journals excepts for the general journals. Entities use
special journals to record repetitive transactions that affect the same set of accounts and have a
consistent description to speed up the process. Although, they created it for some journal entries
occur repeatedly, almost all merchandising entities uses special journals such as for sales,
purchases, cash receipts, and cash disbursements. Example, selling goods for cash is always a
debit to cash and a credit to sales recorded in the cash receipts journals. In addition, we would
record to a sale of goods on credit in the sales journal, as a debit to accounts receivable and a
credit to sales. Furthermore, it is also the same when entities use perpetual inventory system
which record a second entry for a sale with a debit to cost of goods sold and a credit to inventory
that we will tackle soon. Most entities have four special journals which I have mentioned above,
but there can be more depending on the business needs like for example the payroll journal. The
total amounts in these journals are periodically transferred to the general ledger in summary
form.
The Cash Receipts Journal
A cash receipts journal is a subsidiary ledger that has a multi-column in which cash sales
and other transactions that increases cash are recorded. It manages all cash coming into the
business. If sales discounts are offered to customers, the journals include a separate debit column
for sales discounts. Credit columns for accounts receivables and for sales are normally present,
but entities that are frequently receive cash from other, specific sources use additional columns
to record those types of cash receipts. Example, a regular customer Anthony Dorado pay off his
Php. 500.00 balance that he owes to my company. First, I will record the date. Then, I will put
which account is being credited, in this case is an individual accounts receivables account of
Anthony Dorado. For explanation, I will put the invoice his paying off, if the invoice number is
known it is place in the explanation column. After that, we post the numbers, since Anthony is
such a good customer, I gave him a 10% discount on his purchased so Php. 50.00 which the
discount goes to the same sales discount column and Php. 450.00 goes to the cash debit column.
In the accounts receivables credit column, I put the full amount of the purchased which is Php.
500.00. It is important to ensure that the total debits are equal to the total credits and finally, I put
a check mark in the post-it reference column if the amount has been posted to a specific sub-
ledger.
The following below is the sample format of Cash Receipts Journal:

The Payroll Journal

 The payroll journal is a detailed report of the transactions related to payroll. Sometimes
in merchandising entities does not include this type of special journal because smaller
organizations may record their payroll transactions directly in the general ledger, but larger
entities will find that these high-volume transactions will overwhelm the general ledger. Hence,
they record their payroll-related transactions in the payroll journals, which then record a single
summary form entry in the general ledger that reflects all the transactions recorded in the payroll
journal. The payroll personnel create journal entries that are recorded in the payroll journal,
especially from the periodic payrolls. Also, there may be any number of special entries at the end
of each month, such as accruals for vacation pay or sick pay. Once entries have been made into
the payroll journal and the accounting personnel posts a summary of this information into the
general ledger, the information appears into the income statement for wages, payroll taxes, and
benefits expenses, and in the balance sheet for accrued wages, payroll taxes, and benefits.

https://www.accountingtools.com/articles/2017/5/16/special-journals
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-finaccounting/chapter/sales-journal/
https://opentextbc.ca/principlesofaccountingv1openstax/chapter/describe-and-explain-the-
purpose-of-special-journals-and-their-importance-to-stakeholders/
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/accounting/accounting-principles-i/subsidiary-ledgers-
and-special-journals/special-journals