Journal is known as the transactions record of a business occurred in a specific period. The transactions are chronologically recorded in a journal with a brief information.
Accounting journals are divided into two types:
- General Journal
General Journal is used to record all company transactions based on the time sequence. Consists of two lines (debit and credit) and most companies apply this, from a home-based business to complicated manufacture industry. For a small business, the routine transactions are covered by a single accounting journal without any difficulties. The general journal is made based on the transaction note/receipt as received/issued by the company.
- Specialized Journal
Specialized journals are made to support the general journal for regular transaction process and more complicated. Trading and manufacture industry usually apply this journal due to a large number of transaction every day. Using single journal for these companies to identify similar transactions ( such as sales and purchase transactions) or trace the high-intensity transactions will make things too complex. Therefore the sales transactions are recorded in sales journal, purchases are recorded in purchase journal, cash receipt and payment are recorded in cash journal.
Specialized journal types are:
- Cash received journal
- Expenses journal
- Purchase journal (purchase transaction in credit). Return transaction is not entered in the specialized journal
- Sales journal (sales transaction in credit). Return transaction is not entered in the specialized journal
The function of the specialized journal is to simplify the daily recurring transaction, control the general journal, and as transaction receipt to avoid missed transactions. A company may use specialized journals (sales, purchase, cash receipt, etc) or the accounting software will generate entries for routine transactions. However, the advanced technology makes the transaction entries easier. The entry person only needs to click a drop down menu to enter a transaction in a ledger or journal, like Zahir Accounting software. The comprehensive features are designed to be user-friendly but still powerful.
