Accounting Cycle
For each accounting period, the process that begins with the recording of business transactions or procedures into a journal and ends with the completion of a post-closing trial balance.
Accounting period
The period of time for which an income statement is prepared.
Book of Final entry
Book that receives information about business transactions from a book of original entry in journal. Example Ledger
Book of original entry
Book that records the first formal information about business transactions. Example: a journal
Calendar year
January 1 to December 31
Compound Journal entry
A journal entry that affects more than two accounts.
Cross-referencing
Adding to the PR column of the journal the account number of the ledge account that was updated from the journal.
Fiscal year
The 12 month period a business chooses for its accounting year.
Four-column account
A running balance account that records debits and credits and has a column for an ending balance (debit or credit). It replaces the standard two-column account we used earlier.
General Journal
The simplest form of a journal, which records information form transactions in chronological order as they occure. This journal links the debit and credit parts of transcations together.
Interim reports
Financial statments that are prepared for a month, quarter, or some other portion of the fiscal year.
Journal
A listing of buiness tranactions in chronological order. The journal links on one page the debit and credit parts of transactions.
Journal entry
The transaction (debits and credits) that is recovered into a jounal once it is analyzed.
Journalizing
The process of recording a transaction entry into the journal.
Natural business year
A business's fiscal year that ends at the same time as a slow seasonal period begins.
Posting
Thre transferring, copying, or recording of information from a journal to a ledger.
Slide
The error that results in adding or deleting zeros in the writing of a number.
Transposition
The accidental rearrangement of digits of a number. Example 125 - 152
Trial Balance
An informal listing of the ledger accounts and their balances in the ledger to aid in proving the equality of debits and credits.