Summary Sheet Form of Accounting

a common method of keeping accounting records.

The system’s many variations reflect the particular characteristics of the many types of enterprises and organizations which require accounting. The system combines registers and ledger cards with the appropriately classified account journals; accordingly, records are kept in account books, on cards, or in multicolumnar journals, all of which together replace the main ledger. Analytic accounting in particular uses books, journals, and cards that are usually prepared with the assistance of calculators.

The basis of entries posted under this form of accounting is the summary sheet. Most economic transactions are posted in account journals once a month from subclassified entries in auxiliary cumulative journals. Daily summary sheets are posted in chronological order in the daybook. After daybook posting, the transactions on which summary sheets have been prepared are then posted in the main ledger, or in the multicolumnar registers, or cards that substitute for such a ledger.

Main ledger accounts are columnar, that is, analytic in form; corresponding accounts are shown there for debits and credits. This system of reflecting economic transactions ensures simplicity and graphic clarity in entries and makes possible the use of these entries in economic analysis. Such an accounting balance is prepared from summary balances derived from synthetic accounts.