Posting Separate Amounts from a Journal to a General Ledger

1. Posting Separate Amounts from a Journal to a General Ledger Accounting 1, Chapter 5 – Section 2

2. Posting an Amount • Transferring information from a journal entry to a ledger account is called posting • Posting sorts journal entries so that all debits and credits affecting each account are brought together

3. Posting Rules • Separate amounts in a journal’s general amount columns are posted individually to the account written in the Account Title column • Separate amounts in a journal’s special amount columns are NOT posted individually; columns totals are posted to the account names in the heading of the special amount column

4. Posting a Separate Amount from a General Debit Column • For most journal entries, at least one separate amount is posted individually to a general ledger account • Each separate amount in the General Debit and General Credit columns of a journal is posted to the account written in the Account Title column

5. Steps for Posting Separate Amounts from a Journal to a General Ledger 1: Write the date of the transaction in the Date column of the account (If it is the first posting, include the year and month as well)

6. Steps for Posting Separate Amounts from a Journal to a General Ledger 2. Write the journal page number in the Post. Ref. column of the account ledger (Post. Ref. is an abbreviation for Posting Reference)

7. Steps for Posting Separate Amounts from a Journal to a General Ledger 3. Write the transaction amount in the appropriate column (debit or credit)

8. Steps for Posting Separate Amounts from a Journal to a General Ledger 4. Calculate the account balance (If the transaction is the first posting, the account balance will be the same amount in the same column.)

9. Steps for Posting Separate Amounts from a Journal to a General Ledger 5. Return to the journal and write the account number in the Post. Ref. column of the journal to indicate the transaction has been posted to the account ledger

10. Posting Additional Transactions • Second, and additional postings follow the same five posting steps, except calculating an up-to-date balance

11. Calculating a New Balance • When a second or subsequent transaction is the same as the balance, the transaction amount is added to the previous balance • When a second or subsequent transaction is different from the balance, the transaction amount is subtracted from the previous balance • HINT: Whenever the debits in an account exceed the credits, the account balance is a debit. If the credits exceed the debits, the balance is a credit

12. Post. Ref. Columns • The numbers in the Post. Ref. columns of the general ledger account and the journal serve three purposes: • An entry in an account can be traced to its source in a journal • An entry in a journal can be traced to where it was posted in an account • If posting is interrupted, you can easily see which entries in the journal still need to be posted

13. Blank Post. Ref. Column(s) • A blank in the Post. Ref. column of the journal indicates that the posting for that line still needs to be done • Therefore, the posting reference is always recorded in the journal as the last step in the posting procedure