What is a Journal in Accountancy ?

What is a Journal in Accounting and Bookkeeping ?

A Journal is an accounting or bookkeeping entry of less common business transactions.

Regular business transactions include sales, purchases, paying bills, salaries. All accounting software has specific input screens for these.

Less common transactions are depreciation, loan interest, accruals and prepayments, which accountants typically do at the year end. These often do not have specific input screens, so accountants will use a journal to record these transactions.

It is essential to understand Debits and Credits to do journal entries.