The journal is provided with five columns. Each of these columns is meant for recording a specific date of the transaction.

Column (1) is used for recording the date of the transaction i.e., the date on which the transaction has occurred.

It is customary to write the year at the top of the column. In the next line, the month is written below the year and the date of the transaction is entered immediately after the month as follows.

•                       (Year)                                                                     1987
•                       (Month, date)                                                         Jan., 1 

The year and the month are not repeated for every transaction.

Ditto (") mark is placed below the month to indicate that the month is the same.

Similarly, when two or more transactions have taken place on the same day, ditto mark is placed below the date.

Column (2) is called Particular's column. This column is meant for recording the names of the two accounts which are involved in the transaction.

This is also used for writing a brief description about the transaction called 'narration’.

The name of the account to be debited is written very close to the left hand side line i.e., the line demarcating the date column and the particulars column.

The abbreviation 'Dr.' for debit is written on the same line against the name of the account.

The name of the account which is to be credited is written in the next line preceded by the word 'To’.

It is not written immediately below the name of the account which has got the debit but a few spaces towards the right.

It is not necessary to write 'Cr.' after the name of the account to be credited.

Then, in the next line, a brief description (narration) of the transaction is given within brackets.

The narration would generally begin with a word like 'Being' or 'For’.

After completing narration, a line must be drawn across the entire 'particulars' columns to separate one entry from the other.

Illustration:

Let us take an example: Sold goods for cash, Rs. 500 on May 2, 1987. In this transaction the two accounts are Cash Account and Goods Account.

You know, as per rules, Cash Account is to be debited and Goods Account is to be credited. This transaction wil.1 be shown in the journal as follow:

Column (3) is known as the L.F. (Ledger Folio) Column. Folio means page number, so it is meant for writing the number of the page in the Ledger on which the particular account appears.

The account to be debited and the account to be credited are likely to be on different pages in the Ledger.

The page numbers on which these accounts appear are indicated against the name of each account in this column. This column is filled at the time of posting into the ledger.

Columns (4) and (5) are called amount columns. Column (4) is called the debit amount column and column (5) is called the credit amount column.

The amount to be debited is entered in the debit amount column against the name of the account, and the amount to be credited is entered in the credit amount column against the name of the account.

Both the amounts will always be equal, as you will observe in the case of the above example.