In practice，the business transactions are first recorded in a journal，after which the debit and credit changes in the individual accounts are posted to the ledger.The journal，also called the book of original entry，is chronological(day-by-day)，each business transaction in order of date.To record the entire effects of a business transaction in a journal in terms of debit and credit，the process is referred as to making a journal entry or journalizing.

Many businesses maintain several types of journals.The simplest type of journal is called a“General Journal”.A general journal is a document in which are recorded the date of the transaction，the accounts to be debited and credited，the amounts of the debit and credit entries and an explanation of each transaction.A general journal can be used to record all types of transactions.In contrast to the general journal，a special journal is designed to record a specific type of frequently occurring business transaction.For instance，one special journal is the cash receipts journal used to record all receipts of cash.In addition to cash receipts journal，the special journals usually include cash payments journal，sales journal，and purchase journal.The form of general journal can be seen in Table 3-1.

Table 3-1