What is the journal traditionally called, because it is the first place transaction information enters the accounting system?
Choose an answer, then check it.
Accounting · Foundations
Journal Entries
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In 30 seconds
A journal entry The chronological record of one transaction, naming the accounts affected with their debit and credit amounts and a short description. Full entry → is the first written record of a transaction — the chronological record of what happened, listing the accounts affected with their debits and credits. The definition draws on OpenStax's Principles of Accounting and CFI. Each entry names a date, accounts, debit The left side of an account or of an entry; debits increase asset and expense accounts, though the full rules belong to the debits-and-credits lesson. Full entry → amounts, credit The right side of an account or of an entry; credits increase liability, equity, and revenue accounts, though the full rules belong to the debits-and-credits lesson. Full entry → amounts, and a description The short line under an entry's numbers that states, in plain words, what transaction the entry records. Full entry →. Two lines make a simple entry A journal entry with exactly two lines: one debit account and one credit account. Full entry →; more lines make it compound. Entries go in the journal The book, or computer file, where transactions are written down in order as they happen; the first place transaction information enters the accounting system. Full entry → first — the book of original entry A traditional name for the journal, because it is the first place transaction information enters the accounting system. Full entry → — before anything is posted to the ledger. And an entry is a promise: the debits must equal the credits, or it is wrong.
Why this matters
Every number on a company's financial statements traces back to a journal entry, the first written record of a transaction. Without that record, a business could not prove what happened, when, or for how much: cash in a drawer could be a sale, a loan, or a mistake. The journal is the paper trail that owners, lenders, and auditors follow from a statement back to the original event. Recording in the journal first is also the general practice because it catches errors early, when they are cheap to fix: an entry that does not balance is caught the moment it is written, not months later. Learning to read an entry means learning to read the story behind every number.
The college version
What a journal entry is
OpenStax's Principles of Accounting opens its section on journal entries with a simple fact: before transactions are posted anywhere, they are first written in the journal. A journal is the first place information enters the accounting system, which is why it is called the book of original entry. CFI describes the journal as the company's official accounting record of all transactions, documented in chronological order. Together these give this lesson's working definition: a journal entry is the chronological record of a transaction, naming the accounts affected and showing their debits and credits. Two halves of that definition matter. It is chronological — written down in the order the events happened, not grouped by type. And it is a record — a written trace that survives after the moment is gone.
The parts of an entry
Every entry is built from the same five parts, each earning one line. The date starts the entry, so anyone can see when the transaction happened. The accounts come next: the names of the accounts affected, with the debit account listed first. Then the debit amounts — the dollar figures on the left side. Then the credit amounts — the dollar figures on the right side, indented beneath the debit lines. Finally, a short description explains in plain words what happened, and a blank line separates one entry from the next. OpenStax gives the formatting rules plainly: debit account titles first and on the left, credit titles after them and indented, at least one debit, always at least one credit, and a description after each entry. Five parts, five lines — that is the whole shape of an entry.
A simple entry, in words
Consider a shop that receives cash for a sale. Riverbend Books sells a novel for $12, and the customer pays cash on the spot. The entry has two lines. The debit line reads: Cash, $12 — the shop's cash went up. The credit line reads: Sales Revenue, $12 — the shop earned $12 of revenue. A short description follows: “Sold one novel for cash.” That is a simple entry: exactly one debit and one credit, one line on each side, and both lines carry the same amount. OpenStax defines a simple entry as one with only one debit account and one credit account. The two lines are the whole transaction: what came in, and where it came from.
Compound entries
Some transactions touch more than two accounts, and the entry grows a line for each. When an entry has more than one account on the debit side or on the credit side, it is a compound entry A journal entry with more than two lines, such as two debits and one credit or one debit and three credits. Full entry →. The idea is simple: one transaction, one entry, as many lines as the transaction needs. Suppose Riverbend buys $60 of greeting cards, paying $40 in cash and promising to pay the remaining $20 next week. The transaction affects three accounts, so the entry has three lines: debit Inventory $60, credit Cash $40, credit Accounts Payable $20. One entry, three lines, and the single debit of $60 is matched by credits of $40 and $20 that add up to $60. CFI's inventory example works the same way. Compound does not mean complicated — it just means more than two lines.
Why the journal comes first
The journal is called the book of original entry for a reason: it is where transaction information first enters the accounting system, before it is posted anywhere else. That is the general practice, and it is the standard way the books are kept. Recording everything in one place, in order, creates a complete story of the business's financial life — OpenStax describes the journal as keeping a historical account of all recordable transactions the company has engaged in. The order matters. If entries were scattered across different ledgers as they happened, no one could later reconstruct what happened on a given day. Writing first and sorting later is what makes the books checkable. Journalizing is the second step of the accounting cycle, after transactions are identified and analyzed.
Journal vs ledger: chronological detail vs sorted totals
The journal and the general ledger The set of accounts, each holding its own running balance, that journal entries are sorted into after they are recorded. Full entry → answer different questions, and the difference is worth stating plainly. The journal is chronological: every transaction, in the order it happened, with all its detail. The general ledger is sorted: one page per account, with each account's running balance, so totals can be read at a glance. OpenStax makes the contrast directly: reviewing journal entries individually can be tedious and time-consuming, while the general ledger lets a company easily extract account balances. Detail lives in one place, totals in the other. The ledger's own mechanics belong to the general-ledger lesson — here the point is that the two records are partners with different jobs.
The honest framing
An entry is a promise. When a bookkeeper writes an entry, the entry promises that the transaction has been captured completely and correctly — and the proof of that promise is the balance. The dollar value of the debits must equal the dollar value of the credits. OpenStax puts it bluntly: otherwise the accounting equation will go out of balance. CFI says the same thing: for every journal entry, debits and credits must be equal to maintain balance in the accounting equation. There is no “close enough.” An entry that does not balance is not slightly wrong — it is wrong, and it will drag every report built on top of it off balance until someone finds and fixes it.
Eli explains
The same idea, in plain words
Explain it like I’m 10
Think of a business as a person with a very busy day. Things happen all day long: money comes in, money goes out, things get bought, promises get made. A journal entry is the note that gets written the moment something happens — what happened, when, and the numbers on both sides. The journal is just the notebook where all those notes are kept, in the order they happened. Nothing else happens first: the note is written before the transaction gets sorted into any account. Later, the same information is copied into the ledger, where each account keeps its own running total. Most of what an accountant does is decide how to write the note and check that the note is right. Everything else in the books is built from these notes.
Picture it like this
The journal is like a ship's log. The captain writes each event into the log as it happens — a change of course, a storm, a sighting — in order, with the date. No one rearranges the log by topic or erases entries; it is the chronological record of the voyage. A journal entry is one line in that log: the date, what happened, and the amounts on both sides.
Where the picture stops working
A ship's log is private and casual, and a captain can write anything in it. A journal entry is a formal business record with strict rules: only recordable transactions, named accounts, and debits that must equal credits. And unlike a log, which stays as written, entries are copied and sorted into the ledger.
Worked example
Riverbend Books runs a small shop. On March 4 a customer buys a novel for $12 in cash. The bookkeeper writes the entry the moment the sale happens. Date: March 4. Debit line: Cash, $12. Credit line: Sales Revenue, $12. Description: “Sold one novel for cash.” That is a simple entry — one debit and one credit, both $12, so it balances. The same afternoon, Riverbend buys $60 of greeting cards, paying $40 in cash and owing the remaining $20 until next week. The bookkeeper writes a compound entry: Debit Inventory, $60; Credit Cash, $40; Credit Accounts Payable, $20. Description: “Bought greeting cards, part cash, part on account.” Three lines, and the single debit of $60 matches credits of $40 plus $20. Both entries balance, so both promises are kept.
Key takeaway
A journal entry is the first written record of a transaction — the date, the accounts, the debits, the credits, and a description — written in the journal before anything is posted, and it must balance: if the debits do not equal the credits, the entry is wrong.
Quick check
3 questions here, of 5 in this lesson’s practice set. Answers stay hidden until you check.
Riverbend Books records a cash sale with one debit to Cash and one credit to Sales Revenue. Why is this a simple entry?
Choose an answer, then check it.
A café buys $60 of coffee beans, paying $40 in cash and promising to pay the remaining $20 next week. How should the bookkeeper write the entry?
Choose an answer, then check it.
Study tools & related lessonsYou’ll learn to · Common mistakes · Easily confused · Key vocabulary · Related
You’ll learn to
- Define a journal entry as the chronological record of a transaction with its debits and credits, using the working definition drawn from OpenStax's Principles of Accounting and CFI.
- Name the five parts of an entry — date, accounts, debit amounts, credit amounts, and description — each in one line.
- Show a simple entry for a cash sale in words: one debit line and one credit line.
- Distinguish a simple entry from a compound entry, which has more than two lines.
- Explain why the journal comes first: it is the book of original entry, the general practice before posting.
- Apply the honest framing: an entry must balance — debits equal credits — or it is wrong.
Common mistakes
Writing an entry with only one side — a debit without a credit, or a credit without a debit.
Every entry needs at least one debit and at least one credit; a one-sided entry cannot balance and is wrong.
Skipping the description.
An entry without a description is a pair of numbers no one can explain later, once the memory of the transaction is gone.
Recording the transaction in the ledger first.
The journal is the book of original entry: the transaction is written in the journal first, then posted to the ledger.
Treating a compound entry as several separate entries.
One transaction that touches three accounts is one entry with three lines, not three separate entries.
Posting an unbalanced entry anyway.
An entry whose debits do not equal its credits is wrong at the moment it is written — fix it then, because every report built on it inherits the error.
Easily confused
Journal vs. General ledger
The journal records every transaction in chronological order with full detail; the ledger sorts the same information by account and shows each account's running balance.
Simple entry vs. Compound entry
A simple entry has exactly two lines — one debit and one credit; a compound entry has more than two lines because the transaction touches more than two accounts.
Source document vs. Journal entry
The source document is the original evidence of the transaction, such as a receipt; the journal entry is the written record made from that evidence.
Key vocabulary
- journal entry
- The chronological record of one transaction, naming the accounts affected with their debit and credit amounts and a short description.
- journal
- The book, or computer file, where transactions are written down in order as they happen; the first place transaction information enters the accounting system.
- book of original entry
- A traditional name for the journal, because it is the first place transaction information enters the accounting system.
- debit
- The left side of an account or of an entry; debits increase asset and expense accounts, though the full rules belong to the debits-and-credits lesson.
- credit
- The right side of an account or of an entry; credits increase liability, equity, and revenue accounts, though the full rules belong to the debits-and-credits lesson.
- simple entry
- A journal entry with exactly two lines: one debit account and one credit account.
- compound entry
- A journal entry with more than two lines, such as two debits and one credit or one debit and three credits.
- description
- The short line under an entry's numbers that states, in plain words, what transaction the entry records.
- source document
- The original evidence of a transaction, such as a sales receipt or an invoice, on which a journal entry is based.
- general ledger
- The set of accounts, each holding its own running balance, that journal entries are sorted into after they are recorded.
Sources & references
- Principles of Accounting, Volume 1: Financial Accounting, Section 3.5: Use Journal Entries to Record Transactions and Post to T-Accounts — OpenStax, Rice University
- Journal Entry Template (What is a Journal Entry?) — Corporate Finance Institute (CFI)
- Principles of Accounting, Volume 1: Financial Accounting, Section 3.3: Define and Describe the Initial Steps in the Accounting Cycle — OpenStax, Rice University
- Accounting Cycle — 8 Steps in the Accounting Cycle, Diagram, Guide — Corporate Finance Institute (CFI)
EliExplains lessons are original prose written from the open, credible references above. See Copyright & Licensing.
Researched 2026-08-21
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