The Day Books (Edexcel IGCSE Accounting)

Purpose of Books of Original Entry

What are books of original entry?

• Books of original entry are used to record the details of a transaction

  • Other terminology for these books includes

    • Subsidiary books

    • Books of prime entry

• Information is taken from the business documents and entered into the books of original entry

• The details are then transferred from the books of original entry to the ledger accounts

• The seven books of original entry are:

  • Sales day book

  • Purchases day book

  • Sales returns day book

  • Purchases returns day book

  • Cash book

  • Petty cash book

  • Journal

What are the advantages of using books of original entry?

• Books of original entry are another stage which can be used to check for errors

  • They can help in the preparation of control accounts to check the accuracy of the ledger accounts

• Each book of original entry collects the same type of transaction 

  • The books allow managers to see the totals for different types of transactions easily

  • Therefore, there are fewer entries in some of the ledger accounts

• Bigger businesses may have multiple bookkeepers

  • Different bookkeepers can be responsible for different books of original entry without any risk of work being duplicated or missed 

Sales Day Book

What is the sales day book?

• The sales day book is a record of all credit sales

  • Cash sales are not recorded in the sales day book

    • They are recorded directly into the cash book

• It contains:

  • The dates of sales

  • The names of the credit customers

  • The amounts for each of the sales

    • The amounts should be after trade discounts have been applied to the list prices

• The bookkeeper uses the sales invoices to enter the information into the sales day book

• The totals are transferred to the ledger accounts at regular intervals

  • Credit the sales account with the total

    • Call this entry “Sales day book”

  • Debit the individual trade receivables accounts

Sales Returns Day Book

What is the sales returns day book?

• The sales returns day book is a record of all the returns from credit customers

• It contains:

  • The dates of the returns

  • The names of the credit customers

  • The amounts for each of the returns

• The bookkeeper uses the credit notes that were issued to enter the information into the sales returns day book

• The totals are transferred to the ledger accounts at regular intervals

  • Debit the sales returns account with the total

    • Call this entry “Sales returns day book”

  • Credit the individual trade receivables accounts

Purchases Day Book

What is the purchases day book?

• The purchases day book is a record of all credit purchases

  • Cash purchases are not recorded in the purchases day book

    • They are recorded directly into the cash book

  • Purchases of non-current assets are not recorded in the purchases day book

    • They are recorded in the journal

• It contains:

  • The dates of the purchases

  • The names of the credit suppliers

  • The amounts for each of the purchases

• The bookkeeper uses the purchase invoices to enter the information into the purchases day book

• The totals are transferred to the ledger accounts at regular intervals

  • Debit the purchases account with the total

    • Call this entry “Purchases day book”

  • Credit the individual trade payables accounts

Purchases Returns Day Book

What is the purchases returns day book?

• The purchases returns day book is a record of all the returns to credit suppliers

• It contains:

  • The dates of the returns

  • The names of the credit suppliers

  • The amounts for each of the returns

• The bookkeeper uses the credit notes that were received to enter the information into the purchases returns day book

• The totals are transferred to the ledger accounts at regular intervals

  • Credit the purchases returns account with the total

    • Call this entry “Purchases returns day book”

  • Debit the individual trade payables accounts