Accounting books, also known as accounting books, are records or documents that must be kept by merchants voluntarily or obligatorily and in which the commercial operations carried out during a certain period of time are synthetically recorded.
Major or Major Books
In accordance with the legal provisions, merchants must keep the following books:
Inventory and Balance Sheet
When starting the commercial activity, the company must prepare an inventory and a balance sheet that allow it to know clearly and completely the situation of its assets, in this book all these items must be registered, in accordance with the legal regulations.
The information that this book should contain is:
- The number of items inventoried at the beginning of the accounting period. (Generally they are inventories and fixed assets). The name and code of the accounts and subaccounts that make up the items described above. The value that corresponds to the unit value of each item. The partial value of the operations The total value corresponding to each account.
Below is a format
| QUANTITY | BILL | UNIT VALUE | PARTIAL VALUE | TOTAL VALUE |
| ACTIVE
BOX General Cashier GOODS NOT MANUFACTURED BY THE COMPANY LANDS Lots OFFICE EQUIPMENT Desks Chairs Cabinets TOTAL ASSETS PASSIVE HERITAGE SOCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS Quotas or social interest parts TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY |
In this book the inventory is recorded first and then the corresponding Balance Sheet is recorded.
Accounting legality: The accounting books must be kept for at least ten years, counted from the closing of those or the date of the last entry or receipt.
Diary book
It is a main book, also called a "column diary", in which all the journal vouchers produced by the company during the month are recorded in chronological order. In order to obtain the monthly movement of each account, at the end of the month the debits and credits records are totaled, transferring them to the general ledger.
In this book you will find information such as:
- The full date of the day on which the journal receipt was made. The description of the receipt. All the debit and credit movements of each account. The final balances of each account and their transfer to the accounts of the ledger.
All merchants must conform their accounting in books and accounting records in accordance with the regulations of the commercial code and legal provisions.
General Ledger and Balance Sheets
It is a main book that traders must keep to record the monthly movement of the accounts in a synthetic way. The information found therein is taken from the Diary book and analytically detailed in the auxiliary books.
In it you will find the following information:
- The account and its respective code (This code is according to the company's chart of accounts) The previous balance of each of the accounts that have it The debit or credit movement of each account The monthly operations The final balances for the preparation of financial statements.
Auxiliary books
They are the accounting books where the values and information recorded in the main books are recorded in an analytical and detailed manner. Each company determines the number of assistants it needs according to its size and the work to be done.
In them is the information that supports the ledgers and its most important aspects are:
- Record of operations chronologically. Detail of the activity carried out. Record of the movement value of each subaccount
Types of auxiliary books
- Control accounts: These books detail and expand the information of an account in several subaccounts, to avoid the inconvenience that can cause the handling of many individual records of an account. Sub-accounts: This is the one that supports the information presented in the books. and daily and contains the values corresponding to the subaccounts and their auxiliaries.Purchasing and sales assistant: Companies use purchasing and sales auxiliaries where the information requested by the tax administration is recorded in detail. leads in order to know the accounts payable that you have with third parties and the accounts receivable.
There are other books that have the rest of the financial information of the company, such as the minute book and partner record, the fiscal book, the billing record, etc.
Detailed information about legalization and other provisions concerning accounting books will be found in the regulations of the commercial code of each country.
In the following video-course Professor Lorenzo Zorrilla explains very well the theoretical aspects of accounting books and exemplifies them through practical cases, through which you will be able to deepen your learning on this topic, which is essential for the good management of accounting information. (10 videos, 3 hours 26 minutes)
