Bookkeeping For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 15

Closing the Journals

In This Chapter

Making sure your journals are correct

Gathering journal information for closing

Posting adjustments to the General Ledger

Examining your journals in a computerized system

As the old saying goes, “The devil is in the details.” When it comes to your bookkeeping, especially if you keep your books manually, those details are in the journals you keep. And those small details can get you every time.

If you use a computerized accounting system to do your books, you don’t need to close out your journals, but you can still run a series of reports to verify that all the information in the computer accounting system matches what you have on paper. I talk about how to do that briefly in this chapter.

This chapter focuses primarily on how to prove out your journals and close them at the end of an accounting period. (Chapter 14 looks at this process for cash journals in particular, if you’re interested.) You also find out how to post all corrections and adjustments to the General Ledger after you make them in the appropriate journal. (To find out ...