Journal Entry Format

What is a Journal Entries?

A journal entry is the first record of a transaction in the books: the date, the account debited, the account credited, the amount and a short narration saying what happened. The journal is called the book of original entry because every transaction is written there, in date order, before it is posted to the ledger. Without proper entries, ledger postings cannot be traced, and mistakes surface only when the trial balance refuses to agree. Fill in the form on this page to set out journal entries in the standard format, with totals.

Bookkeepers and accountants record transactions in the journal as they happen and post them to the ledger later. In a small business every transaction may go through the journal; larger ones record routine cash, purchases and sales in subsidiary books and keep the journal proper for everything else — opening entries, credit purchases of assets, depreciation, outstanding and prepaid expenses, corrections and closing entries. Commerce students in Class 11 Accountancy, B.Com and professional courses spend their first weeks journalising transactions, and keep using the skill in every accounting topic that follows.

The journal looks much the same everywhere, but how it is taught and kept differs. Some textbooks explain debits and credits with the traditional golden rules, others with the modern rules based on the accounting equation; both give the same entry, so follow your current CBSE, State board or university syllabus. In practice, account names come from your organisation’s chart of accounts, and a GST-registered business keeps accounts for input tax credit and output tax under the GST law’s record-keeping rules. Companies must keep double-entry books under the Companies Act, 2013; ask your accountant what else applies.

A journal entry records a transaction; it does not prove it. The bill, receipt, cheque or voucher behind the entry is the evidence, so file it under the number quoted in the narration. Equal debit and credit totals show only that each entry balances, not that the right accounts were used. The form takes one debit and one credit account per line. For a compound entry, with more than one debit or credit, enter each part as its own line with the same date; the ledger balances come out the same.

What to put in a Journal Entries

These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.

How to pass journal entries (journal entry format)

1. Identify the accounts and their types

   Every transaction affects at least two accounts. Name them as they will appear in the ledger — Cash A/c, Ananya Rao A/c, Rent A/c, Sales A/c — and decide what kind each one is. Under the traditional approach, an account is personal (a person, firm or bank), real (an asset such as cash or furniture) or nominal (an expense, loss, income or gain). Under the modern approach, it is an asset, liability, capital, revenue or expense.

2. Apply the rules of debit and credit

   The golden rules: for personal accounts, debit the receiver and credit the giver; for real accounts, debit what comes in and credit what goes out; for nominal accounts, debit all expenses and losses and credit all incomes and gains. The modern rules: debit an increase in assets or expenses, and credit an increase in liabilities, capital or revenue; decreases go the other way. Both approaches give the same entry.

3. Enter each transaction on one line

   In the form, type one entry per line: date | debit account | credit account | amount | narration. The journal prints the debited account first, followed by ‘Dr.’, with the amount in the debit column, and the credited account on the next line, indented and beginning with ‘To’, with the same amount in the credit column. The form adds ‘Dr.’ and ‘To’, so leave them out. Type dates as 2026-10-05 and they print in full.

4. Add a narration that begins with ‘Being’

   The narration is a one-line explanation printed in brackets under each entry. By convention it begins with ‘Being’: ‘Being goods sold on credit to Ananya Rao, Bill No. 214’. Say what happened and give the reference that leads to the evidence, such as a bill, cheque or voucher number. A good narration lets a reader, an auditor or you yourself next year understand the entry without searching for the paperwork.

5. Check the totals and post to the ledger

   The form uses the same amount on both sides of each entry, so its debit and credit totals always agree; in a handwritten journal, unequal totals mean an amount was copied wrongly. Next, post each entry to the ledger: the debited account gets ‘To’ and the name of the account credited, and the credited account gets ‘By’ and the name of the account debited. Then write each ledger page number in the L.F. column.

Journal entry examples

Three transactions of Kusagra Supplies Ltd., Guntur, journalised in the standard format, followed by the rule behind each debit and credit.

Common mistakes

• Debiting Cash for a credit sale because a bill was issued, which records money that never came in and leaves the customer’s debt out of the books.
• Reversing the debit and the credit of an entry, which still leaves the journal and trial balance totals equal, so the error is easy to miss while two accounts are wrong by twice the amount.
• Debiting furniture or machinery bought for the business to Purchases Account, which treats an asset as goods for resale and understates the profit for the year.
• Recording the owner’s personal spending as a business expense instead of debiting Drawings Account, which understates the profit and hides how much the owner has taken out of the business.
• Leaving out the narration, or writing one as vague as ‘Being amount paid’, so nobody can tell later what the entry was for or find the bill behind it.

Frequently asked questions

This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.

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