When accounts balance, when they become crowded for space, or when they show a loss or gain at the time of making a balance sheet, they are ruled up or closed. The form of closing varies somewhat in accordance with individual taste. The foregoing example of ledger ac counts furnishes also an illustration of a simple and convenient form of closing. When red ink is used in the process, it indicates that the entries distinguished by it have been made upon the wrong side of the ledger for the purpose of balancing, and before the work can be regarded as complete, they must be transferred to the apposite side of the ledger, either below the rulings of the account just closed, or below some other heading of the ledger, which is indicated in the red-ink entry.
Aside from the purpose of eliminating from an account the clement of loss or gain, or of prevent ing crowding. an account is closed in order to condense it into a single item. thus simplifying and making intelligible at a glance all the infor 'nation which the account can give. After a gen eral closing of the ledger it is nsually advisable to take off a trial balance of the ledger bal ances to make sure that all have been cor rectly transferred; as a mistake in this matter may cause great trouble at the time of the next trial balance.
In the simple combination of books for double entry bookkeeping, which has been explained, practically all the principles of the system are exemplified. In addition to the books named, however, there are generally found in use one or more such books as the following: Cash-book, sales-book, invoice-book. hill-book, o•der-book, cheek-book, inventory-book, etc. It is unneces sary to enter upon an explanation of the purpose of these books, it being sufficiently indicated by the name. Of the ways in which they may be
combined, there is great variety. every business and every establishment introducing some peculi arities of its own. The general principles, however, are the same in all. They may be used either as principal or auxiliary books. A prin cipal book may be defined as one from which or to which posting is done; an auxiliary book, one kept for convenience of reference, but from which no posting is done. When these books are used purely as auxiliary books, they do not affect the work in the other books. When, however, they are used as principal books, all entries found in them are omitted from the jour nal. No account is kept in the ledger of the property with which such books respectively deal; or if kept, only the footings are posted at regular intervals. The latter plan is followed by some in order that a trial balance of the business accounts may be taken without refer ence to any other book than the ledger. When this is not done, the footings or balances from such books must be properly entered in the trial balance before it can be expected to prove. The ledger titles found on the debit side of these books must be credited in the ledger with the amounts set opposite them and those on the credit side similarly debited. These books are often ruled with special columns for items of frequent occurrence, and when this is done the footings of such columns only are posted to the title which heads the column in accordance with the principle stated below. A form of the cash-book is given below and the method of posting and ruling the same is illustrated.