general ledger should be named journal

[Orestes Mas]

On dc, 2003-10-08 at 04:40, Glen Ditchfield wrote:
> On October 6, 2003 10:12 am, Dale Alspach wrote:
> > I think this may be a problem related to differences in terminology and
> > practice in the US and elsewhere. I looked at many US sites ...
> 
> General ledger		A ledger containing accounts in which are classified in
> detail or in summary all the transactions of a business enterprise or other
> accounting unit.
> 
> Journal	1. Any book of original entry.  2. The book of original entry in
> which are recorded transactions not provided for in specialized journals.
> 
> Book of original entry	A record book, recognized by law or custom, in which
> transactions are recorded, and which is the source of postings to ledgers;
> a journal.  Books of original entry include general and special journals,
> such as cashbooks and registers of sales and purchases.  Memorandum books,
> cheque stubs, files of duplicate sales invoices, and the like, wherein
> first or prior notations may already have been made, are known as business
> papers or supporting records and are not books of original entry in the
> usual meaning of the term unless they are used as posting sources.
> 
> -- "Accounting Simplified for Non-Accountants", Catherine Lund B.A., M.
> Com., C.G.A., Coles Publishing Company Limited, 1973.  (Yes, the Coles
> Notes of accounting!)

I agree with this thesis. I belong to the GNU catalan translation team
and in my country the book in which all transactions are recorded in
order of appearance is called "Llibre Diari", i.e.: Journal (Book)

Instead, we call "Llibre Major" (General Ledger) to the book holding all
transactions classified in a per-account basis. Generally this book have
a (big) page per account.

So I think too that the "general ledger" developed into GnuCash should
be named "Journal". In fact, I've done it yet in the translated version.


-- 
*********************************************
* Orestes Mas                               *
* Linux User 285092  http://counter.li.org  *
* Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya      *
*********************************************