general ledger should be named journal

[Dale Alspach]

I agree with the fact that by definition the journal is the
object that contains all of the transactions in date order. (Ah
but what date? See below.)

What seems to have happened or is happening is that the journal which was
supposed to the original entry of any transaction is not used that way in
(some? many?) automated systems.  Transactions are either entered directly
to various subledgers or through specialized forms (which correspond to
special journals) such as bills received, bill payment, etc. The journal
now is really just a report. In Quickboks Pro, for example, one can enter
directly something called a general journal transaction, but it is really
a special journal. You do not see any other types of transactions. You can generate
a journal report which does contain all transactions in date
order, but unlike gnucash it is listed in entry date order
because Quickbooks assigns a transaction number at time of entry
and uses that to construct the order. (This report does not show
an audit trail so it is the current version of a transaction that is
shown in the order of last correction.)

In traditional paper accounting the journal would reflect the date of
entry into the accounting system which may or may not be the date that
the corresponding real event happened. With a system such as gnucash
the journal cannot play its traditional role because the date used is
frequently the date which corresponds to some external posting (bank
statement, etc.) or the real event. Moreover, gnucash lets one change
a transaction directly rather than by a correcting or reversing entry.

In my view what Gnucash calls the general ledger is that but not
ordered by account so it is neither a traditional
journal nor a general ledger.

It would be helpful if someone who is an accountant and is familiar with
accounting software generally would comment. Most accounting books and
accounting web pages I have seen still pretend that everything is done
on paper in the traditional way. It seems a little silly to be talking
about making a journal entry and noting the appropriate ledger page.

Dale Alspach