Q. Accounting systems from manual to computerized?

The manual accounting system with merely one general journal and one general ledger has been in use for hundreds of years and is still used by some very small companies. Slowly, some manual systems evolved to include multiple journals and ledgers for increased efficiency. For example a manual system with multiple journals and ledgers often includes a sales journal to record all credit sales and a purchases journal to record all credit purchases and also a cash receipts journal to record all cash receipts and a cash disbursements journal to record all cash payments. Still recorded in the common journal are adjusting and closing entries and any other entries that do not fit in one of the special journals. Moreover the general ledger such a system normally has subsidiary ledgers for accounts receivable and accounts payable showing how much each customer owes and how much is owed to each supplier. The general ledger explains the total amount of accounts receivable and accounts payable but the details in the subsidiary ledgers allow companies to send bills to customers and pay bills to suppliers.

One more innovation in manual systems was the one write or pegboard system. Beside creating one document and aligning other records under it on a pegboard companies could record transactions more efficiently. These systems allow the writing of a check and the simultaneous recording of the check in the cash disbursements journal. Even though a few of these systems are still in use today computers make them obsolete.