Q. What is journal?

In explaining the rules of credit and debit we recorded transactions directly in the accounts. Every ledger (general ledger) account shows only the increases and decreases in that account. Therefore all the effects of a single business transaction wouldn't appear in any one account. For illustration the Cash account contains only data on changes in cash and doesn't show how the cash was generated or how it was spent. To comprise a permanent record of an entire transaction the accountant uses a book or record known as a journal.