Also known as: books of original entry · journal · daybook
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A day-to-day record in which a business first enters its transactions. The record captures each transaction at the moment it occurs before any summarization or posting to ledgers occurs.
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Bella Barnes, owner of a small import firm, records each customs payment in her book of original entry on the day the bill arrives. When an auditor later questions the timing of payments, the firm relies on the dated entries to prove the exact sequence. The court accepts the book as the controlling contemporaneous record of the transactions.
Brighton Manufacturing maintains a book of original entry for all campus printing costs. After a funding dispute arises over student publications, the company produces the dated entries showing each invoice paid on the day received. The entries establish the precise sequence of expenditures without later summarization.
Bernard Bass, campaign treasurer, enters every printing and mailing expense in the book of original entry on the date incurred. When a challenge questions the timing of disbursements, the contemporaneous entries demonstrate that each cost was recorded before any later aggregation. The court treats the book as the authoritative daily record.
Benson Motors records each advertisement payment in its book of original entry the day the invoice arrives. After a libel claim surfaces, the entries show the exact dates of publication-related outlays. The firm uses the book to prove the sequence of transactions without relying on later summaries.
Blackwood Technologies enters every consulting fee in its book of original entry on the date paid. When a dispute arises over the timing of payments to a former official, the daily entries establish the precise order of transactions. The book serves as the first and controlling record of each expenditure.
Bayside Shipping records each juror stipend in its book of original entry the day the payment is issued. After a challenge questions whether fees were paid before a verdict, the dated entries confirm the exact timing of each disbursement. The book supplies the original daily record of the transactions.
A book of original entry is the first place a business records each transaction on the day it occurs. Later ledgers and summaries are derived from these initial entries rather than created independently.
Supporting sources
The book creates a contemporaneous, chronological record that prevents later alteration or omission. Courts and auditors rely on this initial daily record to verify the sequence and timing of business events.
Supporting sources
…State Senate has apparently not yet acted on the measure, and today is relieved of that responsibility by the Court. New Haven Journal-Courier, Wed., May 19, 1965, p. 1, col. 4, and p. 13, col. 7.