Prime entry, books of

By:

James Knight

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Updated: Aug 20, 2021

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In double-entry bookkeeping detailed records of transactions or transfers between accounts are first recorded in day books or journals, which may be kept in book-form or in some other suitable manner. These records are known as books of prime entry. Good examples are the purchase journal and the sales journal. From these initial records the ledgers can be written up at leisure. In contemporary machine accounting systems, all relevant records are effectively written up simultaneously, ledger entry, customer invoice and sales journal summary being created by one electronic or mechanical process, thus virtually eliminating the function of the traditional books of prime entry.

Reference: The Penguin Business Dictionary , 3rd edt.