IMPROVEMENTS IN ACCOUNT BOOKS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Spencer Adcock at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th August 1868.
I, JOSEPH SPENCER ADCOCK, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Accountant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ACCOUNT BOOKS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the improvements in account books herein-
after described.
According to my Invention I make the journal a record of every
transaction of the business, the said journal being of itself a cash book,
a bill book, a purchase and sales book, and a discount book, and is
with the exception of a ledger the only book necessary for keeping
accounts. This journal being a debtor and creditor record, a sufficient
number of vertical lines are drawn down the journal so as to form a
series of vertical columns which properly divide and head the accounts
and render every transaction and series of similar transactions clear
and distinct, all the entries instead of being entered twice over as in
double entry are only entered once, and by this one entry alone a
debit and credit transaction is recorded. A heading and columns of

page_text: a specimen sheet or page of a journal arranged according to my Inven-
tion is given at the end of this Specification. In ordinary journals
the accounts, debits, and credits are mixed, and are together on the
same page; for example, a customer is debited with goods so are the
trade accounts also, yet the two entries are antagonistic in their nature.
In my journal I arrange the two entries on different sides, so that
no mixture or antagonism takes place, one side (instead of being a
mixture of gain and loss transactions) is a distinct record of loss only,
and the other side is a distinct record of gains only, so that from my
journal a balance sheet and profit and loss summary account can be
made. The ledger is ruled similarly to the journal and the heading is
precisely the same or different, and a further elaboration of some of
the journal columns may be found necessary. The total of each ledger
page is posted to a summary ledger account, the totals of which are
necessarily the same as the journal if the accounts are properly kept,
thus proving a certain accuracy. In addition to such check the ledger
having being posted direct from vouchers and the journal direct from
vouchers, and the journal folio entered in the ledger and the ledger
folio in the journal reciprocally, this constitutes a further check and
little or no extra labour is incurred. Another check is the addition,
should a mistake occur, therein it is again proved by the other columns
not making the same as the total column. By my improved account
books if the accounts are only half recorded, that is, by means of the
journal alone, any mercantile firm may know its financial condition in
a few minutes. Some of the advantages which my improved account
books offer are the following:-One entry is equal in efficacy to two
entries of the old systems, it is less expensive and easier to understand
and has less liability to error, and when errors do occur they cannot
pass without discovery; for instance, should the book-keeper by double
entry post in error in his journal an item of £19 76 when the invoice
states £976, the item turns out a bad debt, the books would balance
by double entry and yet be wrong by or to the amount of £10, and
there is stated to be a loss of £10 more than has actually occurred. By
the use of my account books every error is discovered. It checks
itself without the extra labour of checking, there being all the way
through three, checks upon its working. Should an error be made in
my account books it will be clear immediately upon attempting to
balance that the error is in so and so column, and can be found and
altered in a few minutes.