A minute and thoroughly detailed record of all the transactions of a business is called a journal. A journal's information is used to balance accounts and communicate data to other accounting records. A transaction is generally documented in a company's journal using a double-entry methodology, but it can alternatively be recorded using a single-entry method of bookkeeping. Following a transaction, the double-entry method shows changes in two accounts: an increase in one and a decrease in the corresponding account. Single-entry accounting, in which all changes are recorded in one account, is rarely used. In the financial business, a journal may also refer to a trading diary that documents an investor's trades and the reasons for them.