What are the needs for special journals?
Robert Miller
Updated on February 22, 2026
Each special journal is designed to record the transactions of a specific nature. Special journals are required only for the types of transactions that occur frequently or of repetitive nature. For example, a business concern has many transactions in which cash is received and many in which cash is paid out.
Why do we use special journals in accounting?
A special journal (also known as a specialized journal) is useful in a manual accounting or bookkeeping system to reduce the tedious task of recording both the debit and credit general ledger account names and amounts in a general journal.
Why do companies use special journals explain?
Instead of having just one general journal, companies group transactions of the same kind together and record them in special journals rather than in the general journal. This makes it easier and more efficient to find a specific type of transaction and speeds up the process of posting these transactions.
What is Journal and its types?
The transactions of the same nature are recorded in a special journal. These are termed as a daily journal, subsidiary journal or special journal. Most large size business concerns record particular transactions in special journal, side by side general journal.
What are three types of special journals?
There are four types of Special Journals that are frequently used by merchandising businesses: Sales journals, Cash receipts journals, Purchases journals, and Cash payments journals.
What is special ledger?
Special General Ledger Transactions are transactions that logically belong to accounts in the sub-ledger (Customer / Vendor) but are not to be posted to the corresponding G/L Reconciliation Account defined in the master record.
Why are special journals used instead of general journals?
Why are special journals and subsidiary ledgers important?
The use of special journal and subsidiary ledgers can make the accounting information system more effective and allow for certain types of information to be obtained more easily. Here is the information from the accounts payable subsidiary ledger:
How are transactions recorded in a special journal?
If the transaction does not involve cash, it will be recorded in one of the other special journals. If it is a credit sale (also known as a sale on account), it is recorded in the sales journal. If it is a credit purchase (also known as a purchase on account), it is recorded in the purchases journal.
Which is an example of a cash receipts journal?
If any cash is received, even if it is only a part of the transaction, the entire transaction is entered in the cash receipts journal. For this example, the transaction entered in the cash receipts journal would have a debit to cash for $300, a debit to Accounts Receivable for $700, and a credit to Sales for $1,000.