Session 7: Balancing up the Ledger Accounts.

Learning Objective

• Explain to the participants on how to balance the entries in various ledgers accounts.

• Balance carried down
• Balance carried forward

Balancing up the Books of Accounts

After recording in various accounts the totals entered for each side of the account is supposed to be added and any out standing balance carried to the next period as balance “carried forward”. No balance should be carried forward for Income and expenses account as generally these represents the transactions for a specific period. If sales have been made in January then it represents the January sales and can not be carried to the next month. The same applies to expenses account, expenses for the month can not be carried to the next month, and if rent has been paid for August it can not be carried forward to the next month.

Here is the example of the way the balancing of books is supposed to be conducted.