Starting Class 11 Accountancy: journal, ledger and trial balance

New to Commerce? Here is how the first months of Class 11 Accountancy fit together, and how to practise from T.S. Grewal and D.K. Goel.

Class 11 is where your whole Accountancy career is built. Everything in Class 12 — partnership, companies, cash flow — is an application of what you learn in the first few months of Class 11.

The accounting equation

Assets = Liabilities + Capital. Every transaction changes at least two items so that the equation stays balanced. If you can show the effect of a transaction on the equation, you understand it.

The rules of debit and credit

Learn them once, properly. Under the modern approach: an increase in assets and expenses is debited; an increase in liabilities, capital and revenue is credited. Decreases go the other way.

Journal

The journal records each transaction in date order, with the account debited, the account credited, the amounts and a short narration. Practise until every common transaction — capital introduced, goods bought on credit, cash paid to a creditor, drawings — takes you a few seconds.

Ledger

The ledger collects all entries of one account in one place. Post each journal entry to both accounts, then balance them. Balancing is where many students make small mistakes, so be neat: total the larger side, write the balance on the shorter side, and carry it down.

Trial balance

A list of all ledger balances. If debit and credit totals agree, your ledger is arithmetically correct. If they do not, the error is somewhere in posting or balancing — and finding it is a skill you will need again in Rectification of Errors.

How to practise

• Do the solved examples in T.S. Grewal or D.K. Goel yourself before looking at the answer.
• Then do the unsolved questions in order of difficulty.
• Revise the rules of debit and credit every week until they are automatic.

At RD Classes, Class 11 is taught concept first and practised from both books along with our own notes. Book a free demo class to see how.