Posting
Encyclopedia of Business Terms and Methods, ISBN 978-1-929500-10-9. Copyright © 2011 by Marty J.Schmidt.
The Meaning of Posting
Posting is the process of transferring transactions from the journal to the ledger, as part of the accounting cycle.
The bookkeeper normlly enters transactions into the journal chronologically (in the order they occur). In the ledger, however, accounts are organized by account category. ( See accounting cycle, account, and double entry system). Posting to the ledger is also usually the responsibility of a bookkeeper.
The accounting cycle continues when the accountant creates a trial balance from ledger entries. The trial balance is created to see whether or not debits=credits throughout the system (as they should in double entry bookkeeping). It there are places where the debits=credits equation does not hold, the accountant will typically create temporary accounts to bring about a balance, while investigating and correcting the cause of the problem. The fiinal steps in the accounting cycle are preparing and publishing the period's financial reports (including primarily the income statement, balance sheet, statement of changes in financial position, and statement of retained earnings) and closing the temporary accounts.
The length of the accounting cycle is usually either one month, one quarter year, or one full year.
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