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Correction
Posting copies each journal-entry line to the account named on that line. It does not record a second transaction. The journal organizes records by date, while the general ledger organizes the same records by account.
Why the wrong answer seems reasonable
The same amount appears once in the journal and again in the ledger. A compound entry, which uses more than two accounts, produces several ledger lines. An exported list can therefore look as though it contains several new events. Each ledger line comes from the original entry; it does not represent new economic activity.
Where it goes wrong
Harbor Design, a design-services corporation, receives $6,000 for future customer support on November 1. The receipt is one transaction, recorded in one journal entry:
The $6,000 debit is posted to the Cash account. The $6,000 credit is posted to the Unearned Revenue account. The two ledger lines still represent one transaction and one entry. Adding the journal amount to the ledger amount would count the same record twice.
Check your answer
Trace each ledger line back to its journal-entry reference. Several lines with the same reference usually belong to one entry. If your transaction count equals the number of posted account lines, you may be counting ledger lines instead of transactions.
What to do instead
Use the journal to count and review entries by date. Use the ledger to compute activity and balances by account. When working with exports, keep the entry and line identifiers so that each posted line can be traced without counting the underlying transaction again.
When this mistake may appear
- The same amount appears in a journal-entry table and one or more account histories.
- Lists from the journal and ledger are combined without identifying repeated entries.
Your work may contain this mistake if:
- The answer adds journal amounts to the same amounts in the ledger.
- The answer counts each posted account line as a separate transaction.