Principal Books of Account maintained in banks

Books of Accounts include documents and books used in the preparation of financial statements. It includes journals, ledgers, cash book,s and subsidiary books.

The principal book of accounts in a bank is the General Ledger (GL), which is also known as the book of final entry. Banks maintain a general ledger that summarizes all financial transactions, along with subsidiary ledgers for specific accounts like loans, deposits, and investments.

GL is the most important book of accounts because it contains all of a business’s financial transactions and accounts in one place. Based on GL figures bank’s financial reporting, such as the balance sheet and income statement is done. It also helps accounting teams ensure the books balance, provide cash position updates, and start audit trails.

Cash book: A bank cash book is a financial record of a business’s or individual’s cash transactions with a bank. It records all transactions of cash receipts and payments, including deposits and withdrawals in chronological order. Receipts are entered on the left side of the cash book, while payments are recorded on the right side. A cash book acts as both a journal and a ledger for cash transactions.  The cashbook is an important part of cash management. Day Book:

Day Book: In Banks, a Day Book is also called a bank journal or bank book. All vouchers prepared relating to all payments or receipts in cash, clearing, and transfer of a day are recorded in the Day book. Receipt vouchers are entered on the left side of the cash book, while payment vouchers are recorded on the right side. While recording a large volume of vouchers in the specific heads like SB Account, Current Account, etc. those vouchers are first recorded in a separate subsidiary/supplementary book and later totals of debits and credits are posted to the day book. The chronological records of debits and credits on different types of accounts will be posted to the General Ledger.

Personal Ledgers: A bank maintains separate ledgers for different types of accounts. For example, there are separate ledgers for Current Accounts, Fixed Deposits (often further classified by the length of the deposit period), Cash Certificates, Loans, Overdrafts, etc. These ledgers are posted directly from vouchers, and all the vouchers entered in each ledger in a day are summarised into voucher summary sheets or a supplementary register.

Registers:

Bill Registers: Details of different kinds of bills are kept in separate registers with suitable columns. For example, bills purchased, inward bills for collection, outward bills for collection, etc. are entered serially on a day-to-day basis in separate registers. In case of bills purchased or discounted, party-wise details with documents recorded are also kept in normal ledger form. This is done to ensure that the sanctioned limits of parties are not exceeded.

Other registers: Bills for Collection Register, Securities Register, Document Register, Standing Order Register, Cheques Dishonoured Register, Drafts Issue Register, Drafts Payable Register, D.D. Register, Foreign Letters of Credit Register, etc. In respect of bills for collection, contra vouchers reflecting both sides of the transaction are prepared at the time of the original entry, and this is reversed on realisation. Outstanding entries are very often totaled and checked to see whether they tally with the balance of the General Ledger.