ly taken place may have been omitted from
the books altogether, or they may have been recorded to the wrong
accounts, or the money values attached to them may be incorrect; or, yet
again, fictitious records may be entered in the ledger of transactions
which have never taken place. A _trial balance_ is thus no very adequate
safeguard against fraud, nor does it bring to light mistakes in the
monetary value attaching to the various transactions recorded. This last
point is of especial importance, in that the monetary value of
transactions may have been correctly recorded in the first instance, but
owing to altered circumstances may have become inaccurate at a later
date. This of course means that the altered circumstances constitute an
additional "transaction" which has been omitted.

TRIAL BALANCE, 31ST DECEMBER 1906

----+-------------------------+---------------+--------------
| | _Dr._ | _Cr._
1 | Capital account | | L15,010 1 7
5 | Drawings | 1,500 0 0 |
20 | Trade creditors | | 4,961 10 0
24 | Fixtures, furniture, &c.| 1,269 4 3 |
27 | Bills payable | | 2,620 18 4
40 | Bad debts | 71 4 2 |
44 | Stock 1st Jan. 1906 | 4,078 16 4 |
50 | Discounts allowed | 975 3 3 |
53 | Trade debtors | 3,842 7 9 |
60 | Discounts received | | 1,117 17 8
65 | Wages and salaries | 1,865 12 0 |
75 | Depreciation | 141 0 5 |
78 | Rent, rates and taxes | 1,242 13 8 |
82 | General expenses | 1,087 8 0 |
90 | Bills receivable | 7,468 14 3 |
97 | Purchases | 44,731 2 10 |
100 | Sales | | 48,732 4 9
C56 | Cash at bank | 4,169 5 5 |
| +---------------+--------------
| | L72,442 12 4 | L72,442 12 4
----+-------------------------+---------------+--------------

Balance sheet.

It will be observed, therefore, that in order to complete the record of
the transactions by double-entry, it has become necessary to introduce
into the ledger a third class of accounts, known as _impersonal_ or
_nominal accounts_. These accounts record the transferences of money, or
of money's worth, which, so far from r