petty payments, which are
recorded in a separate book called the _petty cash book_. With regard to
the remaining ledger accounts, personal accounts--which are the most
numerous--are frequently separated from the real and nominal accounts,
and are further subdivided so that customers' accounts are kept separate
from the accounts of trade creditors. The customers' accounts are kept
in a ledger (or, if need be, in several ledgers) called _sales ledgers_,
or _sold ledgers_; while the accounts of trade creditors are similarly
kept in _purchases ledgers_ or _bought ledgers_. The nominal and real
accounts, if together, are kept in what is called the _general ledger_;
but this may be further subdivided into a _nominal ledger_ and a
_private ledger_. This last subdivision is, however, rarely made upon a
scientific basis, for such accounts as the profit and loss account and
trading account are generally kept in the private ledger although
strictly speaking nominal accounts; while the bills receivable account
and the bills payable account are generally kept in the nominal ledger,
so as to reduce to a minimum the amount of clerical work in connexion
with the private ledger, which is kept either by the principal himself
or by his confidential employee. By the employment of _adjustment
accounts_, which complete the double-entry record in each ledger, these
various ledgers may readily be made self-balancing, thus enabling
clerical errors to be localized and responsibility enforced.

Tabular book-keeping.

Of recent years considerable attention has been devoted to further
modifications of book-keeping methods with a view to reducing clerical
work, increasing the speed with which results are available, and
enabling them to be handled more quickly and with greater certainty.
_Tabular book-keeping_ is a device to achieve one or more of these ends
by the substitution of books ruled with numerous columns for the more
usual form. The system may be applied either to books of first entry or
to ledgers. As applied to books of first-entry it enables the same book
to deal conveniently with more than one class of transaction; thus if
the trading of a business is divided into several departments, by
providing a separate column for the sales of each department it is
possible readily to arrive at separate totals for the aggregate sales of
each, thus simplifying the preparation of departmental trading accounts.
As applied to ledgers, the applica