What is a general journal?

The general journal is the book of original entry used to record business transactions in the order they happen, before the totals get posted to the general ledger. Each line needs a date, the accounts debited and credited, a reference account number, the amount, and a short explanation. Businesses that keep specialized journals — a cash receipts journal, cash payment journal, or purchase journal — typically reserve the general journal for entries that don't fit those, such as period-end adjusting entries, opening entries, or transfer entries. A small business without specialized journals can simply record every transaction in the general journal instead. The rule is that total debits must always equal total credits for every entry. For example, on July 3, 2026, a VAT-registered online shop sells a T-shirt for 5,000 baht in cash (before VAT), charging 7% output tax of 350 baht, so the customer pays 5,350 baht in total. The general journal entry records this as: debit Cash 5,350 baht, credit Sales 5,000 baht, and credit Output VAT 350 baht, with the note "Recorded cash sale of T-shirt, including 7% output VAT." Total debits of 5,350 baht match total credits of 5,350 baht exactly — a condition every general journal entry must satisfy. For business owners without an accounting background, keeping the general journal itself day to day usually isn't the essential starting point. What actually matters is having complete source documents — receipts, tax invoices, settlement reports from Shopee or Lazada, and payment slips. Once the source documents are complete, an accountant or accounting software can record them into the general journal and post from there. The owner's job is organizing and categorizing source documents, not doing double-entry bookkeeping directly.