The Grand book is the collection of the whole of the accounts used of a company which holds its double accountancy in left (class of the accounts of the Chart of accounts from 1 to 9).

Each account is presented as follows:

  • Balance at the beginning of the period;
  • chronological List of the movements which have affected the account, by specifying if they are flows or appropriations;
  • final Balance.

See also: General ledger

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In the system of the partly double Accounts Department, each event is transcribed in the form of writing presenting a sum associated on an account to the flow (left left the writing) and on another account with the credit (left right). This flow and this credit are then deferred on each individual account of the Large Book. The individual account with the Large book with the form of a " T " : above the higher bar of T, the number and the name of the account; on the left under the bar, the operations with the flow of the account, one under the other in the chronological order; on the right, operations with the credit, in the same order. The flow of a writing is deferred on the left account in T corresponding, and the credit is allocated on the right another account in T. the recorded writing on a side of an account in T thus has always its counterpart on other side of another account. Thus, except error of posting, the sum of the flows to the Ledger is permanently equal to the sum of the appropriations.

Before the computerization of the countable systems, this treatment was made manually. With the use of the databases, the carryforward of the writings in the Large book is entirely managed by the system which one makes sure of reliability in particular by asking for the edition of the totals which must correspond to those of the newspapers.

History

At the origin, the expression " Large livre" indicate a register suitable for the centralizing countable system with Italian which was appeared as bindings of sheets of accounts under hard-bound covers; the back was reinforced with it trimmings out of sheet with zinc. In fact, a Large book could reach the sizeable weight of 10 with 15  kg. It is possible that the denomination came to him from its dimension of 50  cm on 40  cm, or owing to the fact that for a last writing with the newspaper, it was necessary to pass two from them to the Large book, is one with the flow and the other with the credit, which multiplied its volume compared to the newspaper.

In its most current presentation, the Large book presented two accounts per page. To the wording of the writing of the flow one recalled the date of the newspaper and the page where the credit of the corresponding writing was, and one made in the same way for the credit. This technique characterized its stipulation of partly double Comptabilité.

The carryforwards of the newspapers to the Large Books were to be done the following day so that every morning ago of the newspapers deferred of available. It had thus required there of a permanent presence in the service in charge of the writings; except major force, there was no absent in these services at that time.

In general, the accountant who held the large book of the general accounts was best paid apart from the countable person in charge. He capped his other colleagues and it was him which held in more the centralizing accounts of accountancies auxiliaires : " Clients" , " Fournisseurs" , " Debtors & Credit Divers" , " Banques" and " Généraux" expenses;.

It drew up also the various balances of decree of end of periods quarterly, or more often semi-annual, and them balances of inventory at the end of the exercise. The newspapers by nature which was used for the daily carryforwards presented in the form of registers connected whose pages were paginated and initialed by the clerk's office of the bankruptcy court. The writings of the newspapers by nature were accurately deferred to the accounts of the Large corresponding books.

The work stations of the accountants were presented in the form of desks with inclined plates placed at breast height upright. Thus, the large book rested tilted to facilitate the writing, blocked by a stop not to fall from the desk. The accountant was held upright or sitted on a high stool to pass the writings. The large books were to comprise neither erasures, neither overloads, nor vacuums. In the event of carryforward (continuation of the account on a new page), the lines not used on a side or other of T, were to be barred of a diagonal connected by a small horizontal feature in top and in bottom with the framework reserved for the zone of make out writings. The Germans had found a denomination mnemonic with these features of protection against the writing by naming this obligatory figure “  Buchhalternase  ”, the “  nose of the comptable  ”. A good professional attached to this system was to have beautiful a Calligraphie and an aptitude for fast calculation.

Also these two matters appeared in the academic programs like with those of the private training institutes accountant. Mention zero in fast calculation in the CAPE of assistant-accountant and the examination of Book keeper was eliminatory.

When they appeared on the market, the calculating machines were not accommodated with heat at the time of the glorification of manual and mental work. This rejection was to last until the Années 1950 in the accounting departments of the sector privé  in the years 1980, certain companies still recruited their accountants in their making pass an aptitude test for mental calculation.

See too

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