book of original entry

book of original entry (plural books of original entry)

1. A record book in which all transactions (or all of a certain class) of a business are recorded and from entries are made in accounting records such as the general ledger or subsidiary ledgers.
   • 1850, P[atrick] MacGregor, A Practical Treatise on Book-keeping, page 179:

     When a transaction has been written down at length in a book of original entry, there is generally no occasion to make another minute of the same transaction before it is posted.

   • 1852, Joseph Howard Palmer, A Treatise on Practical Book-keeping and Business Transactions, page 36:

     Each book of Original Entry is usually paged off by itself; and, if we have several original books, the phraseology before each item in the Ledger, will be sufficient to determine the kind of original book

   • 1852, Peter Duff, Duff's North American Accountant, page 25:

     WHEN a Day Book is kept it is called the Book of original Entry and will always be referred to in any case of doubt or dispute about the correctness of any entry upon the Ledger.

   • 1866, Eastman National Business College (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.), The Student's Guide Through the Theoretical Department of Eastman National Business College, page 9:

     It being the book of original entry, no erasures are allowable; for with these, in a case of litigation, it would not be admitted into court as evidence

   • 1951, Arthur Wellington Holmes, Francis E. Moore, Books of original entry, page 492:

     The Notes Receivable Register adopted here serves both as a book of original entry and as a subsidiary notes receivable ledger.

   • 1919, James W. Baker, 20th Century Bookkeeping and Accounting, 10th edition, page 30:

     Auxiliary Books contain detailed information supporting the record in a book of original entry.

   • 2006, National Association of Securities Dealers, NASD Manual:

     The “blotter," as it is often called, is a broker's or dealer's book of original entry and contains an historical account of all the daily transactions of the firm or its customers

• book of prime entry, journal, daybook, blotter (securities industry)