Objectives or Advantages of Journal:

The following are some objectives of journal.

1. It provides date-wise (chronological) records of all business transactions.
2. It helps to prepare ledger account.
3. It helps to understand the principles of double entry book-keeping system through the accounts to be debited and credited.
4. It gives complete information at one place about each business transaction with narration.

Ruling or Format of a Journal:
A general format of the journal is as given below which has five columns.

Each Column is discussed in detail as follows:
Date: This is the first column of a journal which is meant for recording the date of transaction. All the transactions should be recorded in the order of date or in the order of occurrence.

Particulars: It is the second column of journal which is meant for recording two names of account to be debited and credited. The word 'Dr.' is written after the name of debit account. In the next line the account to be creditedis written with the prefix 'To'.

After each entry, a brief explanation of each transaction is given which is called 'Narration'. It explains the reasons of debiting and crediting the accounts. It is followed by word 'Being' or 'For'.

L.F. : It is third column of a journal. The full form of L.F. is ledger folio which is for the record of page number or folio number of the ledger where the posting has been made from journal.

Dr. or Debit Amount: In this column, the amount of account to be debited is written strictly in sequence with the name of the account.

Cr. or Credit Amount: It is fifth of last column of a journal where amount of credit account is written. It also must be in sequence with the name of the account credited.