To prove the ledger without the usual trial balance these rules should be followed: _First:_ Make up trading and profit and loss statements, taking balances direct from the ledger accounts, deducting current inventories. _Second:_ Make up balance sheet using current inventories in listing assets. If the current profit and loss agrees with the difference between assets and liabilities the ledger may be assumed to be in balance. This is, in effect, a sectional trial balance, since the accounts in the trial balance are all represented in the two statements. The reliability of this proof is not affected by the fact that the inventories are arbitrary—and perhaps inaccurate—since the same amounts are used in both the balance sheet and profit and loss statement. BOOK INVENTORIES =18.= To make the foregoing plan still more effective, perpetual inventories should be carried in the ledger. A perpetual or book inventory is an account showing the value of merchandise received, sold, and on hand. If an accurate account is kept of merchandise received and sold, the perpetual inventory will show the amount that should be in stock. To prove the accuracy of the account, it is necessary to take an actual inventory of the merchandise in stock, just as it is necessary to count the cash before we can know that the amount on hand agrees with the cash account. A detailed perpetual inventory should be kept on cards or in a loose leaf book. A card or sheet is used for each article or class of material carried in stock. The sheets or cards should be arranged alphabetically according to the names of the articles. To make the system effective one person should have charge of these records and no goods should be taken from stock without an order or other proper record. At the end of the month the receipts will be shown by the purchase accounts. The deliveries will be tabulated from the cards, and the necessary adjustments made on the ledger account. Adjustments should be made by journal entry debiting inventory accounts and crediting trading account for increase in inventory, and _vice versâ_ for decrease in inventory. Fig. 18 _a._ is a typical form of stock ledger sheet for a loose leaf book. The form should in all cases be made to suit the requirements of the business in which it is to be used.