80 | 80 | | In all the part of the above which is printed in Roman letters we see nothing but the preceding table repeated. But when all the accounts have been completed, and no more entries are left to be made, there remains the last process, which is termed _balancing the ledger_. To get an idea of this, suppose a new clerk, who goes round all the accounts, collecting debts and credits, and taking them all upon himself, that he alone may be entitled to claim the debts and to be responsible for the assets of the concern. To this new clerk, whom I will call the _balance-clerk_, every account gives up what it has, whether the same be debt or credit. The cash-clerk gives up all the cash; the clerks of the two kinds of bills give up all their documents, whether bills receivable or entries of bills payable (remember that any entry against which there is money set down in the books counts as money when given up, that is, as money due or money owing); the clerks of the several accounts of goods give up all their unsold remainders at cost prices; the clerks of the several personal accounts give up vouchers for the sums owing to or from the several parties; and so on. But where more has been paid out than received, the balance-clerk adjusts these accounts by giving instead of receiving; in fact, he so acts as to make the debtor and creditor sides of the accounts he visits equal in amount. For instance, the A account is indebted to the concern 55, while payments or discharges to the amount of 78 have been made by it. The balance-clerk accordingly hands over 23 to that account, for which it becomes debtor, while the balance enters itself as creditor to the same amount. But in the B account there is 96 of receipt, and only 59 of payment or discharge. The balance-clerk then receives 37 from this account, which is therefore credited by balance, while the balance acknowledges as much of debt. The balance account must, of course, exactly balance itself, if the accounts be all right; for of all the equal and opposite entries of which the ledger consists, so far as they do not balance one another, one goes into one side of the balance account, and the other into the other. Thus the balance account becomes a test of the accuracy of one part of the work: if its two sides do not give the same sums, either there have been entries which have not had their corresponding balancing entries correctly made, or else there has been error in the additions.