The account to which everything is placed for which an actual equivalent is not seen in the books is the _profit-and-loss_ account. This profit-and-loss account, or the clerk who keeps it, is made answerable for every loss, and the supposed cause of every gain. This account, then, becomes debtor for every loss, and creditor by every gain. If goods be damaged to the amount of £20 by accident, and a loss to that amount occur in their sale, say they cost £80 and sell for £60 cash, it is clear that there is an entry “Cash debtor to goods £60,” and “Goods creditor by cash £60.” Now, there is an entry of £80 somewhere to the debit of the goods for cash laid out, or bills given, for the whole of the goods. It would affect the accuracy of the accounts to take no notice of this; for when the balance-clerk comes to adjust this account, he would find he receives £20 less than he might have reckoned upon, without any explanation of the reason; and there would be a failure of the principle of double-entry. Since it is convenient that the balance account of the goods should merely represent the stock in hand at the close, the account of goods therefore lays the responsibility of £20 upon the profit-and-loss account, or there is the entry “Goods creditor by profit-and-loss, £20,” and also “Profit-and-loss debtor to goods, £20.” Again, in all payments which are not to bring in a specific return, such as house and trade expenses, wages, &c. these several accounts are supposed to adjust matters with the profit-and-loss account before the balance begins. Thus, suppose the outgoings from the mere premises occupied exceed anything those premises yield by £200, or the debits of the house account exceed its credits by £200, the account should be balanced by transferring the responsibility to the profit-and-loss account, under the entries “House expenses creditor by profit-and-loss, £200”, “Profit-and-loss debtor to house expenses, £200.” In this way the profit-and-loss account steps in from time to time before the balance account commences its operations, in order that that same balance account may consist of _nothing but the necessary matters of account for the next year’s ledger_. This _transference of accounts_, or transfusion of one account into another, requires attentive consideration. The receiving account becomes creditor for the credits, and debtor for the debits, of the transmitting account. The rule, therefore, is: Make the transmitting account balance itself, and, on whichever side it is necessary to enter a balancing sum, make the account debtor or creditor, as the case may be, to the receiving account, and the latter creditor or debtor to the former. Thus, suppose account A is to be transferred to account B, and the latter is to arrange with the balance account. If the two stand as in Roman letters, the processes in Italic letters will occur before the final close.