Modern methods of bookkeeping have done more to aid in the detection of errors in posting than all of the checking systems combined. The sectionalization of accounts not only facilitates the detection of errors, but greatly minimizes the chances of their being made. As an illustration take a sales ledger which is subdivided into two or more parts, with special columns in cash book and sales book, and controlling accounts for each section. If the individual balances taken from the sales ledger do not agree with the controlling accounts, it is seen at a glance in which section the error has been made. Instead of a search through all postings to sales ledger accounts, it is only necessary to check postings to that particular section.
Errors in posting to nominal accounts are minimized by special columns in cash book, sales book, and purchase record, with one posting at the end of the month, in place of a posting for each item entered.
But still, errors are and always will be made in posting, and for the bookkeeper who has a large number of accounts to post and wishes to keep a constant check on his work, the reverse posting or slip posting system will give satisfactory results with little labor.
This system is very simple, and easily operated. It consists of the use of a slip of paper with debit and credit columns in which accounts posted to the ledger are entered. A separate slip is used for each book from which postings are made, and the items are posted to the slip from the ledger. The slip should be placed on the desk on the opposite side of the ledger from the book of entry.
If posting is from the sales book, the ledger should be placed to the right of the sales book and the slip to the right of the ledger. After the item is entered in the ledger it is posted to the slip. When the work is completed the slip is footed and compared with the footing of the sales book. If the footings agree, it is quite evident that the correct amounts have been posted to the ledger, for it is scarcely possible that an incorrect amount has been posted to the ledger and the correct amount entered on the slip.
A further daily proof may be had by inserting a blank slip of paper in the ledger wherever an item is posted. At the end of the day these ledger accounts are referred to, the amounts are drawn off, and total postings compared with the totals of the checking slips from the different books.