Ledger Posting
🟢 Lite — Quick Review (1h–1d)
Rapid summary for last-minute revision before your exam.
Ledger posting is the second stage of the double-entry recording cycle: the act of transferring each debit and credit entry from the journal (or day books) into its own account in the ledger, the principal book of final entry. The ledger is ruled in T-format, with a left-hand debit side and a right-hand credit side, and each account is kept on a separate page so that the full history of one account is visible at a glance.
The posting reference (folio) column on the ledger shows the journal page number (J) the entry came from, and the ledger folio (L.F.) on the journal shows the ledger page number the entry was posted to. After posting, accounts are balanced by subtracting the smaller side from the larger; the difference is written as balance c/d on the smaller side and balance b/d on the opposite, larger side for the next period. Asset and expense accounts normally carry debit balances; liability, capital, and income accounts normally carry credit balances.
🟡 Standard — Regular Study (2d–2mo)
Standard content for students with a few days to months.
The Posting Procedure
For every journal entry, posting is done twice — once for the debit and once for the credit. The four working steps are:
- Date: Copy the year, month and day from the journal onto the ledger account.
- Particulars: Write the name of the contra account on the relevant side, prefixed with “To” on the debit side and “By” on the credit side.
- Amount: Transfer the exact figure from the journal to the same side in the ledger.
- Folio: Enter the journal page number (J) in the ledger’s posting reference column, and the ledger page number (L.F.) back in the journal.
The debits and credits must always be posted on opposite sides of the two affected ledger accounts, because every transaction has two equal and opposite effects.
The Rules of Double Entry
| Type of Account | Increase (posted to) | Normal Balance |
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Debit | Debit |
| Expenses / Losses | Debit | Debit |
| Liabilities | Credit | Credit |
| Capital / Owner’s Equity | Credit | Credit |
| Revenue / Income | Credit | Credit |
Balancing an Account
The formula applied at the end of a period is:
Balance c/d = (Larger side total) − (Smaller side total)
The c/d entry is written on the smaller side as a deduction, and the b/d entry is written on the larger side on the line below, opening the next period. The two sides then total equally and the account is said to be “balanced off.”
Typical WASSCE Question Patterns
- Posting a list of given transactions into the necessary ledger accounts.
- Balancing selected accounts and stating whether each balance is debit or credit.
- Identifying errors such as a credit posted as a debit, or a missing folio.
- Extracting a trial balance directly from a list of ledger balances.
🔴 Extended — Deep Study (3mo+)
Comprehensive coverage for students on a longer study timeline.
Edge Cases and Common Mistakes
A frequent WASSCE trap is treating the Purchases Account and the Purchases Ledger (Accounts Payable) as the same thing — they are not. The Purchases Account records the value of goods bought, while the Purchases Ledger is a register of individual creditors. The same distinction applies to Sales Account vs Sales Ledger. A second trap is forgetting the b/d entry: many candidates write balance c/d correctly but leave the next period’s opening blank, which throws the trial balance off by the value of that balance. Candidates also frequently post both debit and credit to the same side of an account because they copy the journal without checking the “To/By” convention.
Connection to the Trial Balance
Once every account is posted and balanced, the closing debit balances and credit balances are listed in the trial balance to test the arithmetical accuracy of the double entry. A trial balance that does not balance indicates a posting error, an omission, or a wrong-side entry — all of which can be traced back to incorrect ledger posting.
Exam Strategy
In WASSCE Paper 1, structured questions on this topic often require a student to post 8–10 transactions, balance 3–4 named accounts, and extract balances. A candidate should: (i) set up T-accounts before writing final answers, (ii) tick each posting off the journal to avoid duplication, (iii) always state “balance b/d” or “balance c/d” with the date, and (iv) write the balance in the L.F. column of the trial balance extraction.
Practice Prompts
- Post the following into the Cash Account and the Capital Account of K. Mensah: 1 Jan — commenced business with GH₵ 50,000 cash; 3 Jan — bought goods for cash GH₵ 8,000. Balance the Cash Account and state the nature of its balance.
- Given the ledger balances of a small business, identify which three accounts are most likely to have been mis-posted if the trial balance totals differ by GH₵ 1,200.
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Sources & verification
- Official WASSCE (Ghana) syllabus & pattern: https://www.waecgh.org
- Editorial methodology: research → draft → fact-verify → curate pipeline
- Reviewed by Pushkar Saini · last updated
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