Book-Keeping and Accountancy · Ch 5 — Subsidiary Books
Cash Book — Single, Double and Triple Column
Cash Book — Single, Double and Triple Column
The Cash Book is the subsidiary book that records every transaction involving an actual receipt or payment of cash (and, in its wider forms, of bank transactions too). It is unique among the subsidiary books in one respect: it also acts as a LEDGER account in its own right (the Cash Account), so cash and bank balances are read directly from it — they are never separately posted to a "Cash Account" in the ledger.
Three columnar forms are used, depending on need:
Single Column Cash Book
Records only cash receipts and cash payments, with a single amount column on each side — equivalent to just the Cash Account.
Double Column Cash Book
Adds one further column on each side, most commonly a Bank column (recording cheque/bank transactions alongside cash) — occasionally a Discount column instead, where only cash and discount are tracked.
Triple Column Cash Book
Carries THREE columns on each side — Cash, Bank, and Discount — so that cash transactions, bank transactions, and discount allowed/received are all recorded together in one book.
Contra entries: a transaction that moves money BETWEEN cash and bank (e.g. cash deposited into the bank, or cash withdrawn from the bank) affects both columns of the SAME Triple/Double Column Cash Book — once on the receipts side, once on the payments side. Such an entry is marked with the letter "C" in the L.F. column and is never posted anywhere else, since the debit and credit of that entry are both already complete within the Cash Book itself.
Discount columns are memorandum columns only — unlike the Cash and Bank columns, they are never balanced off; they are simply totalled at the end of the period. The total of the Discount column on the receipts (debit) side is posted to the debit of the Discount Allowed Account; the total of the Discount column on the payments (credit) side is posted to the credit of the Discount Received Account.
Illustration 8 — Preparing a Triple Column Cash Book
Prepare a Triple Column Cash Book from the following transactions of a trader — a format the MSBSHSE Std XI Book-Keeping and Accountancy syllabus expects a student to be able to produce directly from a list of transactions like these:
- Apr 1 — Balances: Cash in hand ₹3,000; Cash at Bank ₹15,000.
- Apr 3 — Cash sales ₹2,500.
- Apr 6 — Deposited into bank ₹2,000.
- Apr 10 — Received a cheque from Kunal ₹4,750 in full settlement of his account of ₹5,000 (discount allowed ₹250), deposited into bank on the same day.
- Apr 14 — Paid Lalit by cheque ₹2,910 in full settlement of his account of ₹3,000 (discount received ₹90).
- Apr 18 — Withdrew ₹1,500 from the bank for office use.
- Apr 22 — Paid wages in cash ₹1,200.
- Apr 26 — Cash purchases ₹900.
Triple Column Cash Book — Receipts (Dr) side
| Date | Particulars | L.F. | Discount (₹) | Cash (₹) | Bank (₹) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 1 | To Balance b/d | 3,000 | 15,000 | ||
| Apr 3 | To Sales A/c | 2,500 | |||
| Apr 6 | To Cash A/c | C | 2,000 | ||
| Apr 10 | To Kunal | 250 | 4,750 | ||
| Apr 18 | To Bank A/c | C | 1,500 | ||
| Total | 250 | 7,000 | 21,750 |
Triple Column Cash Book — Payments (Cr) side
| Date | Particulars | L.F. | Discount (₹) | Cash (₹) | Bank (₹) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 6 | By Bank A/c | C | 2,000 | ||
| Apr 14 | By Lalit | 90 | 2,910 | ||
| Apr 18 | By Cash A/c | C | 1,500 | ||
| Apr 22 | By Wages A/c | 1,200 | |||
| Apr 26 | By Purchases A/c | 900 | |||
| Apr 30 | By Balance c/d | 2,900 | 17,340 | ||
| Total | 90 | 7,000 | 21,750 |
Records only cash receipts and cash payments, with a single amount column …
A Cash Book with one further column on each side beyond Cash — usually Bank, occasio …
A Cash Book carrying three columns on each side — Cash, Bank, and Discount — recording all three tog …