Q.From the following journal entries relating to Kavya (a customer), post them into Kavya's Account and balance it:

The closing balance of a ledger account this year becomes the opening balance of the next year — option (b).

How balancing carries forward:

• At the end of the year each ledger account is balanced; the difference is written as balance c/d (carried down) to make both sides equal.
• This same balance is then written on the opposite side as balance b/d (brought down) at the beginning of the next accounting year.
• Thus the closing balance of the current year and the opening balance of the next year are one and the same figure — the accounts continue seamlessly from one period to the next.

So the closing balance is the opening balance of the next year, not the previous or current year.

Determining the net amount from the totals of the debit and credit columns of a ledger account is called balancing, so the answer is (c).

In the Tamil Nadu HSC Class-11 Accountancy syllabus, once transactions are posted to a ledger account, its two sides are totalled and the difference is found to know the closing position of that account. This process is called balancing the account.

Distinguishing the options:

• (a) Journalising — recording a transaction first in the journal; not this.

• (b) Casting — totalling the amount columns; the difference step goes beyond mere totalling.

• (c) Balancing — finding the net difference between the debit and credit totals. Correct.

• (d) Posting — transferring entries from the journal to the ledger; not this.