Single Column (Simple) Cash Book

The Single Column (Simple) Cash Book has just one amount column on each side and records ONLY cash transactions — cash received (debit side) and cash paid (credit side). It does NOT record cheque/bank transactions at all; those, if any, are recorded through a separate Bank Account in the ledger when only a Single Column Cash Book is maintained.

Because it records only cash, and a business can never pay out more cash than it has actually received (physical cash cannot go negative), the Single Column Cash Book always has either a debit balance or a nil balance — never a credit balance. This debit balance, carried down at the end of the period, represents the closing cash-in-hand, and is directly shown as an asset in the Balance Sheet — there is no separate Cash Account to prepare, since the Cash Book itself already IS that account. …