The processing of accounting data begins with an economic transaction, where two or more parties engage in an exchange of goods or services for some form of consideration.
Evidence of this happening is the receipt of some form of a source document. Common examples of such a source document include:
• A sales receipt - this can be in a variety of forms.
• A purchase invoice.
• A debit/credit memorandum.
• A copy of a contract entered into.
• A billing statement.
• A remittance statement.
There are a multitude of source documents, in type, shapes, and format used to record
the significant data. It is these documents, which become the basis for data input to the
accounting processing. But, prior to the actual data entry, the documents must be
subjected to a series of analysis and classification.
(copy from Bookkeeping Course)
