What do you mean by principal books of account? What are the rules of posting of Journal Entries into the Ledger?

After recording the original transactions in the journal, recorded entries are classified and grouped into by preparation of accounts. The book which contains all set of accounts (viz. personal, real and nominal accounts), is known as Ledger. Ledger is known as principal books of accounts since it provides full information regarding all the transactions pertaining to any individual account. Rules regarding posting of Journal entries in the ledger: a. Separate account is opened in ledger book for each account and entries from the Journal are posted to respective accounts accordingly. b. It is a practice to use words ‘To’ and ‘By’ while posting transactions in the ledger. The word ‘To’ is used in the particular column with the accounts written on the debit side while ‘By’ is used with the accounts written in the particular column of the credit side. These ‘To’ and ‘By’ do not have any meanings but are used to the account debited and credited. c. The concerned account debited in the journal should also be debited in the ledger but reference should be of the respective credit account.