The Journal is where all of the transactions for a HOA are recorded, and each Journal Entry includes the date, description, the name of affected Accounts, and the amount each affected account was either debited or credited.

The tricky part about analyzing journal entries is knowing how debits and credits affect the different account types. Click here for more information on debits and credits.

The Journal Entry example below is the recording of the operating account's opening balance. In this case the Operating Account was debited $100.00 and the Reserve Contingency Account was credited $100.00. Therefore the Operating Account Balance was increased by $100.00 and the Reserve Contingency Account was also increased by $100.00.