Reading bills, passbooks and Dr/Cr tables
- Read every part of a GST tax invoice and check its totals
- Read a bank passbook and work out the running balance
- Understand two-sided tables (left side Dr, right side Cr) and find the balancing figure
- Know the reading habits that stop silly mistakes in accounts
Accounts is written in tables. A bill is a table, a bank passbook is a table, the journal, the ledger, the cash book and the trial balance are all tables. Many students understand the idea but lose marks because they read a table wrongly: they add the wrong column, miss a row, or mix up the left and right sides. Today we will learn to read three kinds of tables like an accountant: a GST bill, a bank passbook and a two-sided Dr/Cr account. Take a pen; we will check every total ourselves.
1. Rows, columns and totals
A row goes left to right and usually shows one item or one transaction. A column goes top to bottom and shows one kind of information (date, name, quantity, amount). The first row, called the heading, tells you what each column contains. Always read the heading first.
Three habits: (1) Read the heading of each column before any number. (2) Add a money column twice, once top to bottom and once bottom to top. (3) If a table has a total, check it; never just trust it. Accountants call adding a column casting, and a wrong total is a casting error (you will see this in Chapter 6).
2. Reading a GST tax invoice
A tax invoice (bill) is given by a seller to a buyer. It is the proof of the sale for the seller and the proof of the purchase for the buyer. In accounts, such papers are called source documents, because every entry starts from them.
Alpine Bags & Co., Aligarh sells school bags and water bottles to Sharma Stationery, Khurja (both in U.P.). Here is a simplified version of the bill Mr. Sharma received on 10 April 2026.
| TAX INVOICE No. AB/112 · Date: 10-04-2026 Seller: Alpine Bags & Co., Aligarh (GSTIN 09XXXXX) · Buyer: Sharma Stationery, Khurja (GSTIN 09YYYYY) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S.No. | Item | Qty | Rate (₹) | Amount (₹) |
| 1 | School bag | 10 | 600 | 6,000 |
| 2 | Water bottle | 20 | 150 | 3,000 |
| Gross amount | 9,000 | |||
| Less: Trade discount @ 5% | 450 | |||
| Taxable value | 8,550 | |||
| Add: CGST @ 6% | 513 | |||
| Add: SGST @ 6% | 513 | |||
| Invoice total | 9,576 | |||
What each part tells you:
- Invoice number and date: every bill has a unique number. The date decides which month the purchase belongs to.
- Seller and buyer with GSTIN: GSTIN is the GST registration number. The first two digits are the state code (09 is Uttar Pradesh). Same state code on both → CGST + SGST.
- Qty × Rate = Amount for each row.
- Trade discount is deducted before tax.
- Taxable value: the amount on which GST is calculated.
- Invoice total: what the buyer actually has to pay.
- Row 1: 10 × ₹600 = ₹6,000 ✓. Row 2: 20 × ₹150 = ₹3,000 ✓. Gross = ₹9,000 ✓
- Trade discount = 5% of ₹9,000 = ₹450 ✓. Taxable value = ₹9,000 − ₹450 = ₹8,550 ✓
- CGST = 6% of ₹8,550 = ₹513 ✓ and SGST the same ✓ (12% GST split into two halves)
- Total = ₹8,550 + ₹513 + ₹513 = ₹9,576 ✓
A furniture dealer in Bulandshahr sells 5 chairs at ₹1,200 each to a coaching centre in Khurja (same state). GST is 18%, no discount. What is the invoice total (in ₹)?
3. Reading a bank passbook
When a business keeps money in a bank, the bank sends a record of all deposits and withdrawals. The small booklet form is called a passbook; the printed or e-mailed sheet is a bank statement. Both look like this:
| Date | Particulars | Withdrawals (₹) | Deposits (₹) | Balance (₹) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 1 | Opening balance | 25,000 Cr | ||
| Apr 3 | Cash deposited | 10,000 | 35,000 Cr | |
| Apr 7 | Cheque No. 4521 – Gupta Wholesalers | 8,000 | 27,000 Cr | |
| Apr 12 | UPI received – Verma Coaching | 4,500 | 31,500 Cr | |
| Apr 20 | Bank charges | 150 | 31,350 Cr | |
| Apr 25 | ATM withdrawal | 5,000 | 26,350 Cr |
- Withdrawals (also called Debit or Dr column): money going out of the account, e.g. cheques paid, ATM cash, bank charges.
- Deposits (also called Credit or Cr column): money coming in, e.g. cash deposited, UPI or cheques received, interest.
- Balance: the running total after each row: previous balance + deposit − withdrawal.
Why does the bank write "Cr" next to your balance? Because the passbook is written from the bank's point of view. Your money is something the bank owes you, so for the bank you are a creditor. In your own cash book the same bank balance appears on the Dr side, as your asset. This "mirror image" is the key idea of Chapter 5, Bank Reconciliation Statement.
- Total deposits = ₹10,000 + ₹4,500 = ₹14,500
- Total withdrawals = ₹8,000 + ₹150 + ₹5,000 = ₹13,150
- Closing balance = ₹25,000 + ₹14,500 − ₹13,150
A passbook shows an opening balance of ₹12,000. Then: deposit ₹6,000, withdrawal ₹9,500, deposit ₹2,300. What is the closing balance (in ₹)?
- Withdrawals (Dr) column
- Deposits (Cr) column
- Only in the balance column
- It will not appear in the passbook
4. Two-sided tables: the Dr side and the Cr side
Most account books are drawn with two sides. The left side is called the Debit side (Dr.) and the right side the Credit side (Cr.). Do not attach any "good" or "bad" meaning to these words yet; for now simply read Dr = left and Cr = right. Chapter 3 will teach exactly which item goes to which side.
A very old and simple two-sided table is a shop's cash register: money received on the left, money paid on the right.
| Receipts (Dr side) | Payments (Cr side) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Particulars | ₹ | Particulars | ₹ |
| Opening cash | 5,000 | Rent | 4,000 |
| Cash sales | 12,000 | Wages | 2,500 |
| Received from Verma | 3,000 | Cash purchases | 7,000 |
| Closing cash (balance) | 6,500 | ||
| Total | 20,000 | Total | 20,000 |
- Total of the receipts side = ₹5,000 + ₹12,000 + ₹3,000 = ₹20,000
- Total of the payments side (before balance) = ₹4,000 + ₹2,500 + ₹7,000 = ₹13,500
- Difference = ₹20,000 − ₹13,500 = ₹6,500. This cash is still in the drawer.
- Write ₹6,500 on the smaller side (payments) as "closing balance", so that both sides total ₹20,000.
Balancing figure = bigger side total − smaller side total. It is written on the smaller side, and then both sides show the same total.
Students often write the balance on the bigger side, which makes the difference double instead of zero. Remember: the balance goes where the money is less, to fill the gap.
In a two-sided account, the Dr side adds up to ₹48,500 and the Cr side to ₹36,200. What balancing figure must be written (in ₹), and on which side?
5. A first look at the journal's Dr and Cr columns
The journal, the first book of accounts, has amount columns side by side instead of two separate sides: a Dr (₹) column and a Cr (₹) column. Every transaction is written with an equal amount in both columns. Look at the shape; do not worry about the rules yet:
| Date | Particulars | L.F. | Dr (₹) | Cr (₹) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Apr 1 | Cash A/c Dr. | 2,00,000 | ||
| To Capital A/c | 2,00,000 | |||
| (Being business started with cash) |
How to read it: "On 1 April 2026, Cash Account is debited and Capital Account is credited with ₹2,00,000, because the owner started the business with cash." The line in brackets is the narration, a short explanation. L.F. means Ledger Folio, the page number of the ledger, filled later.
In every journal entry and in every trial balance: Total of Dr column = Total of Cr column. If your two columns do not match, something is wrong. This single check will save you many marks.
- The business made a profit of ₹900
- The business made a loss of ₹900
- There is an error somewhere in recording or adding
- Nothing, the two totals are never equal
📌 Points to remember (Quick Revision)
- Read the column headings first; check every total by adding twice.
- Tax invoice: Qty × Rate → gross → less trade discount → taxable value → add GST → invoice total.
- Passbook: withdrawals reduce, deposits increase the balance; "Cr" balance is from the bank's point of view.
- Two-sided tables: Dr = left, Cr = right; balancing figure = bigger total − smaller total, written on the smaller side.
- In the journal and trial balance, Dr total must always equal Cr total.
Pressing this saves your progress on this phone/computer.