The basic principles in developing an accounting information system are cost-effectiveness, useful output, and flexibility. Flexibility (the ability to accommodate a variety of users and changing information needs) is not important in designing and developing an efficient and effective accounting information system. The sales journal is used to record all sales of merchandise. An advantage of using subsidiary ledgers is that they show transactions affecting one customer or one creditor in a single account, providing up-to-date information on specific account balances. In posting a multi-column journal, the total of the Other Accounts column is not posted. Each entry in the single-column purchases journal results in a debit to Inventory and a credit to Accounts Payable. Only transactions that cannot be entered in a special journal are recorded in the general journal. Companies record all receipts of cash in the cash receipts journal. The purchases journal is used to record all purchases of merchandise. When control and subsidiary accounts are involved, there must be a dual posting: once to 10. tha contral account and nnce to the cuhcidias arrnunt