What does daybook mean?
A daybook is a book or register in which records are made on a daily basis as events occur. Its most established use is in accounting, where the daybook — also known as a journal or book of original entry — captures each day's transactions in chronological order before they are formally posted to a ledger. Beyond commerce, the word can describe any planner or notebook used to track daily appointments, tasks, or observations, a sense more common in British English. The term evokes an era of handwritten bookkeeping, giving it a slightly traditional flavour, though it survives in small businesses and among professionals who value a tangible daily record. Related terms include logbook and diary, but unlike a diary, which centres on personal reflection, a daybook emphasises systematic, transactional record-keeping — making it a useful, precise word for describing how businesses and individuals document their days.
nounA book or ledger in which daily transactions, appointments, or records of events are entered as they occur; in accounting, a journal of original entry recording day-to-day business dealings before they are posted to a formal ledger.
- A book in which daily records of business transactions are entered before transfer to a ledger (accounting).
- A personal or professional planner in which daily appointments, tasks, or notes are recorded.
"Every evening she updated her daybook with the day's sales and outstanding invoices."
"The accountant carefully copied each sale from the shopkeeper's daybook into the general ledger."
"He flipped through his daybook to confirm whether the meeting was scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday."
Standard pluralisation applies; 'daybooks' is typically used when referring to the records of multiple businesses or accounting periods.
"The archive holds the firm's surviving daybooks from the nineteenth century."
Long before spreadsheets existed, every merchant's fortune lived in one humble volume — the daybook, where each day's deals were scribbled down before being posted to the great ledger.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of daybook
Daybook is formed by straightforward English compounding: 'day' (from Old English dæg) joined to 'book' (from Old English bōc), producing a transparent compound that names exactly what it does — a book for each day's entries. The compound emerged in English during the early modern period as double-entry bookkeeping spread through European commerce, when merchants needed a chronological book of original entry distinct from their ledgers. It shares its building blocks with other everyday compounds like notebook and logbook rather than deriving from Latin or Greek roots.
How daybook is actually used
The term is chiefly associated with accounting and bookkeeping, where it denotes a book of original entry (also called a journal). It carries a somewhat traditional, old-fashioned connotation today, since most such records are kept digitally. In British usage it may also refer to an appointment diary.
Easily confused with daybook
A diary typically records personal reflections and experiences, while a daybook is primarily a business or professional record of daily transactions and appointments.
A ledger is the permanent, classified record of accounts, whereas a daybook is the preliminary journal where entries are first made before being posted to the ledger.