 Hello, in this discussion, we will discuss the discussion question of describe source documents. If given the essay question of describe source documents, then we might want to start first by trying to define what those source documents are and then possibly expand on what source documents are in terms of giving the purpose for source documents and saying how they would apply to and fit within the financial statement or financial accounting process. So source documents, when we're thinking about the creation of the financial statements, when we're thinking about building financial statements, when we're thinking about the accounting department entering transactions into the system recording data, then they are typically going to get that data or know that data needs to be recorded from source documents. Source documents could include things like checks and invoices, we've got sales receipts, we've got credit card statements, bank statements, these are all types of things that could be indications that a transaction has happened. Now note that if we're talking about the creation of the transaction, then the source document might be something like a bill or an invoice that would trigger the transaction. The source documents can also be used, however, from more of a kind of an audit perspective to give evidence as to whether or not the transaction has actually taken place. The source document can provide the proof of the transaction or the event that has occurred that has been recorded by the financial accounting. So in essence, when we're thinking about the financial transactions that we have, the journal entries that we are going to be recording in the general journal, one, those need to be triggered by some event. We have to know what point in time that these need to be posted, and we need to have some kind of system that's going to post those in the proper time period, according to the accrual principle, according to the revenue recognition principle and the matching or expense recognition principle. One way to do that is to kind of use the source documents as the driving tools. For example, when the invoice is often going to be something that's going to give us the driving factor, usually going to be close to the point in time that we did work. And therefore, that is often going to be the source document that actually generates or tells us when to record the journal entry related to the recording of revenue. If we have an automated system, that document, that invoice, that source document is going to be the document that will typically often actually generate the journal entry, generate the transaction within the accounting system. If we're looking at a bill or something like that on the other side of things, when we actually receive the bill, that's often going to be that source document that we're going to use in order to be the evidence or be the trigger for us to know that we then need to record something within our documentation. Obviously, once we then record the transaction, we might record something such as cash going out if we're paying a bill. And then we have source documents such as a bank statement. If we bought, if we pay something on credit, the source document will be a credit card. And note that in these cases, we have some types of source documents that are providing evidence that may not be the triggering factor, may not be the indication, may not be the thing that tells us that we need to create the financial statement, but still is proof that a financial statement is there so that we can think of that almost as looking back in an audit process, something like a bank statement. We typically don't record our journal entries. We could, we could wait till the end of the month, get the bank statement and record our journal entries for that month in relation to the bank statement. But a more advanced accounting system would be recording those journal entries as we go and using the bank statement to verify or check that our recording process is happening properly. So in that case, under those circumstances, we can think of the source document, the bank statement as something that's kind of verifying or giving us a check or a backup that we are recording things correctly. But they're still, they're still giving us evidence as to those transactions that we are recording. So in summary, the source documents are going to give us some verification. They're going to give us some backup, some proof as to the financial transactions, the journal entries that we are recording, the data, the financial data that we are compiling, ultimately creating financial statements from them. Many of those source documents are going to be things that are actually going to help us to trigger in our accounting system when we are recording certain things, meaning the source document will be the thing that drives us to actually record the journal entry or actually be the thing that our system is using to record a journal entry. So for example, if we wrote a check, an accounting system will typically use that process to record the proper accounts. If we record an invoice, the accounting system will use that process to record the event. If we're using a general journal to record those transactions, then those source documents will still tell us when the point in time that we should be recording those. We also note that have those source documents that may not be triggering the event in that they may not be the thing driving when we record something, but they're still going to give proof as to the financial transactions, as to the actual occurrence of a financial transaction that merits or needs to be compiled into the financial statements, those things being like the bank statement.