National and State laws vary as to the proportion of capital stock which must be paid in before commercial banks may open their doors for business. All require that part be paid in before opening. The general ledger entries, showing the payment by stockholders for the capital stock they have subscribed for, are as follows:

Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is the amount of the capital stock of the imaginary bank with which we are dealing. If only 50% of the capital stock is paid in before the opening of business, the entries would be:

The entry required to record the receipt of cash for half of this would be:

Auxiliary Records Of Capital Stock

The more important auxiliary records are the stock ledger and the stock certificate book. The stock ledger is a book showing each stockholder's holdings. Columns are provided for increase and decrease, that is, credit and debit, just as for other accounts. A common form of ledger is the following:

Each stockholder is credited with the amount of stock he has subscribed for, so that the total of all of the stockholders' holdings should equal the capital stock account on the general ledger. There might be a subscription ledger also, showing the amount due from each stockholder on his subscription.

The Stock Certificate Book

This record, which is similar to that of a certificate of deposit book, contains the stubs of all stock certificates issued and also the supply of blank certificates not yet issued. Both the stubs and certificate proper would contain among other things the following: (1) Date issued; (2) Certificate number; (3) To whom issued; (4) Number of shares; and (5) Name of the bank. The cancelled certificates should be attached to the stubs. A certificate may be issued for any number of shares, and the total shares represented by the outstanding certificates should equal the par value of the capital stock.