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The Kalamazoo system is fairly old and I haven't seen it in use for over ten years, but it still does apparently exist.
The system uses ledger cards, carbon paper and ledger sheets (although they may have found a way to avoid carbon paper).
You make an entry on the ledger card for sales and the resulting entries appear on the day books. The cards have sprocket holes down the left hand side, so the next card you use can be properly lined up for the next entry. The second card may for example have ten previous entries and the first only one so this helps alignment.
When you enter the sale you also enter the running balance on the card. At the end of the posting you add up all of the running balances on the cards and agree these with the day book. You then enter the sales total in the sales ledger control (and VAT if appropriate or discounts etc).
The same happens with purchases and of course your overheads (telephones etc) and capital accounts.
At the end of the day you should then be able to prepare your trial balance and at an appropriate time your accounts.
This is the system in its simplest form but in a way it really is just a paper based computer system with a bit (lot) of manual input.
They used to have a similar system which worked very well for payroll.
It is good to be able to keep your manual accounts skills up to date. My only concern would be that it may become more and more difficult to get stock of the stationery, maybe your prospective client as a stockpile they want to use up especially as you have had trouble finding the information.
Also a big problem is that people have a tendency to walk off with ledger cards especially if you are not there all the time.
The web site is http://www.kalamazoosecure.co.uk/hand_written_system_forms.aspx
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