Since the rent benefits the entire year, it's treated as a prepaid expense (b). Option (c) wouldn't capture the full cost upfront. The answer depends on the company's policy (d) for handling prepaid expenses. Some companies might choose to record monthly rent expense based on an accrual basis.

A balanced trial balance (a) only indicates equal total debits and credits. Transposition errors (e.g., $125 instead of $251) or recording an expense as an asset with the same amount wouldn't affect the balance (b).

Special journals like sales and purchases journals (b) group similar transactions, reducing repetitive entries and saving time. This is particularly beneficial for companies with high transaction volumes.

egregation of duties (b) ensures the purchasing department raises a purchase order, which the accounting department uses to record the inventory purchase. This prevents the accidental recording of the purchase as an expense. While bank reconciliations (a) and general ledger reviews (d) are important controls, they might not catch this specific error.

While the chronological journal captures transactions in real-time, it's not a mandatory step. Transactions can be directly recorded in the general journal with proper explanations.