Double-entry bookkeeping


Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Legal, Wikipedia.
Related to Double-entry bookkeeping: Book keeping

Double-entry bookkeeping

Accounting method that records each transaction as both a credit and a debit in different accounts.

Double-Entry Bookkeeping

A system of accounting where every transaction is recorded as a debit to one account and a credit to another. That is, one who uses a double-entry bookkeeping system records each transaction twice, such that each credit (representing revenue) is recorded as a credit to one's capital account and as a debit on one's bank account. For example, if a company sells a product for $100, it adds $100 to its capital account and subtracts $100 to its bank account. One way of conceptualizing the bank account is from the bank's perspective: the debits are debits because any asset in a bank account represents a liability for the bank; this is why they are subtracted instead of added. However, the data are recorded twice to prevent errors in bookkeeping: the total debits and credits recorded should add to zero.
Mentioned in ?
References in periodicals archive ?
Methods and Early Evidence of Double-Entry Bookkeeping
Accounting and the Auditing Function in Economic History: Transaction Costs, Trust, and Economic Progress
The leap from a famous fifteenth-century treatise on double-entry bookkeeping to the modern world sees the extension of "accounting" to include economics and the environment.
Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Created Modern Finance
In pace with the emergence of Western-style manufacturing and commercial operations, Western accounting (featuring double-entry bookkeeping) was introduced and expanded in China from the early twentieth century [Lin, 1992; Chen, 1998; Auyeung et al.
Historical evolution of the balance sheet in the People's Republic of China
The lecturer--who was very engaging--happened to mention the word Venice in association with the origin of double-entry bookkeeping and some illustrious person called Luca Pacioli who had published a book on the subject in Venice.
Double entry book keeping: a conversation
KIMURA, Wasaburo (1975) "Double-Entry Bookkeeping and Business Bookkeeping." Osamu KOJIMA (ed.) Historical Studies of Double Entry.
Las relaciones causales reciprocas del binomio Partida Doble-desarrollo de Occidente: La Teneduria de Libros de los mercaderes medievales
Not only does bookkeeping constitute a "branch" of accounting, but our system of double-entry bookkeeping undergirds modern financial accounting.
Non-CPA firm subject to PSC rate
In the 12th century, Greif tells us, the Genoese "ceased to use the ancient custom of entering contracts by a handshake and developed an extensive legal system for registering and enforcing contracts." This extensive legal system also included bills of lading and, in time, double-entry bookkeeping. Greif argues that these Genoese legal innovations made the rising city-state integral to commerce.
Trading on reputation: stateless justice in the Medieval Mediterranean
Fourteenth century Italian merchants are credited with developing double-entry bookkeeping, the system of recording each business transaction twice that's still used today.
XBRL GL: the general ledger gets its groove
"Accounting," Richardson argues, "in some sense, is just accounting: double-entry bookkeeping. What has changed are the transactions." However, he notes, "In an introductory class, you can't delve into complex derivatives because the students haven't been exposed to them yet.
Is accounting education relevant? Many are questioning the quality--not to mention the quantity--of accounting graduates and their abilities to handle the onslaught of complex transactions and technical regulations. Are the schools--and the students--preparing for accounting in the "real world?"
"We just came out with a new self-study course that teaches double-entry bookkeeping in around two hours (one sitting)," Sahlein said.
Newsletter veterans successful in switching from subscriber base to membership program
Venkatrathnam guide readers through the concepts and processes that every bookkeeper needs to know, including: single-vs double-entry bookkeeping, cash- vs accrual-basis accounting, posting financial transactions, keeping a "paper trail" of source documents, preparing a trial balance, creating financial statements, establishing internal controls, preparing for the annual audit, and closing out the fiscal year.
Bookkeeping text for nonprofits. (Product Watch)
Iraq, which is more or less equivalent to the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that was ancient Mesopotamia, is viewed by scholars as the cradle of Western civilization: site of the biblical Garden of Eden and seedbed of the cultures that gave the Western world its first cities, writing systems, libraries, legal codes, coins, calendars, double-entry bookkeeping and farming techniques, among many other things.
Japanese editorial excerpts

Financial browser ?
Full browser ?