What Is Double-Entry Accounting?

The company’s Cash account must be increased by $10,000 and a liability account must be increased by $10,000. Hence, the account Cash will be debited for $10,000 and the liability Loans Payable will be credited for $10,000. Double-entry bookkeeping is usually done using accounting software. The software lets a business create custom accounts, like a “technology expense” account to record purchases of computers, printers, cell phones, etc.

This then gives you and your investors or bank manager a good picture of the financial health of your business. Even the smallest business can benefit from double-entry accounting. All popular bookkeeping for startups accounting software applications today use double-entry accounting, and they make it easy for you to get started, allowing you to get your business up and running in an hour or less.

Double-entry accounting software

In reality, even a small business may identify a hundred or more such accounts for its accounting system, while a large company may use many thousands. Nevertheless, for bookkeeping and accounting purposes, all named accounts fall into one of the five categories above (see Chart of accounts, below). A mismatch in these two totals signals that the accounts have a bookkeeping or accounting error. The choice also impacts the firm’s ability to track and manage assets, debts, and owner’s equity. To account for this expense claim, five individual accounts would be debited with a total of $6,499. The double-entry system is superior to a single-entry system of accounting.

With complete financial statements, it is much easier for a business to convince investors to invest money in it. The chart of accounts is a different category group for the financial transactions in your business and is used to generate financial statements. Accounting software usually produces several different types of financial and accounting reports in addition to the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows. A commonly used report, called the “trial balance,” lists every account in the general ledger that has any activity.

What does double entry mean?

Exhibit 1 summarizes debit and credit conventions for the five account types. Every profit-making company in business sets up an accounting system to manage and track of its assets, liabilities, equities, revenues, and expenses. The accounting system also serves as the data source for the financial reports the company must file periodically.

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