A bookkeeper reviews source documents—like receipts, invoices, and bank statements—and uses those documents to post accounting transactions. If a business ships a product to a customer, for example, the bookkeeper will use the customer invoice to record revenue for the sale and to post an accounts receivable entry for the amount owed. Double-entry accounting is the standardized method of recording every financial transaction in two different accounts. For each credit entered into a ledger there must also be a corresponding (and equal) debit. For instance, if a business takes a loan from a financial entity like a bank, the borrowed money will raise the company’s assets and the loan liability will also rise by an equivalent amount. If a business buys raw materials by paying cash, it will lead to an increase in the inventory (asset) while reducing cash capital (another asset).

Double-entry bookkeeping, also known as double-entry accounting, is a method of bookkeeping that relies on a two-sided accounting entry to maintain financial information. Every entry to an account requires a corresponding and opposite entry to a different account. The double-entry system has two equal and corresponding sides known as debit and credit.

Why is double-entry bookkeeping important?

But a few months later when the memory of the transaction fades, you may ask where the money came from, whether you borrowed it, or sold something for cash. It can take decades of study to thoroughly understand the inner workings of the different financial systems and regulations. However, one accounting system that offers a straightforward approach to financial record keeping is the double-entry system. Unlike the double-entry method, single-entry bookkeeping requires you to make one entry per financial transaction. You simply keep a running list of everything you spend and everything you earn. That’s it—each financial transaction has just one line, and you don’t make multiple entries in multiple accounts.

In general terms, it is a business interaction between economic entities, such as customers and businesses or vendors and businesses. Single-entry bookkeeping is a simple and straightforward method of bookkeeping in which each transaction is recorded as a single-entry in a journal. This is a cash-based bookkeeping method that tracks incoming marginal cost formula and outgoing cash in a journal. After the trial balance is completed, financial statements are prepared including an Income Statement and a Balance Sheet. These can be done once a month to help the business owner see how their business is performing. That would be called single-entry bookkeeping, which only records cash transactions.

• Business owners who have previously operated on a single entry accounting system will want to make the switch to a double entry accounting system as soon as possible.
• Because the double-entry system is more complete and transparent, anyone considering giving your business money will be a lot more likely to do so if you use this system.
• Assets (the inventory account) increase by $1,000 and liabilities (accounts payable) increase by $1,000.
• The accounting equation forms the foundation of double-entry accounting and is a concise representation of a concept that expands into the complex, expanded, and multi-item display of the balance sheet.
• Regardless of which accounts and how many are involved by a given transaction, the fundamental accounting equation of assets equal liabilities plus equity will hold.

The two rules of double-entry accounting refer to the systematic recording of transactions using debits and credits. For every transaction completed in your business, you must debit one account and credit another for the same amount. The cash balance declines as a result of paying the commission, which also eliminates the liability. The reason your debit card is called a debit card is because the bank shows your balance as a liability because they owe your money to you—in essence, they are just holding it for you. Recording every financial transaction twice sounds daunting at best, especially if you’ve never dealt with small-business accounting before—but you don’t have to tackle double-entry bookkeeping on your own. Your accountant or bookkeeper can talk you through it and handle the trickiest details themselves, or you can use accounting software that makes balancing your books as painless as possible.

Examples of Double-Entry Bookkeeping

If your answer to any of these questions is yes, you should seriously consider using the double-entry bookkeeping method for your business. Because the accounts are set up to check each transaction to be sure it balances out, errors will be flagged to accountants quickly, before the error produces subsequent errors in a domino effect. Additionally, the nature of the account structure makes it easier to trace back through entries to find out where an error originated. As a company’s business grows, the likelihood of clerical errors increases.

Use accounting software

The closest example of this basic accounting is the bank account ledger you use to keep track of your spending. Double entry bookkeeping can appear complicated at first, but it’s easy to understand and use once the basic concepts have been learned. The inventor of double entry bookkeeping is not known with certainty and is frequently attributed to either Amatino Manucci, a Florentine merchant, or Luca Pacioli, a Venetian friar. Let’s look at the equation in the context of the aforementioned print ad example.

Meeting these requirements will result in the accounting or bookkeeping equation being in balance at all times. It’s possible to manually create multiple ledger accounts, but if you’re making the move to double-entry accounting, you’ll likely want to make the switch to accounting software, too. As you can see, the entire accounting process starts with double entry bookkeeping.

You simultaneously increase (debit) your cash assets because you have more cash to spend in the present. Businesses that meet any of these criteria need the complete financial picture double-entry bookkeeping delivers. This is because double-entry accounting can generate a variety of crucial financial reports like a balance sheet and income statement. When all the accounts in a company’s books have been balanced, the result is a zero balance in each account. Bookkeeping and accounting are ways of measuring, recording, and communicating a firm’s financial information. A business transaction is an economic event that is recorded for accounting/bookkeeping purposes.

What is the Purpose of Double-Entry Accounting?

A given company can add accounts and tailor them to more specifically reflect the company’s operations, accounting, and reporting needs. For assets and expenses a debit entry indicates an increase in the account balance,, and credit entries indicate an increase in account balance for revenue. Single entry bookkeeping is much like the running total of a current account. You see a list of deposits, a list of purchases, and the difference between the two equals the cash on hand. For very small businesses with only a handful of transactions, single entry bookkeeping can be sufficient for their accounting needs.

What Is Double-Entry Bookkeeping? A Simple Guide for Small Businesses

Even if your knowledge of accounting doesn’t extend beyond Accounting 101, you’ll find most accounting software applications easy to use. If you’ve previously used a single entry accounting system, you may be wondering how to go about switching to a double entry system. Most modern accounting software has double entry concepts already built-in. Yes, the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) requires that businesses use double-entry bookkeeping in recording financial transactions. It is recommended to use a double-entry bookkeeping system because it allows for checks and balances on all transactions and the overall financial statement. This ensures that all financial statements are in good order and it can also help detect and prevent fraud within the business.

How Do You Start Double-Entry Bookkeeping?

Bookkeeping can help you prepare a budget, check for tax compliance, evaluate your business performance and help you with decision-making. We bet you have thought about getting all of these operations in place for your business. The key feature of this system is that the debits and credits should always match for error-free transactions. Learning this simple equation by heart can help a bookkeeper to remember the rules of debits and credits.