On 2023-01-12 09:41, R Losey wrote: > Thanks; I know the information is out there, but intuitively, it doesn't > make sense to me that depositing funds to my bank account is a "debit" > transaction to the bank. It comes from the concept of credit being "added > to" and debit being "substracted from", I suppose.
That principle is correct as far as it goes, but you are trying to stretch it too far. For liabilities, equity, and income, credits do indeed increase the balance and and debits decrease it. But it is exactly the opposite for assets and expenses: credits _reduce_ them and debits increase them. Here's how to remember it: if somebody gives you $50, you have income, which we all agree is a credit to your income account. But you have also increased your cash account by $50. But ... debits and credits in a transaction must balance, so that increase to cash must be a debit to balance the credit to your income account. > Is the "Debit on the left" and "Credit on the right" true in general > accounting, or just GnuCash? That's general. When Ernst & Ernst (as it then was) gave me a crash course in accounting, the instructor said that "debit" and "credit" are best thought of as meaning, respectively, simply "left" and "right". Stan Brown Tehachapi, CA, USA https://BrownMath.com _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
