Financial account

A financial account (or, simply, account; hereinafter, the Account) is an accounting device used in bookkeeping to record increases and decreases of business transactions relating to assets, liabilities, capital, withdrawals, revenue, and/or expenses. In other words, the Account is the concept that is used to record financial entries of a similar nature such as cash increases (debits) and decreases (credits) or, vice versa, accounts payable increases (credits) and decreases (debits).

Rules of debit and credit

Rules of debit and credit

Category	Type	Normal balance (or increase)	Decrease
Principal accounts	Assets	Debit	Credit
	Expenses
	Withdrawals
Auxiliary accounts	Liabilities	Credit	Debit
	Revenue
	Capital
Contra‑accounts	Any	Behave oppositely to their main counterparts

Main wikipage: Rules of debit and credit

• Principal accounts, which are assets, withdrawals, and expenses, are debited when they increase and credited when they decrease.
• Auxiliary accounts, which are liabilities, capital, and revenue, are debited when decrease and credited when they increase.

Chart of accounts

Main wikipage: Chart of accounts

Every organization can establish its own list of account titles, which is called the chart of accounts.