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 related to Assets, Liabilities, Owner's Capital, Owner's Withdrawals, Fiscal 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 at Bank increases (is debited) and decreases (is credited) or, vice versa, Accounts Payable increases (is credited) and decreases (is debited).

Definitions

According to College Accounting: A Practical Approach by Slater (13th edition)‎,

Account. An accounting device used in bookkeeping to record increases and decreases of business transactions relating to individual assets, liabilities, capital, Owner's Withdrawals, revenue, expenses, and so on.

Journalizing

Main wikipage: Journalizing

Rules of debit and credit

Rules of debit and credit

Category	Type	Increase *	Decrease
Asset-origin accounts	Assets **	Debit	Credit
	Expenses **
	Owner's Withdrawals
Equity-origin accounts	Liabilities **	Credit	Debit
	Fiscal Revenue **
	Owner's Capital
* Besides Income Summary, increase represents normal balance ** Adjusting accounts behave oppositely to the Accounts that they adjust

Main wikipage: Rules of debit and credit

• Asset-origin accounts, which include Assets, Owner's Withdrawals, and Expenses, are debited when they increase and credited when they decrease.
• Equity-origin accounts, which are Liabilities, Owner's Capital, and Fiscal Revenue, are debited when decrease and credited when they increase.

Adjusting accounts

Main wikipage: Adjusting account

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.

Related concepts

• Bookkeeping. Recording, filing, and retrieving of financial data, as well as producing those financial reports that are required by laws.

Related coursework

• Bookkeeping Quarter.