Question

Describe the rules of debit and credit.
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Answer 1

Answer:

Debits and credits are the opposing sides of an accounting journal entry. ... Rule 1: All accounts that normally contain a debit balance will increase in amount when a debit (left column) is added to them, and reduced when a credit (right column) is added to them.

Answer 2

Rule 1: All accounts that normally contain a debit balance will increase in amount when a debit (left column) is added to them, and reduced when a credit (right column) is added to them. The types of accounts to which this rule applies are expenses, assets, and dividends.

Rule 2: All accounts that normally contain a credit balance will increase in amount when a credit (right column) is added to them, and reduced when a debit (left column) is added to them. The types of accounts to which this rule applies are liabilities, revenues, and equity.

Rule 3: Contra accounts reduce the balances of the accounts with which they are paired. This means that (for example) a contra account paired with an asset account behaves as though it were a liability account.

Rule 4: The total amount of debits must equal the total amount of credits in a transaction. Otherwise, a transaction is said to be unbalanced, and the financial statements from which a transaction is constructed will be inherently incorrect. An accounting software package will flag any journal entries that are unbalanced, so that they cannot be entered into the system until they have been corrected.