Accounting 101 Debit -vs- Credit
Matt Armstrong
matt@lickey.com
Thu, 18 Jul 2002 00:26:16 -0600
I've turned "Use accounting labels" on because I was getting confused
when the informal synonyms used in GnuCash kept changing depending on
the account I was in.
Anyway, the terms seem to be used the exact opposite of what I would
expect.
Account:Liquid:Savings debit $0.14
Income:Interest credit $0.14
I would expect interest income to credit my Savings account, since the
balance increases. I suppose this comes from my ATM Debit card, where
I use it to withdraw money. So I think of debit as "withdraw."
Can someone with accounting knowledge explain to me the accounting
definitions of debit/credit? The dictionary was no help.