update suggestion for documentation and use of credit/debit &increase/decrease

[Perry Smith]

I am not sure if you want to get into all of this.  But on a slightly 
off the topic suggestion, you could "reuse" what is already out on the 
web.  I did a few google searchs and found:

http://www.quickmba.com/accounting/fin/equation/

The reason I hit that is because, to me, everything is a confused 
muddle until the fundamental account equation is written out and 
explained.  After that, I can slowly but successfully figure out the 
credits and debits stuff.

I think "from the bank's perspective" may be vaguely true but it only 
increases frustration.  Laying out the "resources and the claims 
against the resources", to me at least, better explains why debit 
accounts exist.

So, basically my suggestion is to either start with the accounting 
equation and work from there or not attack the subject at all and just 
point to some good places on the web with a comment like "for those who 
are brave and curious".

On Aug 11, 2004, at 3:53 PM, Herbert Thoma wrote:

> Jon Lapham schrieb:
> < ... >
>> Thus, money deposited into your personal savings account (an asset
>> account from your perspective) goes in the debit column because the
>> account is considered a liability from the bank's perspective.  Wow.
>>
>> Do we really want to get into all of this?  I imagine this confusion 
>> is
>> the reason why the "credit" and "debit" column of GnuCash have all 
>> been
>> renamed (ie: renamed to "Deposit" and "Withdrawal" for a savings 
>> account).
>
> Well, there is an option "Use accounting labels" under
> edit->preferences->accounts. If you select this option then
> you get "credit" and "debit" everywhere for the professional
> accountant. If you don't select the option then you get
> the more common column lables ...
>
>  Herbert.
>
>> --
>> -**-*-*---*-*---*-*---*-----*-*-----*---*-*---*-----*-----*-*-----*---
>>   Jon Lapham  <lapham at jandr.org>                Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
>>   Personal: http://www.jandr.org/
>> ***-*--*----*-------*------------*--------------------*---------------
>>
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