Understanding the difference between Credits and Debits

Accounting Theory

This article will help you understand an important distinction in accounting and bookkeeping- the difference between a credit and debit.

When you deposit money in the bank, the cashier will tell you "I'll credit your account." From that experience, most people assume that cash is a credit, and so credits are good. That is further reinforced when reductions in the accounts are referred to as debits. Besides, if you remove the "i" from debit, you get "debt." So, debits are bad.

Unfortunately, the conditioning we receive at the bank is causing real confusion in the accounting class. Why? Because in accounting we understand that the bank account is a debit account, and that debts are credit accounts - the opposite of what most people expect.

In fact, debits and credits are neither good nor bad. Each transaction, whether it be a good transaction (deposits), or a bad transaction (bills) has both a debit and an equal credit. That's why they call it "double-entry accounting." When the cashier is telling you he or she will "credit your account", they are also entering a debit for the same amount that they are not telling you about. The same is true for the debits to your account - there is also a credit being made at the same time.

I find the best way to understand debits and credits is to identify two components of each transaction: 1) what did you get; and, 2) where did it come from. The debit is what you got, and the credit is the source of the item you received. For instance, let's imagine that you purchase a computer with your credit card. Since the computer is what you received it's going to result in a debit to the asset account for your computer. The credit will be applied to the credit card liability account for the same amount.

The banks tend to confuse us because they are telling us the entry to their liability account. When you deposit money in the bank, their liability to you increases. Since liabilities are credit accounts they are crediting our account. When they reduce their liability to us, they are debiting their liability account.

So, if you can identify what you received and where it came from in every transaction you have debits and credits mastered.

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