Credit
In accounting, credit means the right column. It increases liabilities, equity and revenue, and decreases assets and expenses.
- Layer
- Lexicon
- Defined in
- Lexicon
- Components
- 6
Not a rule
Bookkeeping convention — not codified. US GAAP governs recognition, measurement and presentation — not the mechanics a bookkeeper uses to get there. Anyone citing a standard for this word is citing the wrong thing.
Every citation in this system, with the text we read and the date we checked it, is in US GAAP and where these rules come from.
The lesson that teaches this
Accounting, 0 to 1 — a free course taught end to end on one month of one company, with the spreadsheet exercises to work it yourself.
Credit, in use
Quoted from the 20 documents that use the word — what it does to an interface, in the spec's own sentence.
A customer with a net credit (overpayment, unapplied cash) appears as a negative in the aging and should arguably be reclassified to a liability at period end.
Describes itself as "The only card, expense, accounting, and banking platform you'll ever need", lists Virtual Accounts for separate pools of money, and offers credit lines through partner lenders (slash.com, checked 2026-10-18).
Its hook is the credit column's curve rotated half a turn: the same outer radius, cut square, and it ends flush with the f's crossbar exactly as the mark's curve ends flush with its head rule.
For founders
The same idea written for a founder: what it costs a startup that ignores it, and what to do in a real month.
- General ledger and double-entry bookkeeping, explainedHow double entry works: journal entries, debits and credits, normal balances, running balances, the trial balance, and why posted entries are reversed.
- The R&D tax credit and Section 174A for startupsEngineering salaries can earn a federal R&D credit against payroll tax, and Section 174A lets you deduct US research again. What qualifies, what to track.
- Bad debt and write-offs: allowance vs direct methodHow to book a customer who won’t pay: the GAAP allowance under ASC 326, the direct write-off the IRS requires, and what to do if the money comes back.
What it is not called
Each of these is a real word for a different thing. Using it here is what makes a product read as though it was built by someone who has not done the work.
- negative
- minus
- money out
Components that render this
The concept is not documentation-only. These are the components that name it in their specification, grouped and stated exactly as the catalog states them.
Terms this one depends on
- RevenueInflows or other enhancements of assets, or settlements of liabilities, from delivering or producing goods, rendering services or carrying out other activities — recognized when control transfers, not when cash arrives
- EquityThe residual interest in the assets that remains after deducting liabilities (FASB CON 8 ¶E61)
Also in Foundations
Work with this concept
The calculators that compute it and the ledger payloads that carry it. A definition is where a reader starts; these are where they go next.
Defined in Lexicon. This page is generated from that document, so the two cannot disagree.