Debit

In accounting, debit means the left column. It increases assets and expenses, and decreases liabilities, equity and revenue.

Layer: Lexicon
Defined in: Lexicon
Components: 3

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.

04Debits and creditsDebit means left and credit means right. Not good and bad, not plus and minus. Stop translating them into signs and everything else gets easier.8 min

Debit, in use

Quoted from the 11 documents that use the word — what it does to an interface, in the spec's own sentence.

Generic kits have no concept of a debit, a period that can be closed, an entry that must be reversed rather than deleted, an approval that binds to a version, or a balance that has to be supported by evidence.
Manifesto — The problem
Both incumbents blur debit/credit in places, and it costs users the ability to verify.
Product teardowns — Xero & QuickBooks
Debit and credit as two columns, with no single-column variant.
Standards and sources — Where we are opinionated rather than compliant

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.

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.

positive
plus
money in

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.