Double-entry
In accounting, double-entry means recording every transaction as equal debits and credits, so the ledger proves itself.
- Layer
- Lexicon
- Defined in
- Lexicon
- Components
- 1
Not a rule
Convention; the Codification governs recognition. 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 lessons that teach 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.
- 01Why the books existBookkeeping is not record-keeping for its own sake. It is a system built so that an error announces itself and every figure traces back to an event.7 min
- 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
Double-entry, in use
Quoted from the 6 documents that use the word — what it does to an interface, in the spec's own sentence.
Double-entry, normal balances, period states, and immutability are load-bearing.
Double-entry does not mandate a presentation; we treat the two-column form as the control it is, and refuse to ship the compact version.
Standards and sources — Where we are opinionated rather than compliant
Debit and credit as two separate columns, never one signed column — collapsing them destroys the reader's ability to verify, which is the entire purpose of double-entry.
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.
- two-sided
- balanced accounting
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.
Components that render the terms it depends on
Little in the catalog names this concept outright, but its definition is built out of others that are named. These render transaction.
1Primitives
Family spec2Cards
Family spec- TransactionTableThe workhorse. Virtualized, sticky, priority-collapsing.
- TransactionCardThe mobile re-rank.
- TransactionDetailFull detail sheet with attachments and audit trail.
- TransactionRowDesktop row.Spec
- BulkActionBarSelection count + actions, safe-area aware.
- CategoryPickerHierarchical with rule creation.
- ColumnHeaderThe sortable, draggable header cell.
- ExportMenuCSV/XLSX/PDF with a stated scope.
- TableColumnsSort and resize for a table that renders on the server.
11Payables (AP)
Family specTerms this one depends on
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.