3 ms·

Ledger kind of side steps this "debit" and "credit" issue by just using positive and negative numbers to add to or subtract from a particular account. If you g

• faustlast 3y ago
  Well, income getting the negative number only makes sense if you know that it is a credit account that increases with credit.
  • beej71 3y ago
    In the case of Ledger, it also makes sense because -1000 + 1000 = 0.
• lrasinen 3y ago
  I do wish accounting practice would finally accept the mathematical advancements of the last 500 years and start using negative numbers. Combined with the "transactions sum to zero" rule it makes things blindingly obvious. Background: I studied the basics of accounting on 8th and 9th grade, and acted as a treasurer or auditor in some university student associations. I accepted the traditional presentation as a given; "it'll make sense in the end". Then I learned the negative number thing and the sums-to-zero concept and suddenly it was completely clear what was happening. Ledger manual's "Principles of Accounting with Ledger" was where this finally kicked in. https://ledger-cli.org/doc/ledger3.html#Principles-of-Accounting-with-Ledger https://ledger-cli.org/doc/ledger3.html#Principles-of-Accoun...
• simonmic 3y ago
  Right. From a recent https://fosstodon.org/tags/plaintextaccounting https://fosstodon.org/tags/plaintextaccounting thread: PTA sign convention makes it very straightforward: If the posting amount is negative it's a credit If the posting amount is positive it's a debit. I use this mnemonic: debit / to / plus / left / short words credit / from / minus / right / longer words