Talk:Debits and credits

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Q1: Does the article reverse the meanings of debit and credit?

A1: Please point out any specific passage where the terms seem to be reversed. If your concern is based on your experience with account records from counterparties, such as bank or billing statements, note that those records use the terms from the counterparty's perspective rather than yours.

This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

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"For simplicity it is often best to view Debits as positive numbers and Credits as negative numbers."[edit]

What? The terms debit and credit mean left and right, respectively, nothing more. Alone, they don't tell you if the change is good or bad for the company, or if there is an increase or decrease in the balance of an account.

Needs Cleanup[edit]

The same information / table is repeated several times. I am not an expert, so can't do the clean-up myself, but it is definitely needed.Wapall (talk) 06:17, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Debits and credits - a way keep debits and credits straight.[edit]

Every transaction passes value between two parties. If a supplier sends our company 30 widgets on credit, the supplier as the source of value has his account credited. The company's widget account is debited as the destination/receiver of widgets (value). If later the company pays cash to the supplier in payment, it passes value to the supplier in that transaction. The source/giver of value in the transaction is credited and so the company's cash a/c is credited with the payment. The destination/receiver of the value is debited and so the supplier's account is debited. Imagine an arrow lying across the accounts from right to left, from credit to debit. The arrow points from the source to the destination of the value passed in the transaction. (Of course the debit and credit will be entered in different accounts, e.g., credit to cash and debit to the person paid, or credit to supplier and debit to widget a/c.)

                      Debit            |     Credit
                      _________________|____________
                                       |
                                       | 
                 destination  <------value---------<< source 
                                       |
                                       |

Stikko (talk) 20:57, 21 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that it's a helpful explanation, and it's the one given in the opening paragraph. 67.180.143.89 (talk) 21:09, 22 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I think the picture would help some people. Stikko (talk) 22:19, 31 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Agree with the picture helping.Wapall (talk) 06:14, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

In double entry bookkeeping there are two accounts involved in each ledger transaction.

  Debit            |     Credit
  ______|__________|____________
        |          |
       value 
        |
        V  
  destination

Debit              |     Credit
  _________________|_________^___
                   |         | 
                   |         |
                   |      value
                   | 
                   |      source 
                   |
                   |

The source of value is on the credit side and the balancing value received is on the debit side. In the picture the value is shown as leaving the credit side upwards and entering the debit side on the balancing account downwards. Stikko (talk) 21:22, 13 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Debite or credit[edit]

I know about which thing does debited or credited 103.103.57.210 (talk) 17:05, 3 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]