| A | B |
|---|
| Account | Record within an accounting system in which increases and decreases in a specific asset, liability, equity, revenue, or expense are entered and stored. |
| Account balance | Difference in an account between total debits and total credits (including the beginning balance). |
| Balance column account | Account with debit and credit columns for recording entries and another column for showing the balance of the account after each entry. |
| Chart of accounts | List of accounts used by a company; includes an identification number for each account. |
| Common stock | Corporation's basic ownership share; also generically called capital stock. |
| Compound journal entry | Journal entry that affects at least three accounts. |
| Credit | Recorded on the right side; an entry that decreases asset and expense accounts, and increases liability, equity, and revenue accounts; abbreviated Cr. |
| Creditors | Individuals or organizations entitled to receive payments. |
| Debit | Recorded on the left side; an entry that increases asset and expense accounts, and decreases liability, equity, and revenue accounts; abbreviated Dr. |
| Debt ratio | Ratio of total liabilities to total assets; used to reflect risk associated with a company's debts. |
| Dividends | Corporation's distributions of assets to its owners. |
| Double-entry accounting | Accounting system in which each transaction affects at least two accounts and has at least one debit and one credit. |
| General journal | All-purpose journal for recording the debits and credits of transactions and events. |
| Journal | Record in which transactions are entered before they are posted to ledger accounts; also called book of original entry. |
| Journalizing | Process of recording transactions in a journal. |
| Ledger | Record containing all accounts (with amounts) for a business; also called general ledger. |
| Posting | Process of transferring journal entry information to the ledger. |
| Posting reference (PR) column | A column in journals in which individual ledger account numbers are entered when entries are posted to those ledger accounts. |
| Source documents | Source of information for accounting entries that can be in either paper or electronic form; also called business papers. |
| T-account | Tool used to show the effects of transactions and events on individual accounts. |
| Trial balance | List of accounts and their balances at a point in time prior to financial statement preparation; total debit balances equal total credit balances. |
| Unearned Revenue | Liability created when customers pay in advance for products or services; earned when the products or services are later delivered. |
