Accounting For Developers, Part I
Sometimes non-accounting people get hung-up on the words &quot;debit&quot; and &quot;credit&quot; and think they have to do with &quot;owing&quot; or &quot;being owed&quot; money. The effect of a debit or credit on the business depends on the accounts in the transaction and debit and credit don&#x27;t have anything to do with the &quot;direction&quot; of a flow of money.<p>My 100-level accounting instructor summarized it as: &quot;A debit is the entry in the left column, and a credit is an entry in the right column.&quot; Without the context of the specific accounts being debited or credited the terms themselves mean nothing.<p>Aside: A 100-level knowledge of accounting can confer near &quot;super powers&quot; when it comes to dealing with finance and accounting people. Double-entry bookkeeping is one of the oldest and longest-practiced &quot;IT&quot; disciplines. Your work probably touches revenue &#x2F; expenses for your employer and someday you&#x27;ll need to interface with accounting or finance people. Being able to speak the language, even poorly, has helped me gain trust and credibility that I don&#x27;t believe speaking only in IT terms would have.