FTB-C000701 / Financial concept

Double-entry bookkeeping

Double-entry bookkeeping records a transaction through equal debit and credit totals in the relevant accounting unit.

Also known asdouble-entry accounting

Foundation 3 linked topicsEvidence-reviewed

Definitions

In plain terms

Each transaction affects at least two account postings, so both sides of its accounting effect remain visible.

Technical

D30 validates complete journals with equal debit and credit minor-unit totals in one declared currency before accepting any leg.

Scope

Equality is a consistency check; it does not prove the economic event is valid.

Examples

  • A synthetic USD funding journal debits cash by 10,000 cents and credits a deposit liability by 10,000 cents.

Common misconceptions

  • Balanced entries can still use the wrong accounts or omit a whole transaction.

Concept relationships

Related

Required by

Where this concept is used

Evidence and governance

  1. Accounting Concepts, GnuCash v5 GnuCash project · first party technical publication

    Supports: preferred label, short definition, variant distinction

    Limits: Software teaching documentation; not an accounting standard or banking compliance opinion.

  2. D30 glossary teaching-profile scope, Batch 013 The Fintech Builder · internal governed contract

    Supports: technical definition

    Limits: No independent regulatory mandate, real-bank dataset, service execution, external witness or production assurance is claimed.

Reviewed by
fintech-builder-batch-013
Last reviewed
2026-10-27
Next review
2027-10-27
Record status
evidence reviewed

This record is evidence-reviewed and readable, but not yet promoted to published — it is served noindex,follow and excluded from the sitemap.

Written by

Fintech engineer building market-data and financial systems, and the author of every article, glossary record, and reference implementation on The Fintech Builder.