Comment by pas

> accounting a solved problem but apparently not.

well, it is if you do it on books, not in natural language.

since it looks deceptively simple everyone throws around sentences that are screaming for mandatory context.

the whole GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) (and certs like CFA too) are about codifying this context.

what goes where is the name of the game. can you consider this or that an asset or not? is that an expense or you got credit from your vendor, because they shipped it before you paid it? which quarter does it belong to if they shipped it before new year's eve but we only pay it next financial year? etc... etc...

that said accounting is not a mechanical system. there are quite a lot of degrees of freedom ... but there are of course clearly wrong ways to do it ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_accounting )

oh, and when someone says debit/credit just use a spray bottle on them and ask them to simply state clearly what happens with the fucking number on which of your accounts, does it increase or decrease. (ie. they should just say that the money goes from this account to that account, and suddenly there's no ambiguity.)