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Comment by omichowdhury

2 years ago

Nope, in these examples the +Asset on the left means you received say cash. The right side shows various ways to balance that out based on the accounting equation

I did an explanation with numbers here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40021506

> in these examples the +Asset on the left means you received say cash.

Ah. So... where is the value of the lemonade before you sold it? Wasn't that an asset before you sold it?

  • I guess technically this would be selling a service instead of a good.

    I was going through the 4 combinations of balanced two-line entries, based on the accounting equation, to show how it helps when thinking through how to record something.

    If you get into more than two lines, then yup selling a good would be

      +Asset -Asset +Income
    

    or if you include sales tax and son shipping costs:

      +Asset -Asset +Liability +Income +Expense
    

    Using an updated accounting equation and negative numbers is a lot more intuitive than credits and debits. In this larger example it tells you:

      Cash Asset - COGS Asset - Tax Liability = Sales Income - Shipping Expense
    
    

    It tells you what types of accounts balance, with a syntax that matches your intuitions: more asset = good, less asset = bad, more expense = bad, less expense = good.

    • > I guess technically this would be selling a service instead of a good.

      LAAS!

      Sorry, no, lemonade is not a service. It is true that you are adding value by turning lemons into lemonade, but that's not what you're selling. You're selling the lemonade. LAAS would be turning someone else's lemons into lemonade for them, but a typical lemonade manufacturer owns their raw materials.

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