Comment by inopinatus
1 year ago
There are not "parties" in an DE transaction.
The legal entity or entities involved - if any - would be described in the linked commercial document that explains the transaction, and the chart of accounts that describes the meaning of each account code.
There is no requirement for a transaction to have exactly two entries. The term "double-entry" is slightly misleading; it is only trying to express that both sides of the accounting equation are equal. When recording a sale, for example, it is more likely that three or more entries are journaled, due to the additional coded entries for sales tax, and those produced for separate line items for each SKU, shipping etc.
A better phrase is "two-sided accounting", which is also used, but less commonly than "double-entry".
I see, and would that transaction get four entries (two for the money, two for the tax), or three (two for the money, one for the tax)?
Neither of those cases precisely. The vendor's transaction record for such a sale would include a debit to cash, a credit to revenue, and a credit to sales tax liability.
The total amount of the credits would equal the cash debit.
Our prof repeated always (literally translated to EN):
"For every debit there must be a credit"
or
"Every transaction has two sides"
That’s more than a little reductive but I imagine your professor was hoping that at least the motivating concepts of two-sided accounting would seep in.