Comment by nonethewiser
4 hours ago
What did you find hard to understand about double entry accounting? Seems pretty straightforward. Every transaction affects at least two accounts, and the total debits must equal the total credits. I can't imagine how introducing graph theory simplifies it, although I trust there are interesting insights none-the-less.
I think it explains the "why" of double entry accounting. Since it is used to track flows of money, a graph representation is a natural representation (just not the only one and not necessarily the most useful for day to day operations).
That core idea is simple. But the details, such as credit and debit having the opposite meaning to casual bank account accounting, and the use of a variety of accounts makes things not intuitive.