Double-entry Accounting Made Easy!
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T-Accounts Cheat Sheet [Essential Desktop Guide]
T-Accounts are a visual representation of the fundamental concepts of double-entry accounting. If you're a bookkeeper or controller, you're no stranger to the double-entry system. But if you don't have formal accounting training, it can be tough to remember what goes where when you're making a journal entry adjustment to the books.
Grab this quick cheat sheet for an easy 1-page guide to T-Accounts. Complete with a pneumonic helper, the more you refer to this in the short term, the more it will get locked into your brain! You won't be that bookkeeper referring to a cheat sheet multiple times a day after a few weeks of using this handy guide.
There's an old accounting story that professors still tell to this day:
A bookkeeper in a small office opens the top drawer on her desk over and over throughout the day. She opens it slowly, peers in at something, closes it, and then returns to her accounting on her computer. She does this multiple times a day.
She locks the drawer every night before she leaves, and the other office staff gossip quietly every day about what's in the drawer. Chocolate? Can't be. It's not edible. A pet rock? Possibly. She's a little quirky. They speculate endlessly.
One day, the bookkeeper dies suddenly. The business owner gets her desk drawer keys from her family a few days later. The office gathers around as the big secret of the drawer is revealed. What's in it?
A simple piece of paper with the words "Accounting Bible" at the top. On the sheet is a strange coded set of words and symbols labeled "T-Accounts." The office staff stares in wonder, unable to make anything out of it. Then someone puts it back in the drawer and they walk away... Guess she really was an odd duck.
