Accounts (Financial Accounting) - Explained
What is an Account?
Written by J. Mance Gordon
Updated at April 18th, 2024
- Marketing, Advertising, Sales & PR
- Accounting, Taxation, and Reporting
- Professionalism & Career Development
-
Law, Transactions, & Risk Management
Government, Legal System, Administrative Law, & Constitutional Law Legal Disputes - Civil & Criminal Law Agency Law HR, Employment, Labor, & Discrimination Business Entities, Corporate Governance & Ownership Business Transactions, Antitrust, & Securities Law Real Estate, Personal, & Intellectual Property Commercial Law: Contract, Payments, Security Interests, & Bankruptcy Consumer Protection Insurance & Risk Management Immigration Law Environmental Protection Law Inheritance, Estates, and Trusts
- Business Management & Operations
- Economics, Finance, & Analytics
What are Accounts in Financial Accounting?
An account is a record of the balance, increases, and decreases in specific assets, liability, equities, revenues, and expenses.
What is a General Ledger?
A general ledger is a record of all the accounts used by the company. A list of all ledger accounts of the company can be found in what's called the "chart of accounts",
Companies have specific names for their accounts. The General Ledger allows you to maintain consistency and always use the same account name account. A company may have a different list of accounts based on whatever they're selling or what their business operations are.
All of the accounts have numbers, which is for cataloging purposes.