3 Golden Rules of Accounting | Types, Benefits & Examples (2024)

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Every economic element must illustrate its monetary information to all its stakeholders. The data furnished in the financials must be detailed and present a real picture of the element. For this demonstration, it must account for all its transactions. Since monetary entities are correlated to comprehend their financial significance, there has to be uniformity in accounting.

To evoke uniformity and to account for the agreements correctly there are 3 Golden Rules of Accounting. These rules construct the very rationale of passing journal entries which in turn form the rationale of bookkeeping and accounting.

Debit Credit Rules Problem

The system of credit and debit is exact at the organization of the double-entry system of bookkeeping. It is very helpful, but at the same time, it is very tough to use in truth. Comprehending the system of credits and debits may compel an experienced employee. However, no corporation can afford such disastrous waste of cash for record-keeping. It is normally done by clerical faculty and people who operate at the store. Thus, golden rules of accounting were arranged. Golden rules restore complex bookkeeping rules into a pair of principles that can be easily reviewed and applied.

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What are the Golden Rules of Accounting?

Monetary accounting is more than just bookkeeping. In accounting, each transaction has a double-entry – credit and debit. It is significant to specify which account has to be debited and which one is credited. This is the dual entry policy of accounting. Monetary accounting revolves around 3 rules, understood as the golden rules of accounting. These golden rules assure systematic recording of monetary transactions. The golden rules facilitate the complex book-keeping laws into a set of laws that are easily comprehended, studied, and applied.

Golden rules of account structure the rationale for bookkeeping. According to the golden rules of accounting, you must demonstrate the type of account for each transaction. Each category of account has its own set of laws that requires it to pertain to each transaction.

What are the three types of Accounts?

The three golden rules of accounting benefit reporting the financial transactions in ledgers. These golden rules are established in the category of account. Each transaction will have a credit and debit entry and belong to one of the following 3 types of accounts.

• Real Account
• Personal Account
• Nominal Account

Real Account

A real account which is a general ledger account indicates all the transactions associated with assets and liabilities. It includes intangible and tangible assets. Intangible assets such as copyright, goodwill, patents, etc. On the other hand, tangible assets such as furniture, nuking, land, machinery, etc.

Real accounts are held up forward to the additional year, therefore, are not shut at the end of the economic year. Also, a real account occurs in the balance sheet. A furniture account is a category of real accounts.

Personal Account

A personal account that is a general ledger account is associated to persons. It can be natural persons like individuals or artificial like firms, companies, associations, etc. When corporation A obtains money or credit from another industry or individual, corporation A becomes the receiver. And, the other industry or individual who offers it becomes the giver, as in the case of a personal account. A creditor account is a category of a personal account.

Nominal Account

A nominal account that is a general ledger account relates to all industry income, profit, expenses, and losses. It accounts for all transactions relating to one fiscal year. As an outcome, the proportions are reset to 0 and can start afresh. An interesting account is a category of nominal account.

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The 3 Golden Rules of Accounting

It is no secret that accounting is operated by debits and credits. Credits and debits make a book’s world go ‘round. Before we jump into the three golden rules of accounting, you require to brush up on all things credit and debit.

Credits and Debits are comparable but opposite entries in your accounting editions. Debits and Credits affect the 5 core categories of accounts:

• Assets: Resources occupied by a business that has monetary value you can convert into cash (e.g., equipment, land, cash, vehicles)
• Expenses: Costs that arise during business operations (e.g., supplies, wages)
• Liabilities: Amounts owed to another business or person (e.g., accounts payable)
• Equity: Your assets minus your liabilities
• Income and revenue: Cash earned from sales

A debit is an access made on the left side of an account. Debits gain an expense or asset account and reduce liability, equity, or revenue accounts.

A credit is an access made on the right side of an account. Credits gain liability, equity, and revenue accounts and reduce expense and asset accounts.

You must document debits and credits for each transaction.

The three golden rules of accounting also revolve around debits and credits. Take a look at the three central rules of accounting:

• Debit the receiver and credit the giver
• Debit what comes in and credit what takes out
• Debit expenditures and losses, and credit income and gains

1. Debit the receiver and credit the giver

The law of debiting the receiver and crediting the giver arrives into play with personal accounts. Now a personal account is a general ledger account relating to organizations or individuals. If you obtain something, debit the account. If you provide something, credit the account.

Look into a couple of instances of this first golden rule below.

Example 1

Let's say you buy $1,000 worth of commodities from Company X. In your books, you require to debit your Purchase Account and credit Company X. Because the giver, Company X, is delivering goods, you are required to credit Company X. Then, you require to debit the receiver, your Purchase Account.

Example 2

Let's say you paid $500 cash to Company X for office allowances. You are required to debit the receiver and credit your Cash Account.

2. Debit what comes in and credit what takes out

For real accounts, utilize the second golden rule. Real accounts are moreover pertained to as permanent accounts. Real accounts do not shut at year-end. Rather, their proportions are carried over to the following accounting period. A real account can be a liability account, an asset account, or an equity account. Real accounts also comprise contra liability, assets, and equity accounts.

When something comes into your company (e.g., an asset), in a real account, debit the account. When something takes out of your industry, credit the account.

Example

Say you bought furniture for $2,500 in money. Debit your Furniture Account (what arrives in) and credit your Cash Account (what takes out).

3. Debit expenditures and losses, and credit income and gains

The ultimate golden rule of accounting contracts with nominal accounts. The nominal account is an account that you shut at the verge of each accounting period. Nominal accounts are called temporary accounts. Nominal or temporary accounts comprise expense, revenue, and loss and gain accounts.

Debit the account if your company has an expense or loss, with nominal accounts. Credit the account if your company needs to record gains or income.

Example: Expense or loss

Let's say you buy $3,000 of commodities from Company X. To report the transaction, you must debit the expenditure ($3,000 purchase) and credit the revenue.

Example: Income or gain

Let's say you sell $1,700 worth of commodities to Company X. You should credit the revenue in your Sales Account and debit the expenditure.

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What are the 3 golden rules of accounting examples?

Let’s comprehend the essence of the golden rules and the accounts with the benefit of an example. Subsequent is the list of transactions:

• Company ABC begins company with an equity of INR 1,00,000.
• Leases a property worth INR 25,000.
• Buys goods worth INR 50,000 on credit from Company ABC.
• Sells commodities worth INR 75,000.
• Reimburses cash for goods purchased from Company ABC.
• Reimburses salary worth INR 50,000 to workers.

Firstly, let us specify various accounts implicated and the categories of accounts for each of the transactions:

Using the Golden Rules of Accounting

Pertaining the golden rules of accounting will enable you to specify the journal entries.

A company ABC begins its business with equity of INR 1,00,000

Since money is a tangible asset, it is a portion of a real account. Capital is known as a personal account. According to the golden rule of real and personal accounts:

• Debit what arrives in
• Credit the giver

Rents an estate worth INR 25,000

Rent is an expenditure and thus belongs to a nominal account. Money is part of a real account. According to the golden rule of nominal and real accounts:

• Debit all expenditures and losses
• Credit what goes out

Purchases commodities worth INR 50,000 on credit from Company ABC

Buy transactions are payments, and hence they are components of a nominal account. Company ABC is part of the personal account. According to the golden rule of personal and nominal accounts:

• Debit all expenditures and losses
• Credit the giver

Sells commodities worth INR 75,000

Selling goods generates revenue for the company, and thus it is part of the nominal account. Cash is a component of a real account. According to the golden rule of real and nominal accounts:

• Debit what arrives in
• Credit all revenue and gains

Reimburses cash for commodities purchased from Company ABC

A personal account and money is a components of a real account. According to the golden rule of personal and real accounts:

• Debit the receiver
• Credit what goes out

Reimburses salary worth INR 50,000 to workers

Salary is an expenditure to the company and hence is a component of the nominal account. Cash is a component of a real account. According to the golden rule of nominal and real accounts:

• Debit all expenditures and losses
• Credit what goes out

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What are the modern Rules of Accounting?

There are a set of means to reach the art of accounting, modern and traditional. Classification of accounts under both modern and traditional rules of accounting is done very contrarily. The UK or conventional style of accounting classifies all accounts of a business into three major types: Real, Personal, and Nominal. Contrary, American or modern rules of accounting categorize all accounts into six different types: Asset, Capital, Liability, Revenue, Expense, and drawing.

Golden or Traditional rules of accounting pertain to real, personal, and nominal accounts, nonetheless, Modern or American rules of accounting pertain to the modern category of accounts.

Classification of Accounts and Modern Rules

The initial step is to specify the category of account from either of the six categories indicated in the below table. Once the account is inferred correctly, apply modern rules of accounting to formulate a perfect journal entry.

Examples of Modern Rules of Accounting are

Example I – Let's say Company X bought furniture for 20,000 in cash, formulate the journal entry

Example II – Let's say Company ABC received 1,00,000 in the bank as a loan, formulate the journal entry

Example II – Let's say Company Y received 5,00,000 via a cheque from Mr X as a trade receivable, formulate the journal entry

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Benefits of using Accounting

Stakeholders of a commodity want to learn whether the commodity is earning a profit or incurring penalties. They also hope to know whether the capital investment in the company is decreasing or increasing during the accounting interval. Accounting is a combination of art and science. Accounting problem-solving is recording, categorizing, and summarizing monetary transactions in a substantial manner and in terms of money.

Advantages of accounting are

• Maintenance of business records
• Saves Time and Costs
• Increases Financial Visibility
• Preparation of financial statements
• Comparison of results
• Decision-making
• Evidence in legal matters
• Provides information to related parties
• Helps in taxation matters
• Valuation of business
• Replacement of memory

Maintenance of business records

It documents all the monetary transactions relating to the respective year systematically in the books of accounts. It is not feasible for supervision to remember each and every transaction for an extended time due to their complexities and size.

Saves Time and Costs

Bookkeeping is recognized as a very time-consuming chore because there are tons of transactions to count and record. Nonetheless, with an accounting system, all the techniques can be automated so that they can be completed quickly. Your corporation does not need extra accountants to accomplish bookkeeping and other assignments so that you can recoup your company’s expenses for other significant needs.

Increases Financial Visibility

An accounting policy makes it simple for stakeholders to regulate the company’s monetary position more thoroughly. Management can maintain track of revenues and expenses as well as losses and profits across several business departments and units. You can discern all your corporation’s monetary information in a single view through an economic dashboard.

Preparation of financial statements

Monetary statements like Trading and loss and profit accounts, Balance Sheets can be formulated easily if there is an adequate recording of transactions. Adequate recording of all the monetary transactions is very significant for the preparation of the monetary statements of the entity.

Comparison of results

It stimulates the comparison of the monetary results of 1 year with another year simply. Also, the supervision can evaluate the systematic recording of all the monetary transactions as per the policies of the entity.

Decision-making

Decision-making comes to be simpler for management if there is an adequate recording of monetary transactions. Accounting data enables management to schedule its future activities, prepare budgets and coordinate several activities in numerous departments.

Evidence in the legal matter

The adequate and systematic records of the monetary transactions act as indications in the court of law.

Provides information to related parties

It generates the monetary data of the institution available to stakeholders like creditors, owners, employees, government, customers, etc. easily.

Helps in taxation matters

Several tax authorities like indirect taxes and income tax depending on the accounts retained by the management for the concession of taxation matters.

Valuation of business

For sufficient valuation of an entity’s industry accounting data can be operated. Thus, it enables an assessment of the value of the entity by utilizing the accounting data in the case of the deal of the entity.

Replacement of memory

Adequate recording of accounting transactions replaces the necessity to recollect transactions.

Conclusion

Golden rules of accounting set the organization for formulating monetary accounts. The corporation must document every transaction. Every transaction is documented as a journal entry and further as a ledger. You should verify the account each transaction relates to and then do journal entries established on the three golden rules. Thus, it is important to understand the golden accounting rules for the objective of bookkeeping.

Read our blog on encumbrance accounting rules here.

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