Double-Entry Bookkeeping as a Directed Graph

Re:Double-Entry Bookkeeping as a Directed Graph by IssaRice on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @08:53PM (#39997338)

I don't think it really helps to use negative numbers (e.g. thinking of income as negative is very confusing). I started a discussion [1] on the PTA subreddit about a month ago about how to make PTA syntax more intuitive, and someone suggested using arrows to mark the "from" (aka credit, or negative) and "to" (aka debit, or positive) accounts. The numbers are unsigned and the terms "credit" and "debit" aren't used, and I think it's way more intuitive.

[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/plaintextaccounting/comments/1bh3x7...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Double-Entry Bookkeeping as a Directed Graph by omichowdhury on Saturday April 13, 2024 @04:45AM (#40021549)

I don’t think you need to think of income accounts as negative if the ledger you use enforces an updated accounting equation that also uses negative numbers, See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40021506

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Double-Entry Bookkeeping as a Directed Graph by IssaRice on Tuesday April 16, 2024 @02:32PM (#40055545)

That is basically the typical accounting equation without the Equity term [1], so I am confused how you handle opening balances.

I think the problem with that scheme is that without some notion of debit/credit (or equivalently, transactions that sum to 0), you can't easily tell if your transactions are balancing. Somehow you have to encode the information that Assets are a "left hand side positive" account type, and that Income is a "right hand side positive" account type, which is what the "income is negative" stuff is doing. But now you have to remember which side of the equation the account is positive on.

[1]: https://code.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-guide/basics-account...

[ Parent | on HN ]