Normal Balances Office of the University Controller

By having many revenue accounts and a huge number of expense accounts, a company will be able to report detailed information on revenues and expenses throughout the year. To show how the debit and credit process works within IU’s general ledger, the following image was pulled from the IUIE database. Employees who are responsible for their entity’s accounting activities will see a file such as the one below on more of a day-to-day basis. This general ledger example shows a journal entry being made for the payment of postage within the Academic Support responsibility center . If a debit is applied to any of these accounts, the account balance has decreased.

• All the assets and expenses have normal debit balances while liabilities, revenues, and equity have a normal credit balance.
• Collections and cashiering teams are part of the accounts receivable department.
• Tim worked as a tax professional for BKD, LLP before returning to school and receiving his Ph.D. from Penn State.
• Liabilities, revenues, and equity accounts have natural credit balances.
• Identify what type of account it is (Asset, Liability,…

If an account has aNormal Debit Balance, we’d expect that balance to appear in theDebit side of a column. If an account has aNormal Credit Balance, we’d expect that balance to appear in theCredit side of a column. The key to understanding how accounting works is to understand the concept of Normal Balances. An offsetting entry was recorded prior to the entry it was intended to offset.

Difference Between Depreciation, Depletion, Amortization

A revenue account is a temporary account that will be closed off at the end of an accounting period. A revenue account has a normal credit balance; a debit balance in the revenue account indicates that a company has incurred a loss. For example, an allowance for uncollectable accounts offsets the asset accounts receivable.

So as per this rule, the real account generally has debit balances. Revenues and gains are recorded in accounts such as Sales, Service Revenues, Interest Revenues , and Gain on Sale of Assets. These accounts normally have credit balances that are increased with a credit entry. In a T-account, their balances will be on the right side.

Income Statement

In a T-format normal balance, the left side is the debit side and the right side is the credit side. Liabilities normally carry a credit balance while assets carry a debit balance.

Since assets are on the left side of the equation, an asset account increases with a debit entry and decreases with a credit entry. Conversely, liabilities are on the right side of the equation, so they are increased by credits and decreased by debits.