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What is debit and credit? And what is the difference between debit and credit?

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Question added by Saud Khan , Underwriter Associate - Group Life , Pak-Qatar Family Takaful Ltd.
Date Posted: 2014/07/10
Dianne Jennifer Caulo
by Dianne Jennifer Caulo , Finance Manager , HSEW Technical Servise LLC

In bookkeeping, debits(Dr) and credits(Cr) are entries made in account ledgers to record changes in value resulting from company's operations. The entry made on the right side of the account's ledger is the credit and the entry made on the left side is the debit. Total debits must equal total credits for each business transaction; individual transactions may require multiple debit and credit entries to record.

The difference between the total debits and total credits in a single account is the account's balance. If debits exceed credits, the account has a debit balance; if credits exceed debits, the account has a credit balance.The company's totals of debit balances and credit balances must be equal as presented in the trial balance, otherwise, an error has occurred.

Khaled Abdelrehim ACCA DipIFR CMA
by Khaled Abdelrehim ACCA DipIFR CMA , Financial Analysis Assistant General Manager , Khalda Petroleum Company

Debit and credit are the two components of the journal entry which reflect a transaction in an accounting way. Debit and credit have rules to be followed such as:

increase in assets is debit, decrease in assets is credit

increase in expense is debit , decrease is credit

increase in liabilities and owners equity is credit and decrease is debit

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