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Annotation of pta/pta-accounts.5, Revision 1.1

1.1     ! schwarze    1: .\" $Id$
        !             2: .\"
        !             3: .\" Copyright (c) 2020 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
        !             4: .\"
        !             5: .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
        !             6: .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
        !             7: .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
        !             8: .\"
        !             9: .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
        !            10: .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
        !            11: .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
        !            12: .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
        !            13: .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
        !            14: .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
        !            15: .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
        !            16: .\"
        !            17: .Dd $Mdocdate$
        !            18: .Dt PTA-ACCOUNTS 5
        !            19: .Os
        !            20: .Sh NAME
        !            21: .Nm pta-accounts
        !            22: .Nd account definition list for the plain text accounting program
        !            23: .Sh DESCRIPTION
        !            24: The file
        !            25: .Pa accounts.txt
        !            26: in the current directory defines the accounts that can be used in the
        !            27: .Xr pta-journal 5
        !            28: file.
        !            29: Like all
        !            30: .Xr pta 1
        !            31: input files, it is an
        !            32: .Xr ascii 7
        !            33: text file using strings of one or more space characters
        !            34: as the field delimiter and using the hash character
        !            35: .Pq Sq #
        !            36: in the first column to mark lines as ignored.
        !            37: .Pp
        !            38: In this manual page, terms defined in
        !            39: .Xr pta-glossary 7
        !            40: are
        !            41: .Em emphasized
        !            42: when first used.
        !            43: .Ss Line syntax
        !            44: Each line in the accounts file defines one
        !            45: .Em account
        !            46: and consists of three fields:
        !            47: .Bl -enum
        !            48: .It
        !            49: The unsigned account number, consisting of one or more decimal digits.
        !            50: Leading zeros are permitted.
        !            51: .It
        !            52: The account type, encoded as a single capital letter:
        !            53: .Pp
        !            54: .Bl -tag -width 1n -compact
        !            55: .It Cm A
        !            56: asset account
        !            57: .It Cm L
        !            58: liability account
        !            59: .It Cm Q
        !            60: equity account
        !            61: .It Cm R
        !            62: revenue account
        !            63: .It Cm S
        !            64: statistical account
        !            65: .It Cm X
        !            66: expense account
        !            67: .El
        !            68: .It
        !            69: The account title.
        !            70: This is an arbitrary string.
        !            71: It can contain space characters.
        !            72: .El
        !            73: .Ss Account numbers
        !            74: Usually, account numbers consist of three to five digits, to provide
        !            75: enough space for a systematic, hierarchical organization, such that
        !            76: ranges of accounts can be used for accounts of similar types and
        !            77: purposes.
        !            78: For example, as one possibility among many, an account system
        !            79: might use:
        !            80: .Pp
        !            81: .Bl -tag -offset indent -width 4n -compact
        !            82: .It 0xxx
        !            83: for fixed assets
        !            84: .It 01xx
        !            85: for intangible assets
        !            86: .It 02xx
        !            87: for real estate
        !            88: .It 06xx
        !            89: for business equipment
        !            90: .It 09xx
        !            91: for securities
        !            92: .It 1xxx
        !            93: for current assets
        !            94: .It 12xx
        !            95: for accounts receivable
        !            96: .It 16xx
        !            97: for cash
        !            98: .It 17xx
        !            99: for bank accounts
        !           100: .It 2xxx
        !           101: for equity
        !           102: .It 3xxx
        !           103: for liabilities
        !           104: .It 4xxx
        !           105: for revenues
        !           106: .It 5xxx
        !           107: for expenses
        !           108: .It 9xxx
        !           109: for statistical accounts
        !           110: .El
        !           111: .Pp
        !           112: It is recommended but not required that all account numbers
        !           113: in a given bookkeeping file have the same length.
        !           114: .Ss Account types
        !           115: To correctly assign account types, it is crucial to remeber the
        !           116: following distinctions.
        !           117: .Pp
        !           118: Balances on asset, liability, and equity accounts
        !           119: represent sums of values.
        !           120: In the case of assets, these are values available to the natural
        !           121: or legal person doing the bookkeeping, no matter who ultimately
        !           122: owns them, like cash in the wallet or goods on the shelf,
        !           123: even if some of the goods have been bought on credit.
        !           124: Assets are classified accourding to the physical or legal form
        !           125: they currently take.
        !           126: .Pp
        !           127: The sums of assets always equals the sum of equity and liabilities,
        !           128: but in the case of equities and liabilites, this same sum is
        !           129: subdivided according to who actually owns the values, and in which
        !           130: legal form, no matter in which physical form the value is currently
        !           131: available.
        !           132: .Pp
        !           133: Equity is the value owned by the legal person themselves, for example
        !           134: outstanding shares, private deposits by the owner of the business,
        !           135: and retained earnings.
        !           136: .Pp
        !           137: Liabilities are values owed to other legal persons, for example
        !           138: credit card balances, accounts payable, mortgages, or issued bonds.
        !           139: .Pp
        !           140: In contrast to assets, liabilities, and equity,
        !           141: revenues and expenses do not represent values at rest
        !           142: but changes of values, or more specifically, changes of equity,
        !           143: or even more specifically, changes of retained earnings.
        !           144: Revenues represent increases of equity;
        !           145: expenses reqresent decreases of equity.
        !           146: .Pp
        !           147: For example, buying an apple and eatiing it is an expense,
        !           148: reducing equity.
        !           149: On the other hand, buying twenty boxes of apples and displaying
        !           150: them for sale in a shop is not an expense
        !           151: but acquiring a current asset (goods for sale).
        !           152: .Pp
        !           153: If these distinctions seem confusing, designing a new account
        !           154: system from scratch is discouraged and using a subset of an
        !           155: existing, standard account system is recommended instead
        !           156: because misclassification of accounts is likely to yield
        !           157: wrong results in the balance sheet.
        !           158: .Ss Statistical accounts
        !           159: Statistical accounts are accounts that neither appear on the balance
        !           160: sheet nor in the lists of revenues and expenses.
        !           161: If a journal entry contains a statistical account,
        !           162: the contra account must be a statistical account, too.
        !           163: Such accounts can be used to collect supplementary data
        !           164: that cannot be derived from the balance sheet.
        !           165: One typical area where using statistical accounts can sometimes
        !           166: simplify bookkeeping is tax law because in some countries,
        !           167: tax laws and laws governing trade balances impose conflicting
        !           168: requirements.
        !           169: For example:
        !           170: .Bl -dash
        !           171: .It
        !           172: To encourage investments, tax law sometimes allows special depreciations
        !           173: that would be illegal if included on the balance sheet.
        !           174: .It
        !           175: To avoid double taxation, some tax laws only treat part of the revenue
        !           176: from certain share funds as taxable revenue.
        !           177: Of course, for the balance sheet, the full amount has to be booked as
        !           178: revenue.
        !           179: .It
        !           180: To avoid long delays in tax payments, some tax laws treat certain
        !           181: parts of unrealized profits as taxable revenue.
        !           182: On the other hand, trade laws of the same countries may forbid
        !           183: booking these revenues and increasing the values of the assets.
        !           184: .El
        !           185: .Pp
        !           186: In contrast to many commercial accountig programs,
        !           187: .Xr pta 1
        !           188: does not attempt to guide the user to conform to the particular
        !           189: bookkeeping or legal system of any country.
        !           190: It is entirely the responsibility of the user to define and use
        !           191: accounts as required by applicable law, and it is very easy
        !           192: to set up the accounts file and use the accounts in ways that
        !           193: are grossly illegal.
        !           194: The flip side is great flexibility, allowing to easily adapt
        !           195: .Xr pta 1
        !           196: to many different legal systems.
        !           197: .Sh SEE ALSO
        !           198: .Xr pta 1 ,
        !           199: .Xr pta-journal 5 ,
        !           200: .Xr pta-glossary 7
        !           201: .Sh AUTHORS
        !           202: .An Ingo Schwarze Aq Mt schwarze@openbsd.org

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