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
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! 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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