Annotation of pta/pta-accounts.5, Revision 1.3
1.3 ! schwarze 1: .\" $Id: pta-accounts.5,v 1.2 2020/09/27 15:38:25 schwarze Exp $
1.1 schwarze 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.
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9: .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
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1.2 schwarze 17: .Dd $Mdocdate: September 27 2020 $
1.1 schwarze 18: .Dt PTA-ACCOUNTS 5
19: .Os
20: .Sh NAME
21: .Nm pta-accounts
1.2 schwarze 22: .Nd account definition list for plain text accounting
1.1 schwarze 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
1.3 ! schwarze 115: To correctly assign account types, it is crucial to remember the
1.1 schwarze 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,
1.2 schwarze 128: but in the case of equity and liabilites, this same sum is
1.1 schwarze 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
1.2 schwarze 133: Equity is the value owned by the legal person themself, for example
1.1 schwarze 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;
1.3 ! schwarze 145: expenses represent decreases of equity.
1.1 schwarze 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
1.2 schwarze 186: In contrast to many commercial accounting programs,
1.1 schwarze 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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