Double-Entry Bookkeeping
Also called: double entry accounting, double-entry system
Double-entry bookkeeping records every transaction twice — once as a debit and once as a credit — so the books always balance. It's a 500-year-old error-detection system: if the two sides disagree, something is wrong, and the imbalance points at where. It's also why the balance sheet balances by construction, and why fabricating a single number in a set of accounts requires fabricating a second to match.
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