Accounting Rules (Top 3 Golden Rules)

What are Accounting Rules?

Golden Rules of Accounting is set of frameworks for recording day to day transactions in the entity books using the double-entry system, wherein each transaction has a debit as well as a credit and involves two accounts for each transaction.

The Top 3 Golden Accounting Rules are given below

Debit the “Receiver” and Credit the “Giver” (Personal Accounts)
Debit – What Comes IN and Credit – What Goes OUT (Real Accounts)
Debit – Expenses and Losses and Credit – Incomes and Gains (Nominal Accounts)

Let us understand each one of them in detail.

Personal Account

This account is further Classified into three Accounts

Artificial personal account- Accounts which are artificially created by persons like companies, legal bodies, partnership firms etc
Representative Personal Accounts- Which directly or indirectly represents a person, e.g. bank accounts etc.
Natural Personal Accounts-Accounts which are directly related to a person e.g. Krishna A/c.

Debit the “Receiver”

Credit the “Giver”

Real Account

This Account represents the assets which are Tangible and Intangible.

Tangible Assets – Assets which have a physical form e.g. Machines, buildings etc
Intangible Assets – Assets which doesn’t have Physical form e.g. patent, goodwill etc

Debit – What Comes IN

Credit – What Goes OUT

Nominal Account

All profits, gains, Expenses and losses come under this Account

Debit – Expenses and Losses

Credit – Incomes and Gains

Modern Rules of Accounting

As per Modern rules, each account in a transaction will be either debited or credited based on the 6 categories of Accounts.

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Based on the type of account the transaction is recorded the value increases or decreases as per the above table

Examples of Accounting Rules

Example #1 – Golden Rules

Let us consider if we purchase machinery with cash there are two accounts involved in this asset (machinery), a cash account and this come under real account the journal entry will be based on real account rule as below

Rule – Real Account

Debit – What Comes IN – Machinery (asset)

Credit – What Goes OUT – Cash

Journal Entry

Example #2 – Modern Rules

Consider the same example if the Machinery is purchased through Bank loan, the Machinery is Asset and Bank Loan is a Liability hence journal is passed as per the table

Modern Rule

Journal Entry

How to Use Accounting Rules?

As per the double-entry system if a transaction happens in a business it affects two or more accounts and these accounts must be recorded in books of the entity.
As per the transaction we have to find which accounts i.e Real, Nominal Account or Personal Accounts is involved in the transaction and see whether the value has increased or decreased.
Once the Accounts are found, the journal is passed based on the Debit and credit.
The Credit and Debit Must be matched in each transaction i.e they must be equal always

Benefits

They are used to know what accounts are involved and how they should be treated.
All entities should use the same rule hence there will be uniformity and consistency in recording transactions.
Financial reports prepared using these rules are comparable and understandable easily.
Any error can be easily found if the rules are followed.

Accounting Rules Vs Accounting Principles

Rule-based accounting is a set of rules to prepare financial statements while principle-based are standards that help to prepare statements that are understandable
Rule-based accounting is more reliable than the principle-based, as everyone follows the same rule
Principle-based will be easier to prepare statements while rule-based is complex as all the rules have to be met by the statement.
Legal action can be taken if the statement is wrong which is prepared under accounting principle but this is eliminated in rule-based accounting
As principle-based is easier and wider hence managers can manipulate the financial reports but this cannot happen in rule-based.

Conclusion

Accounting Rules by its name lays the foundation for preparing other financial statements; because the main journal entries are recorded using the golden rules only and journals are further recorded in the books, hence it is very important to follow the rules to prepare a fair report.