Such a designation of the parties of the account historically. They appeared on the stage of development when the entity's accounting was in the reflection of the relationship between the supplier and the debtor, the borrower and the banker.

Currently, these terms have lost their literal meaning. Debit refers to property or property rights of the enterprise, depending on the account facts.


With the term "debit" is the concept of "debit turnover, which includes transactions for a certain period of time, leading to increase in property of the organization or reduction of the source of their formation. The condition of the property, accounted for a score at a particular point in time is called a debit balance.

Credit – opposite side of the accounts required to reflect liabilities (sources of formation of property) of the enterprise. Consequently, credit turnover is a business transaction that lead to an increase in its obligations (liabilities) or decrease in assets.

Thus, business transactions recorded in the account cause increase or decrease of the group of funds for which it is open. And each side of the account intended to separately reflect the increase or decrease amounts. The reflection of economic operations in active accounts (property accounts) debit turnover indicates an increase in specified amounts on it. Debit turnover on the passive accounts (accounts of the organization's liabilities), on the contrary, indicates their reduction. Credit turnover on active accounts indicates a decrease in the disc amounts, and on passive – increase.

The accounts of the two parties due to the need of separate accounting of operations on it (increase and decrease), as well as the convenience of records on the account.