Accounting Basics

---
name: accounting-basics
description: "Apply double-entry bookkeeping fundamentals, journal entries, and accrual vs cash basis rules for Indonesian SME bookkeeping."
argument-hint: <transaction>
risk_level: LOW
rule_type: internal-policy
quality_tier: expert-reviewed
allowed-tools: bash
capability:
  purpose: [financial_analysis, unit_economics_modelling]
  not_for: [certified_audit_opinion, public_offering_prospectus]
  requires: [<transaction>]
  produces: [bep_units, bep_revenue, contribution_margin, margin_of_safety]
  consumes: [context.scale, marketing.cac]
  deterministic: true
  cross_domain_relevance:
    strategy: high
    marketing: medium
    tax: medium
---

# Accounting Basics

Ground rules for recording business transactions correctly before any financial statement is produced.

## Double-Entry Rules
* **Debit left, credit right**; every transaction is recorded in pairs (balanced journal entries).
* Assets & expenses: increase on the debit side, decrease on the credit side. Liabilities, equity & revenue: increase on the credit side, decrease on the debit side.
* Fundamental equation: **Assets = Liabilities + Equity** — always maintained after every journal entry.
* Source documents (receipts, invoices, notes) must exist before a journal entry is made — no document, no journal.

## Accrual vs Cash Basis
* **Accrual**: revenue is recognized when the right arises, expenses when the obligation arises — not when cash moves (SAK EMKM is accrual-based).
* **Cash basis**: recognized when cash is received/paid — only for simple internal records, not for official reports.

## Scope & Safety
* **Use for**: recording SME daily transactions, preparing data before it is compiled into financial statements.
* **Do not use for**: a substitute for accountant/public accountant services; preparing SPT returns without validation (see tax-payroll-id plugin).
* SMEs with turnover below the SAK EMKM threshold may prepare EMKM-based financial statements — SAK EMKM is not positive law; an accountant is required for audit opinions.
* Accounting policies (inventory method, depreciation) must be consistent across periods.

## Worked Example
Input: "Purchased office supplies for Rp 5.000.000 on credit".
Journal:
* Supplies (Asset) — Debit Rp 5.000.000
* Accounts Payable (Liability) — Credit Rp 5.000.000
Result: the balance sheet stays balanced (assets +5 million, liabilities +5 million). When paid in cash: Accounts Payable (D) 5 million / Cash (C) 5 million.