Accounting for Programmers

Accounting for Programmers

This is an extended series of posts to introduce the concepts of accounting to programmers. It is born of my own exploration into the subject and I have started writing in 2016. It take a somewhat different approach to most books in that we will be looking at accounting from the point of view of a programmer, me!

There two goals, in the first part I am exploring the nature of double entry book keeping with the directed graph approach and how accounting emerges from this. There is a lot of explanation and exploration as to the nature of accounting records and why the credit/debit system is isomorphic with positive and negative balances.

If you want to just read one thing then try the explanation of an orange trading business.

Demo

Business with a liability

flowchart LR classDef classAssets fill:#CDA; classDef classBusiness fill:#FFFFDE; classDef classEquity fill:#EEB,stroke-width:4px; classDef classExpense fill:#FCC,stroke-width:4px; classDef classIncome fill:#BCE,stroke-width:4px; classDef classInvestor fill:#ECECFF,stroke-width:4px; classDef classLiabilities fill:#DDD; E([Equity Input **£-25**]) class E classEquity; subgraph Internal style Internal fill:#EEE direction LR B([Cash Assets **£62.50**]) class B classAssets; F([Farmer **£-25**]) class F classLiabilities; end S([Sales **£-37.50**]) class S classIncome; P([Purchases **£25**]) class P classExpense; E -- £25 --> B S -- £37.50 --> B F -- £25 --> P

The use of computers allows a freedom to present information in different ways to those bound by clay or paper. For instance exact conventions become unimportant as you can display data in any way you like.

It is currently a work in progress so see the overall plan.

Current Structure

2025

2024

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