Topics, 100 Accounting Resources, 100 Lecture List
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Learning rules related to the accounting equation can be very helpful in learning the process of recording financial transactions and understanding the reasoning behind the double entry accounting system. Rules provide a framework for us to think around, structures often being thought to limit creative thought, but this is not true. Frames are needed for creative thought. For example, musicians find new innovative ways to apply the patterns and rules of music and part of the creativity of poetry is derived from the strict rules applied, the incredible ways people find variation while staying in a similar structure. Rules related to financial transactions also help stop us from taking shortcuts that do not work in all cases, shortcuts being things we will need to unlearn in the future when they do not apply, and the process of unlearning is hard. It is best to learn rules that apply and work toward understanding the reasoning for these rules. This phenomenon of learning shortcuts and rules that do not apply in all cases is like mathematics because it is possible to find some arithmetic shortcuts that do not work in all cases. If we understand the reasoning behind the fact that these shortcuts do not work in all cases and use shortcuts accordingly this can work, but if we do not understand the reasoning and, instead, learn shortcuts as the universal rule we can end up with more problems down the road.