But that just shifts the arbitrariness of the whole thing from the words "debit" and "credit" to the words "left" and "right".
But it does. "Debit" is an English word with an established meaning in common usage. It means to take money out of an account. It is related to the word "debt" which is something that decreases the net worth of the debtor and increases the net worth of the creditor. If you overpay a bill, the (positive) difference between what you paid and what you owed is a credit on your account, and can be used just like money to pay your next bill.
When I deposit money, it modifies two accounts at the bank:
- the account which represents how much money they owe me - and the account which represents how much money they have on hand.
The former is a liability, and the latter is an asset.
The meaning of debit/credit is reversed between these two types of account. So, when I deposit $100, the entries entered are:
- CREDIT mhink's account $100 (increasing liability)
- DEBIT cash account $100 (increasing asset)
Oddly enough, another common financial situation reinforces this interpretation from the other direction: accounts with utility providers. Unlike the bank, your account at the utility company represents how much you owe them. So the meaning of debit/credit is reversed, but so is the direction of responsibility: your account at the utility provider is money you owe them, which is an asset. So when I pay them $100, the entries entered are:
- CREDIT mhink's account $100 (decreasing asset)
- DEBIT cash on hand $100 (increasing asset)Or it's a debit on the company's account. I think that's the point that was being made; not to confuse technical terms with English common usage, and not to go to the dictionary or etymology(!) as the arbiter. Debits are credits and credits are debits, but the real question is which column does it go into.
Same nature as discussions about clients/servers.