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[–] 4 points 3 months ago (4 children)

You can't have balanced books where there are more debits than credits. That would be out of balance.

Balanced means debits = credits.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    I'm not an accountant, but you can certainly balance books while showing a loss. Double-entry bookkeeping simply means that every transaction has two parts, and "balancing" simply means that all the transactions cancel out properly.

    I joke with my accountant friends that their entire job is counting to zero.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    A loss is not an imbalance of debits and credits, but how much of those debits end up in expenses and the credits end up in revenue.

    DR Expense $1,000
    CR Cash $1,000
    

    With no other activity in a period, that is a $1,000 loss funded by cash.

    DR Expense $1,000
    CR Loan $1,000
    

    Is a loss funded by borrowings.

    DR Sales Discounts $1,000
    CR Sales Revenue $1,000
    

    Is 0 profit/expense as the sale was marked down to 0 (assuming no cost of sales).

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Exactly. My terminology might not be correct, but my point is that their books can be perfectly balanced, and they can also be losing a shit-ton of money, as long as investors keep shoveling money in.

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