Home BOOK KEEPING B/KEEPING FORM 1 TOPIC 3: CLASSIFICATION OF ACCOUNTS | B/KEEPING FORM 1

TOPIC 3: CLASSIFICATION OF ACCOUNTS | B/KEEPING FORM 1

October 1, 2020

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Classification of Accounts

It is necessary to know the classification of accounts and their treatment in double entry system of accounts. Broadly, the accounts are classified into three categories:

Personal accounts
Impersonal
Real accounts
Tangible accounts
Intangible accounts

Let us go through them each of them one by one.

Difference between Personal and Impersonal Account

Differentiate between personal and impersonal accounts

Personal Accounts

Personal accounts may be further classified into three categories:

Natural Personal Account

An account related to any individual like David, George, Ram, or Shyam is called as a Natural Personal Account.

Artificial Personal Account

An
account related to any artificial person like M/s ABC Ltd, M/s General
Trading, M/s Reliance Industries, etc., is called as an Artificial Personal Account.

Representative Personal Account

Representative
personal account represents a group of account. If there are a number
of accounts of similar nature, it is better to group them like salary
payable account, rent payable account, insurance prepaid account,
interest receivable account, capital account and drawing account, etc.

Example of personal account

Possessions of the Business

Identify the possessions of the business

Real Accounts

Every
Business has some assets and every asset has an account. Thus, asset
account is called a real account. There are two type of assets:

Tangible assets are touchable assets such as plant, machinery, furniture, stock, cash, etc
Intangible assets are non-touchable assets such as goodwill, patent, copyrights, etc.

Accounting treatment for both type of assets is same.

Nominal Accounts

Since
this account does not represent any tangible asset, it is called
nominal or fictitious account. All kinds of expense account, loss
account, gain account or income accounts come under the category of
nominal account. For example, rent account, salary account, electricity
expenses account, interest income account, etc.

Impersonal account. any account other than a personal account, being classified as either a real account, in which property is recorded, or a nominal account, in which income, expenses and capital are recorded.

A creditor is an entity or person that lends money or extends credit to another party.

A debtor
is an entity or person that owes money to another party. Thus, there is
a creditor and a debtor in every lending arrangement. The relationship
between a debtor and a creditor is crucial to the extension of credit
between parties and the related transfer of assets and settlement of
liabilities.