Definition

Right side entry in double-entry bookkeeping, increases liabilities/equity, decreases assets. Or it's money someone lends you, depending on context. Accounting is fun like that.

Example Usage

We credited the expense account when the vendor gave us a refund.

Origin

From Latin 'credere' (to believe/entrust), referring to trusting someone with your money

Fun Fact

The Latin root 'credere' is also where we get 'creed'—because apparently trusting someone and believing in God are the same thing.

Source: Double-entry bookkeeping, fundamental accounting principle

Related Terms

Beginner

insure

The financial equivalent of betting against your own bad luck. You pay a company money regularly, they promise to pay you back a lot more if something awful happens—unless they can prove it's not technically their problem.

💰 Finance / Accounting
Intermediate

multiple

In finance, it's the magical number you get when dividing a company's stock price by its earnings—the higher the multiple, the more investors believe in fairy tales about future growth. Also known as the P/E ratio, it tells you how many years of current profits you're paying for today. Basically, it's the market's way of saying 'trust me bro' with numbers.

💰 Finance / Accounting
Beginner

matching principle

The accounting concept that expenses should be recorded in the same period as the revenues they helped generate, because timing matters. It's why you can't expense the entire marketing budget in January even though that's when you paid for it.

💰 Finance / Accounting
Beginner

workbook

A digital or paper container for organizing your financial life's most embarrassing moments into neat rows and columns. In business, it's where forecasts go to become wildly inaccurate predictions; in spreadsheets, it's the file that nobody remembers how to update.

💰 Finance / Accounting
Beginner

dues

Money you owe for the privilege of belonging to a club, association, or organization. Also, what you get when someone finally admits you were right all along.

💰 Finance / Accounting
Beginner

Payroll

The process of paying employees—basically money hemorrhaging in a very structured, tax-compliant way.

💰 Finance / Accounting

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See “Credit” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

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