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Bookkeeping • VAT Accounting • Credit Control • Financial Visibility

Making Tax Digital Double-Entry Bookkeeping Downloads and Other Resources

Business owners rely on having timely access to relevant, reliable financial records and reports, to be informed about the financial position and performance of their business. It follows that the financial data used to prepare these reports must itself be accurate, trustworthy and up-to-date. A database of double-entry bookkeeping records provides the very best source of such data, meeting all of the aforementioned requirements.

Bookkeeping and accounting are two closely related terms, sometimes used interchangeably but having different meanings in practice.

• Accounting is the process of identifying and manipulating relevant data and information to provide the economic reports needed by decision makers, who could be internal stakeholders (business stewards) or external third parties including investors, creditors and regulatory bodies.


• Bookkeeping is the process of accurately recording financial data, extracted from documents associated with transactions made on behalf of the business, supporting the accounting function. Typical source documents include invoices, till receipts, credit notes and remittance statements.

The double-entry bookkeeping method is rational and widely accessible, requiring skills in arithmetic and the abiltiy to manipulate a simple equation - namely the accounting equation.

Expertise in mathematics is not required and anyone who can add, subtract, multiply, divide, and use percentages can learn to accurately record financial transactions in a double-entry bookkeeping system.

The method provides a very reliable procedure for recording financial transactions and other relevant economic events (recording irrecoverable debts or depreciation of business assets, for example).

A computerised double-entry bookkeeping system should present a logical workflow that helps the user to keep accurate and up-to-date records very efficiently, minimising time spent on administration by automating repetitive, error-prone tasks. These key features should be provided in a way that clearly indicates the validity of the data being entered and clearly shows the immediate effects of any newly recorded transaction.

Our website is dedicated to introducing double-entry bookkeeping using our computerised double-entry bookkeeping system, informally known as EARLE, which stands for Expenses, Assets, Revenue, Liabilities and Equity, encapsulating the whole set of variables used in the fully expanded accounting equation. Practical bookkeeping examples are provided, giving step-by-step instruction as an introduction to using EARLE.

You have an excellent opportunity to practice double-entry bookkeeping using EARLE, in advance of the UK Government's implementation of 'Making Tax Digital' (MTD).

With practice, you will soon become very familliar with the method of double-entry bookkeeping, proficient in its application and able to fully appreciate the the method's significant value.

Follow this link to learn about the accounting equation and the duality concept, the fundamental rules of double-entry bookkeeping, and carry out a short introductory activity, using EARLE to record the initial transactions for a new business venture.