Accounting for Developers

Are you a developer interested in how double entry accounting works or are you tasked with building a double entry accounting system? Are you an accountant wondering how double entry accounting ledgers are implemented in practice?

This is a three part blog series going into detail. We will cover some aspects of the technical implementation of ledgers quite deeply.

This guide is written from the perspective of a software engineer and we will cover basic implementation details and discuss some of the complexity with implementing an immutable accounting ledger that offers guarantees of correctness.

Series Overview

Prelude: Fundamentals of Double Entry Accounting

• What is Double Entry Accounting?
• The Accounting Equation
• Account Types: Debit Normal vs Credit Normal
• Transactions and Entries
• Debits and Credits: More Than Just Additions and Subtractions

Part 1 - Implementing a Double Entry Accounting System

• A Data Model
• Immutable Transactions vs Mutable Balances
• Data Integrity and Consistency
• Implementing Account Types and Entry Rules
• Balance Calculation and Reporting

Part 2 - Advanced Topics and Edge Cases

• Multi-Currency Transactions
• Rounding and Precision Issues
• Audit Trails and Version Control
• Performance Optimization for Large-Scale Systems
• Compliance and Regulatory Considerations