With paper orders, or where the details don't carry a ledger account, there is always extra, manual effort involved in getting ledger reports out. When a detail is written on paper it stops right there and effort is required to move it on.  When details are entered into 'the system' they are instantly and effortlessly available at all levels of the Enterprise.

Good decision making thrives on accurate, timely reports.  An 'Enterprise System' is one that can facilitate and report on every detail of the operation, including: bidding, requests for bids, employee schedules, manufacturing, buying, selling, financial transaction, taxes, and future operations not included in original specifications.

The detail lines reflect what goods and/or services are exchanged via the order.  In many systems, details also reflect the Tender that is exchanged to pay for the goods & services.  On most orders, these Tender details are shown in an area on the bottom of the form as amount Paid or amount Due.

The handout for ANSI X.12 is an example of order format.  Much of X.12 has to do with standardizing an astonishing number of details about all kinds of orders & their details.  Our psX12 standards use a tiny subset of data elements similar to real X.12.  

If a system for handling orders & details is put together with these important, summary documents in mind it facilitates accounting for & reporting of the details of Enterprise. At a minimum, this means putting the correct ledger account on each detail line of each order along with the 'accounting date' for the order. 

This is 'Double Entry Accounting'.  We can easily tell if the 'books balance' since a 'trial balance' of all the accounts should 'net zero.'   

Debit comes from the Latin debeo: I have or keep for someone.  Credit comes from credo: I commit or consign to someone. 

These terms pretty much sum up what happens to the Goods & Services and the Tender of Enterprise.  What is kept by has to equal what was consigned to & precise methods account for what is exchanged and the tender that pays for it.  

Interest payments are expenses for the Services of loaning money.   Taxes are expenses for the Services provided by Government.  There are other accounting concepts like accruals, deferred interest, relief of indebtedness, &c.  But these 'real world' transactions have no place in the simple Enterprise Engines we're building this semester.

Pacioli was not entirely an 'original thinker' and maybe wasn't as creative as daVinci, but he did document lots of applications of arithmetic in the Renaissance,  from games of chance through Euclidean thought. 

Pacioli's Summa had chapters detailing accounting methods that had evolved around the Mediterranean Sea prior to his time.  These 'Italian Accounting' practices, or the 'Method of Venice', have continued and are at the core of today's Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).  Our Orders & Details, Journals, and Ledgers directly relate to Pacioli's Memorandum, Day Book, and Ledger.

More history of accounting can be found at this link:  Who was the First accountant.

Of these accounts, Assets and Expenses are expected to have Debit balances.  Liabilities, Equity, and Income are expected to have Credit balances.

Paciloian methods may be ancient, but this computer component of accounting is an entirely current topic.  For example, Bill Gates in his recent book Business @ the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy discusses problems Microsoft, and other Enterprises,  have solved by the 'simple' (Ha!) expedients of standardizing accounting among it's diverse activities and units and reducing 'paperwork' to practically zero.  

Email, net conferencing, and other uses of the Internet facilitate the flow of ideas within and among organizations & helps to reduce the costs of scale within huge companies.  Today's business, mixing Paciolan accounting methods with modern networks, can take quantum leaps in all aspects of decision making and control of profits.