A New Matrix Approach to Accounting Training.

Abstract With rapid advances in knowledge, there have been corresponding pressures to accelerate instruction. The theory and teaching of accounting have not been immune from these pressures. One basic difficulty observed in teaching the first course in accounting is the student confusion in learning contradictory meanings applied to operational terms "debit" and "credit" when these terms are used to interpret the effect of transactions on accounts. Characterizations "source" and "use" of funds, when applied to accounts, are similarly contradictory depending on whether the balance of an asset or liability account has decreased or increased. The two-way cross-classification or matrix systems do not remedy this difficulty, because all accounts are listed on each of two dimensional axes. However, the difficulty may be overcome by conceiving of accounting as a system for interpreting, cross-classifying and measuring transactions in terms of attributes "asset" and "claim." The article proposes this matrix system that will assist in eradicating the confusion among accounting students.