Liability Accounts

Using Liability Accounts

In Goldenseal accounting software, use Liability accounts for things that you owe to someone else.

There are four basic classes of liabilities:

Account Name	Used For	Type
Credit Cards	Credit cards (but not debit cards)	Liability
Escrow Accounts	Money that you don't own, but that you manage for others	Liability
Loans	Any debts that are not credit cards	Liability
Owner Equity	Ownership shares (value that the business "owes" to owners)	Liability

Use Credit Card accounts for revolving credit accounts that usually have a negative balance.

NOTE-- debit cards are handled as part of a regular bank account, and should not be in a credit card account.

Use Escrow accounts for other people's money. You can track balances for Escrow accounts, but they are otherwise completely separate from your company's accounting.

Use Loan accounts for bank loans. Loans can have sequential checks, and Credit Card accounts don't.

HINT-- There isn't any functional difference between a Loan account and a Checking account, except that one is usually negative and one is positive.

Use an Owner Equity account for the money that the business "owes" to the founder or investors who started it. It is a liability to them, whether or not there is an actual money debt involved.

HINT-- If you think equity should be an asset, check this writeup that explains why it isn't!