I came across videos on youtube where people while doing journal entries use words ' by ' and ' to' . Can anybody help me to understand in what situations those two words should be used?
I think that people are going to need more than that to go on Rafal.
i.e. repeat the sentences from the videos to put the words in context for your question.
You might also want to post a link to the Youtube video so that people are able to view it for themselves.
Finally, remember that just because someone puts something on Youtube doesn't mean that its right.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Hi Rafal
I had just a quick look at this - this is produced out in India and whilst bookkeeping debits and credits are the same the world over, there are very different ways of presenting things in other countries so I would just be careful as to what you chose on You Tube. I have to say the word 'by' confused me! Think it might be a translation issue?
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Er, the use of 'to' and 'by' were once common in *this* country. They're quite archaic, though - while 'To' still appears a lot (you'll often see it on invoices... no, not before the address!), 'By' seems to be quite rare.
When I first started working for a firm of chartered accountants (1985, on a YTS) they gave me a massive text book to read (don't ask me what it was called or who it was by, it was 30 years ago!), and I remember it used both terms quite a lot. I specifically remember because I noted at the time that it didn't explain them so, like Rafal has asked here, I asked someone senior in the firm.
Unfortunately, the answer I got didn't explain them at all, other than to say that 'To' is where the transaction is going and 'By' is where it's coming from.
As a result, I pretty much assumed a logic that makes sense - though quite probably isn't correct. Which was that for 'By' to mean where the transaction is coming from, it must be a kind of shorthand for "by way of".
Next up: Let's discuss the sad gradual disappearance of 'e&oe' ;)
-- Edited by VinceH on Monday 1st of February 2016 10:03:15 AM
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
If it was a firm of Chartered Vince it was probably the two volume Business Accounting (#1) by Woods and Sangster (and yep, each volume is fairly hefty).
From chatting with Nick he suggests that you can tell the age of a Chartered Accountant by the version of that book they used when training.
It was first published in 1967. Mine is the 9th edition from 2002 (I didn't just start then, before that I was very much on the management accounting side of the fence). I'll have money on it that yours was the 4th edition (1984) unless you had a particularly mean practice who just decided to bequeath you an ancient hand me down copy.
Just had a flick through mine and assuming that "to" and "by" was once there it wasn't there by 2002.
I think that Joanne hits the nail on the head in that there's a lot of stuff out there on the interweb that is out of date but of course doesn't come with an expiry date.
Personally I had not come accross those terms before and it's certainly not for want of having enough books!
#1 not to be confused with the much lighter reading Bookkeeping and Accounts by Woods and Robinson that is often advised as reading material here.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
No idea if that was the tome in question - but if memory serves it was a single book, not two volumes. It was a brand spanking new copy of whatever it was (so the date of the 4th edition fits). I suspect they popped to one of the many local bookshops* to buy it the day before I started.
But yes, as I said, the terms are quite archaic. TBH, I suspect the reason the person I asked didn't know was because they'd simply encountered them in their own training and never questioned their origins. i.e. by then, the reasons behind them had quite probably already been lost to the mists of time.
And that's how it happens. People just 'do' without asking or attempting to understand 'why' :(
* They were based on Great George Street in Bristol** which is just off Park Street. Back then, a ridiculous number of the shops on Park Street were bookshops, and most of them the same company, but each specialising in different areas.
Edit: Forgot the footnote for the footnote:
** Yes, that's the same Great George Street as Bookcert. I think we were originally in number 11 or 13, but when the two senior partners retired and the junior partner took over we moved further up the road. The number 21 rings a distant bell.
-- Edited by VinceH on Monday 1st of February 2016 11:18:50 AM
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
volume 1 is financial accounting/bookkeeping where volume 2 is more management accounts so its quite likely that they only bought volume 1 not least as for the other side of the fence you would always buy Management and Cost Accounting by Colin Drury.
Birminghams a bit like that with two huge multi storey Waterstones on the same street... And still neither of them have a decent section of accounting books.... Now Charring Cross Rooad in London on the other hand! I used a virtually live on the second floor of Foyles... A case that you had to to find anything as for a long time books were sequences by publisher rather than author or title! Found some great books by accident that way though.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Er, the use of 'to' and 'by' were once common in *this* country. They're quite archaic, though - while 'To' still appears a lot (you'll often see it on invoices... no, not before the address!), 'By' seems to be quite rare.
When I first started working for a firm of chartered accountants (1985, on a YTS) they gave me a massive text book to read (don't ask me what it was called or who it was by, it was 30 years ago!), and I remember it used both terms quite a lot. I specifically remember because I noted at the time that it didn't explain them so, like Rafal has asked here, I asked someone senior in the firm.
Unfortunately, the answer I got didn't explain them at all, other than to say that 'To' is where the transaction is going and 'By' is where it's coming from.
As a result, I pretty much assumed a logic that makes sense - though quite probably isn't correct. Which was that for 'By' to mean where the transaction is coming from, it must be a kind of shorthand for "by way of".
Next up: Let's discuss the sad gradual disappearance of 'e&oe' ;)
-- Edited by VinceH on Monday 1st of February 2016 10:03:15 AM
Ahhhh. Thanks Vince. 'by way of' could be quite a good way of Rafal thinking about it then.
Was only talking about e&oe the other day as my Mum mentioned it, plus I saw it on an invoice for the first time in about a year!!
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
