How to represent “out of pocket” purchases in general ledger journal entry?
You're lending the money to your business by paying for it directly.  The company accounts must reflect a credit (the amount you lend to it) and a debit (what it then puts that loan towards).   It's fairly normal for a small(ish) owner-driven company to reflect a large loan-account for the owners.  For example, if you have a room at home dedicated for the business it is impractical to pay rent directly via the company.  The rental agreement is probably in your name, you pay the rent, and you reconcile it with the company later. You could even charge your company (taxable) interest on this loan. When you draw down the loan from the company you reverse this, debit your loan account and credit the company (paying off the debt). As far as tracking that expenditure, simply handle those third-party invoices in the normal way and file them for reference. "Journal entry into Books of company: 100 dr. expense a/c 1 200 dr. expense a/c 2 300 dr. expanse a/c 3   //   cr. your name 600 Each expense actually could be a total if you don´t want to itemise, to save time if you totaled them on a paper.  The paper is essentually an invoice. And the recipts are the primary documents. Entry into Your journal: dr. Company name   // cr. cash or bank You want the company to settle at any time the balce is totaled for your name in the company books and the company name in your books.  They should be equal and the payment reverses it.  Or, just partially pay. Company journal: dr. your name  //  cr. cash or bank your journal: dr. cash or bank  // cr. company name Look up ""personal accounts"" for the reasoning. Here is some thing on personal accounts. https://books.google.com/books?id=LhPMCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT4&dq=%22personal+account%22+double+entry&hl=es-419&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22personal%20account%22%20double%20entry&f=false"
First: the question is irrelevant for purchases on exchange, mostly. Majority of sales on stock exchanges is between shareholders. If however you buy directly from the company (in a IPO, or direct share purchase program of some kind, like ESPP), then it does end up showing in the company account ledgers one way or another. It then become part of company's total assets, and the newly sold shares add to the equity. "In your transaction history, you may notice entries that show a money market purchase or redemption. These transactions appear whenever there is an automatic cash sweep into or out of your sweep vehicle. There is no fee to move money to or from your sweep account. For more information about how the sweep program works. View my account history. The cash sweep program is automatic. You may notice a credit or debit in your cash or margin balance immediately following a trade, deposit, or withdrawal. Upon settlement of the transaction, cash will sweep to or from your cash sweep vehicle, such as the Insured Deposit Account (IDA), with no action required by you. Sales proceeds and deposits will sweep from your cash or margin balance into your sweep vehicle. When you make a purchase or withdrawal, funds will sweep from your sweep vehicle to the cash or margin balance. Money markets are dividend-earning investments and are often called sweep accounts. Uninvested cash in your account ""sweeps"" automatically into the money market. The same process occurs in reverse when you need funds from the money market for a purchase or withdrawal. There is no fee to move money into or out of the sweep account. Change cash sweep On this page, you can find information about your current cash sweep vehicle and see if others are available for your account. Click the ""Change cash sweep vehicle"" button to make changes. You can also call a Client Services representative at 800-669-3900 for further assistance. Change cash sweep" "If you are wanting to teach your kids basic accounting principles there is some good stuff on Khan Academy. However most of the stuff takes practice to really make it hit home and its kinda boring (Especially to kids who may or may not care about it). Maybe if you help them set up an account on Mint so that they are at least aware of their finances. Think it also has a heap of videos you can watch that teaches basic personal finance. If you actually want them to understand the techniques and methods behind creating & maintaining a personal ledger/journal and reconciling it against a bank account you are getting into what undergraduates study and there are plenty of first year textbooks around. Look around for a second hand one that is a few revisions old and they are usually dirt cheap (I scored one for only a dollar not that long ago). I feel like the mindset is what matters most. Journals and all that jazz are easy if you have the right mindset. That is something that you really have to demonstrate to your children rather than teach. Meaning you yourself keeping your finances in order and showing them how you organise and file your bills/ credit cards etc. (So they learn the importance of keeping financial records; meaning in the future when its talked about it doesn't fall on deaf ears) Emphasize the whole ""living within your means"" because even if they don't understand bookkeeping or learn anything else at least their finances won't turn out too bad." How in the world is it the perfect vehicle to hide theft?  Every single transaction is publicly recorded and the best you can do is try to obfuscate that. Yet even if you get away with a crime today, the ledger is open for anyone to analyze, study, survey, and if you are caught later down the road with that wallet (such as an cached file on a computer) you will be linked to the crime you committed.   Plus you can't do anything nearly of any size and cashing out means revealing your identity through the exchanges which are under constant surveillance.   So please, tell me again how it's the perfect vehicle to hide theft -- because I'm sure the silk road chief who is sitting in jail would love to hear your tips. "For me, it would be hard to leave all forms of money at home (cash, credit card, debit card.)  There are times when you simply need to have money on hand.  But, here's a simple idea I have that lets you bring your cards with you, yet still puts up a hurdle to curb impulse buying. When you're in a situation where you want to buy something, the card that's in your wallet/purse will be wrapped in your crafted ""reminder envelope.""  You'll see the reminder, which is hopefully enough.  Then, in order to make a purchase you'll need to tear it open.  That should get you to think twice. The one problem with the above is online purchases: If you have memorized your card information, add this rule for yourself:  No online purchases without the payment card present and visible.  (i.e. you also must tear open the envelope for online purchases.)" Your list seems fairly complete.  Try tracking a few months of actual expenses.  You could do this with an Excel Spreadsheet.   Personally, I pay for most things electronically and/or with a credit card (which I pay off in full every month).  I use Mint.com to catalogue my transactions and get an instant snapshot of where I've been spending my money. "In this context, we're talking about terms of art in accounting, specifically double-entry book-keeping. In accounting lingo, an ""asset"" account represents an actual asset and it's value. So if you buy a car with a loan for $10,000, you apply a $10,000 debit to the asset account and a $10,000 credit to the loan. Debits and credits are confusing when you first start learning about accounting." "The best I could come up with would be to simply ask for the amount of ""notes"" and ""coins"" you would like, and specify denominations thereof.  The different currency labels exist for the reason that not all of them are valued the same, so USD 100 is not the same as EUR 100. To generalize would mean some form of uniformity in the values, that just isn't there."