Why in the preparing of accounts is money paid into a bank account posted as a debit?

For example, money paid by a company/business for petrol, could be debited to a petrol account and would be credited to the bank account. Why not vise versa?|||A debit is one of three things:





an increase in an asset


a decrease in a liability


an expense.





A credit is also one of three things:





an increase in a liability


a decrease in an asset


an item of income.





Hang on the definitions above...it really will help!





Payment for petrol is an expense (so debit to the petrol account) and the corresponding double entry is credit cash, assuming you pay by cheque (it's a decrease in an asset, the asset being the cash you have at the bank).





When you pay cash in to your bank account, it's an increase in your asset (you have more cash at the bank). You credit whoever paid it to you.





It takes a while for the penny to drop (no pun intended!), but once you get a bit more used to dealing with balance sheets, profit and loss accounts etc it becomes easier to see how the bits of the jigsaw fit together.