Class: Account Abstract

Inherits:
ActiveRecord::Base
  • Object
show all
Defined in:
app/models/account.rb

Overview

This class is abstract.

An account must be a subclass to be saved to the database. The Account class has a singleton method trial_balance to calculate the balance on all Accounts.

Overview:

The Account class represents accounts in the system. Each account must be subclassed as one of the following types: 

  TYPE        | NORMAL BALANCE    | DESCRIPTION
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Asset       | Debit             | Resources owned by the Business Entity
  Liability   | Credit            | Debts owed to outsiders
  Equity      | Credit            | Owners rights to the Assets
  Revenue     | Credit            | Increases in owners equity
  Expense     | Debit             | Assets or services consumed in the generation of revenue

Each account can also be marked as a "Contra Account". A contra account will have it’s normal balance swapped. For example, to remove equity, a "Drawing" account may be created as a contra equity account as follows: 

  Equity.create(:name => "Drawing", contra => true)

At all times the balance of all accounts should conform to the "accounting equation" 

  Assets = Liabilties + Owner's Equity

Each sublclass account acts as it’s own ledger. See the individual subclasses for a description.

See Also:

Author:

Direct Known Subclasses

Asset, Equity, Expense, Liability, Revenue

Class Method Summary (collapse)

Class Method Details

+ (BigDecimal) trial_balance

The trial balance of all accounts in the system. This should always equal zero, otherwise there is an error in the system.

Examples:

>> .trial_balance.to_i
=> 0

Returns:

  • (BigDecimal) —

    The decimal value balance of all accounts 



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# File 'app/models/account.rb', line 49

def self.trial_balance
  unless self.new.class == 
    raise(NoMethodError, "undefined method 'trial_balance'")
  else
    Asset.balance - (Liability.balance + Equity.balance + Revenue.balance - Expense.balance)
  end
end