Accounting is the art of recording, summarizing, reporting, and analyzing financial transactions. An accounting system can be a simple, utilitarian check register, or, as with Microsoft Office Accounting, it can be a complete record of all the activities of a business, providing details of every aspect of the business, allowing the analysis of business trends, and providing insight into future prospects. Bookkeeping is the practice of recording transactions. Bookkeepers tend to focus on the details, recording transactions in an efficient and organized manner, and they may or may not see the overall picture. Accountants use the work done by bookkeepers to produce and analyze financial reports. Although accounting follows the same principles and rules as bookkeeping, an accountant can design a system that will capture all of the details necessary to satisfy the needs of the business - managerial, financial reporting, projection, analysis, and tax reporting. A good accountant will create a system of financial reporting that gives a complete picture of a business. By using Office Accounting, you can work with your accountant to set up your accounting system to meet the needs of your business. You can then enter transactions and generate reports - all the bookkeeping tasks and some accounting tasks, such as generating reports, that you might previously have relegated to your accountant.

Since the fifteenth century, when Luca Pacioli first wrote about the practice, the term "accounting" has referred to double-entry accounting. Double-entry accounting uses a system of accounts to categorize transactions. Each transaction that is entered consists of one or more debits and credits, and the total debits must equal the total credits.