Account

Account, in its simplest bookkeeping form, is a record of money paid and owed. A banking account is an arrangement for safekeeping of money, which may or may not pay interest. In business accounting, each of the following will have a separate account: assets, liabilities, equities, revenues, and expenses. A management account gives information on sales, expenditure, credit and profitability. In merchant banking, an account is an underwriting relationship as well as a record of securities sold and owned as a result. In the field of securities, account means both the relationship between a client and a broker, as well as the record of transactions done on behalf of the client. At the national level, current account is a record of inflows and outflows of money. Capital account gives the status of a country's external investments. Thus the term account shows contextual differences, while still retaining the basic form of financial inflow and outflow.