Under double-entry accounting, which side increases asset accounts and expense accounts?

• A. Credits
• B. General journal
• C. Debits
• D. Accounts payable

Answer: (C)

In double-entry accounting, asset and expense accounts increase with debits. Debits are the left side of a T-account, and most asset and expense accounts have a normal debit balance. When you debit an asset, you raise its balance (for example, buying equipment debits the Equipment asset). When you debit an expense, you also raise its balance (for example, recording rent as an expense debits Rent Expense).

Notes to connect the ideas: credits increase liabilities, equity, and revenue, and they decrease assets and expenses. So paying cash would credit the Cash asset and may debit an expense like Rent Expense, illustrating the opposite side for cash while still increasing the expense with a debit. The general journal is the recording tool, not a side that increases accounts by itself. Accounts payable, being a liability, increases on the credit side, not the debit, so it doesn’t fit the pattern for assets and expenses.