What are Balance Sheet Accounts?
Balance Sheet Accounts are a category of accounts in a Chart of Accounts that reflects a company's financial position at a specific point in time, usually the end of an accounting period.
These accounts include assets, liabilities, and equity, which provide a snapshot of the company's financial health.
- Assets include resources owned by the company such as cash, accounts receivable, inventory, and property
- Liabilities include debts owed by the company such as loans and accounts payable.
- Equity represents the residual interest in the assets of the company after liabilities have been deducted and includes items such as common stock, retained earnings, and other reserves.
How do they differ in the context of Digital Assets?
The difference between accounting for balance sheet accounts in traditional finance and crypto lies in the nature of the assets and liabilities being recorded.
In traditional finance, assets are typically physical or financial assets that can be easily valued and converted to cash, such as cash, real estate, and stocks. In contrast, crypto assets are digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, that are stored in digital wallets and may be more difficult to value and convert to cash.
Liability accounts in traditional finance typically include items like loans and accounts payable. But in the context of crypto, liabilities may include smart contract obligations, token issuance costs, and other obligations related to the use and ownership of cryptocurrencies.
In summary, while the purpose of balance sheet accounts remains the same in both traditional finance and crypto, the specific assets and liabilities being recorded and their related accounting challenges can be quite different. This is where Cryptio has been designed to provide clarity around these challenges.
Balance Sheet Accounts in Cryptio
Mapping your Chart of Accounts
The Balance Sheet Account is affected within Cryptio when assigning your asset accounts. This will be seen when mapping the Default Account, as demonstrated in the image below:
Relevant Reports
Information pertaining to the Balance Sheet Accounts can be found in several reports generated by the Cryptio platform.
Below are relevant reports, linked to their corresponding guide here in the Cryptio Help Centre:
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Portfolio Balance (Wallet Breakdown)
The report provides a full overview of the historical balances for each asset per wallet. The option to choose specific assets is provided.
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Historical balance asset breakdown
This report provides a full overview of the historical balances for each asset.
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Traditionally called ‘fixed asset roll forward report’, they provide extensive information on assets, including:
- Start and end balances for assets;
- Together with valuation movements for the period; and
- Any new asset deposits and withdrawals that occurred during the period.
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In this report, the Debit and Credit for each of the Asset, Expense, Income, and Equity accounts are shown.
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Ledger entries
The ledger entries report is an accounting report that you can directly export and import back into the accounting system - it's a universal way of sharing accounting data.