Introduction Often cash is withdrawn by the owner or proprietor of a business for his or her personal use. Such withdrawal of cash is an outflow of capital from business and it is known as drawings. The accounting treatment of cash withdrawn for personal use is expressed in the accounting equation aRead more
Introduction
Often cash is withdrawn by the owner or proprietor of a business for his or her personal use. Such withdrawal of cash is an outflow of capital from business and it is known as drawings.
The accounting treatment of cash withdrawn for personal use is expressed in the accounting equation as shown in the example below:

It is shown as a negative figure under both assets and capital heading. I will be explaining why it is so.
Accounting Equation
The accounting equation represents the relationship between assets, liabilities, and capital of an entity whether profit oriented or not, according to which, the total assets of a business equals to the sum of its total capital and total liabilities.
Assets = Liabilities + Capital
This equation holds good in every monetary transaction or event like the event given in the question.
Cash withdrawn for personal use
We know every transaction affects two accounts. In this case, too, the ‘cash withdrawn for personal use’ affects two accounts. Cash withdrawn for personal use is known as drawings.
Let’s see the journal entry for drawings of cash from business:

Here the drawing account is debited because it is a contra-equity account i.e. it is a mirror image of the capital account or opposite of the capital account. Here the cash account is an asset account; hence it is credited as it is reduced.
As drawings represent the outflow of capital from the business, it is written off from the Capital account in the balance sheet.
Hence, in the accounting equation, the drawing amount is deducted from the Asset side and from the capital side, indicating a balance.
It does not appear in the statement of profit or loss despite having a debit balance because it is not an expense account.
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Meaning A valuation account is a balance sheet account that is paired with another balance sheet account to report the carrying amount of the paired account at a reduced value. The purpose of a valuation account is to reduce the balance of the concerned asset or liability without affecting the mainRead more
Meaning
A valuation account is a balance sheet account that is paired with another balance sheet account to report the carrying amount of the paired account at a reduced value.
The purpose of a valuation account is to reduce the balance of the concerned asset or liability without affecting the main ledger account. This is a conservative approach to use valuation accounts to present the value of the concerned asset or liability at a reduced value.
The most common example of a valuation account is the ‘Provision for doubtful debts account’. It appears in the balance sheet as a reduction from the debtors’ accounts. Also when the amount is transferred to this provision, it appears in the statement of profit and loss account. But it doesn’t appear in the debtors’ account ledger.
Treatment
A valuation account appears only in the balance sheet. Sometimes, it also appears in the profit and loss account when any amount is transferred to it.
Valuation accounts are only used in accrual accounting. They cannot be used in cash-based accounting as there is no flow of cash related to valuation accounts.
They have a balance opposite of their paired accounts i.e. if their paired account is an asset then they will have a credit balance and if it is a liability then they will have a debit balance.
Other Examples of valuation accounts are as follows:
- Provision for doubtful debts (offsets the account receivables or debtors’ account)
- Accumulated depreciation (report the assets net of depreciation)
- Discount on bonds payable (reduces the reporting balance of bond payable account)
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