[realityking]

From my, very limited understanding, the big benefit is the representation of obligations and receivables.

For example, if you take a bank loan of $1 you’d make an entry for your cash balance to be $1 and your obligations to your bank being $1. Your books are balanced.

Now you use that $1 to buy a machine. $1 down from your cash, $1 up in your non-cash assets.

For what if instead you pay someone for a service for $1? $1 added to your expenses, $1 down from your cash.

And so on, and so on. At the end of the day you have a fairly good idea where your money is coming from and where it’s going as well as any outstanding obligations and receivables.

One of the main aspect is that there’s an element of validation in here. If your books aren’t balanced, something is off.

[stanski]

I'm incorporated in Canada and have done my own corporate taxes in the past.

There is no hope to get this done right unless you use double entry accounting as every dollar has to be accounted for. Unlike personal taxes, where you only declare your income and pay a tax on that, every dollar that enters or leaves the company, or becomes a different kind of asset (say computer hardware) has to be declared and everything has to balance at the end of year.