[tunesmith]

For those who use single-entry systems, if you've ever had to "split" a transaction into multiple categories, you're halfway to understanding double-entry. Especially if your "split" has both income and expense categories. For instance, if you want to accurate categorize your paycheck, some of the categories will be income like "gross salary", and some will be expense like FICA and tax. The trick is that all those amounts, positive and negative, need to add up to the net deposit that hit your bank account. Whereas in double-entry accounting, the combined debits and credits need to add up to zero.