1010assetNormal balance: DebitBusiness & personal1010 — Checking
For almost everyone, this is the account that sees the most activity in the whole chart. Every debit card swipe, every direct deposit, every check written, every ACH transfer in or out — if it touched your primary bank account, it touched account 1010.
Checking is an asset with a normal debit balance: money arriving debits it and increases the balance, money leaving credits it and decreases the balance. That is the opposite direction from a credit card, which is worth remembering the first time a payment to the card confuses the picture — paying off a credit card is a credit to Checking and a debit to the card's liability balance, not an expense in itself.
One honest limitation worth stating plainly: this ledger does not connect to a live bank feed yet. There is no Plaid-style automatic import that pulls transactions in as they happen. Entries land here because you or your AI assistant recorded them — from a statement you uploaded, a receipt you described, or a transaction you reported directly.
What belongs here
- deposits into the primary operating bank account
- debit card purchases
- checks written and cleared
- ACH transfers, wires, and direct deposits
- a payment made to pay down a credit card balance
What does not belong here
- savings account activity — account 1020
- a credit card charge itself — that increases the Credit Card liability (2100), not this account
- a loan disbursement — the cash side lands here, but the other side is the loan liability (2700), never income
- cash withdrawn and kept as physical currency — once withdrawn it becomes account 1000 Cash
Where it shows up
Sits on the balance sheet as the primary named cash account, usually the largest single line under current assets for an active business or household.
Common questions
- Does BalanceMCP pull my real bank transactions in automatically?
- Not yet — there is no live bank-feed connection. You or your assistant record what happened; nothing arrives here on its own from a bank.
- Why did my balance not change when I paid my credit card bill?
- It did, just on both sides at once — Checking went down and the Credit Card liability went down by the same amount. Neither side is an expense; it is a transfer between two accounts.