# Accounts

Accounts represent a sum of allocations of value within your enterprise. The General ledger subsystem performs transactions on accounts, either increasing or decreasing their value based on the type and amount of the transaction being performed. Accounts can represent the parents of multiple sub-accounts, creating a multi-level tree of accounts called your Chart of Accounts.

Every account defined in the system must be assigned a General ledger category which determines whether the account is a balance sheet account or a profit and loss account. The general ledger category also determines whether the account is a credit account or a debit account.