Income Statement - A score keeper versus book keeper

We have always been blaming accounts for not being intuitive. However, the perspective at which we have been looking at an accountant is what should be blamed rather than the school of knowledge on which accounts is based.

To look at it from the right perspective,it is important to understand that the job of the accountant is akin to that of a score keeper. He needs to understand the rules of the games and make entries in the books so as to represent the financial transactions of the entity in the same way in which the score keeper records the proceedings of the games. Each game has a rule in the same way each book has its rules too.

To illustrate, I have taken PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT statement:
PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT

Following are the rules of this game:
1. Expenses and Income related to a particular year are the players who participate in the game
2. Expenses are recurring (occur again and again) in nature and it does not matter wether thay are paid or outstanding
3. Income is also recurring and it does not matter wether thay are received or outstanding
4. Purchase and Sale of Assets and Liablities are not recorded in income statement.
5. However profit or Loss from sale of asset is recorded. Similarly fall in the value of fixed assets which is known as depreciation is recorded in the books as expense.
Now there are two sides to the score board we maintain: Debit and credit:
6. We debit all expenses and we credit all income gains.Profit or Loss is the final score.
7. Dividend is distibution of income and not income hence does not appear in the income statement.
So any book keeper who wants to be as efficient as a score keeper and contribute to the success of the company has to remember thes rules.
Now if you look at the book with these rules in mind; I am sure accounts will be more intuitive.