1. An account is an accounting record of either a specific asset or a specific liability 2. An account shows only increases, not decreases, in the item it relates to. 3. Some items, such as Cash and Accounts Receivable, are combined into one account 4. An account has a left, or credit side, and a right, debt side. 5. A single form of an account consisting of just the account title, the left side, and the right side, is called a T account