Abstract: A Software Engine that allows users to record accounting transactions in a double-entry bookkeeping system, without knowing which accounts to debit and credit. Each practical debit/credit combination is summarized by a single Financial Event Type. The potential for thousands of these Financial Event Types is made manageable by the Software Engine's organizing them into a hierarchical tree, allowing them to be grouped according to the company's business practice. The Financial Event Types and the hierarchical tree can be defined by the user.

Abstract: A Software Engine that summarizes the financial state of a business in a single hierarchical tree data structure. The root node of the tree is the balance equation of accounting, its leaf nodes are the ledger accounts of the company, and its internal nodes represent all of the sums required in preparing the balance sheet, the income statement, and the retained earnings statement. Each non-leaf node obtains its financial balance from its child nodes. Since the Income Summary and Retained Earnings are non-leaf nodes, they do not have to exist as separate ledger accounts and their respective child nodes do not need to have their balances closed and transferred to them—all accounts have a permanent (non-temporary) balance. The difference between two trees produces the income and earnings retention of the business.