pacioli based his procedures on the fundamental equation, Assets = Liabilities + owners' equity. He arbitrarily decided that asset accounts should increase on the lefthand, or debit, side. That decision immediately led to the rule that asset accounts must decrease on the right-hand, or credit, side. Given those rules for asset accounts, it followed that (1) in order for debits to equal credits and (2) in order to maintain the fun damantal accounting equation, then the rules for liability and owners' equity accounts had to be the opposite from those for assets. Liability and owners' equity accounts increase on the right-hand-credit-side, and they decrease on the left-hand-debit-side. Schematically, these rules are