Account

An account is a tool which records, for a given aspect of economic life, (a) the uses and resources or (b) the changes in assets and the changes in liabilities and/or (c) the stock of assets and liabilities existing at a certain time; the transactions accounts include a balancing item which is used to equate the two sides of the accounts (e.g. resources and uses) and which is a meaningful measure of economic performance in itself. (SNA)