Every Account in Bkper must have one of four types: Asset, Liability, Incoming, or Outgoing. These types determine how Accounts behave, where they appear in your financial structure, and how they can be grouped together.

Asset (blue) represents what you own—bank accounts, cash, inventory, or amounts owed to you by customers. Asset Accounts track balances that increase when resources come in and decrease when they go out. Think of your bank account: when you receive money, it increases; when you spend, it decreases.

Liability (yellow) represents what you owe—loans, credit cards, suppliers, or any debt. Liability Accounts work inversely to Assets: they increase when you take on debt and decrease when you pay it off.

Incoming (green) represents money flowing into your business—sales, services rendered, salaries received. These Accounts accumulate during a period to show how much came in, then reset when a new period begins.

Outgoing (red) represents money leaving your business—rent, transportation, meals, supplies. Like Incoming Accounts, they accumulate during a period to track expenses, then reset for the next period.

Account types divide into two fundamental categories that answer different questions about your finances:

Asset and Liability (Permanent Accounts) answer: What do I have right now? These appear on your Balance Sheet and their balances carry forward continuously. When you check your Bank Account today, you see all the accumulated movements since you opened it—the balance never resets.

Incoming and Outgoing (Non-Permanent Accounts) answer: How did I perform this period? These appear on your Income Statement and reset at period boundaries. When you check Expenses for January, you see only January's spending—each month starts fresh at zero.

This fundamental difference explains why you cannot mix these categories in Groups.

Groups in Bkper consolidate Accounts to provide meaningful totals. However, mixing Permanent and Non-Permanent Accounts in one Group would create meaningless numbers—like adding your total bank balance to this month's expenses. It makes no logical sense.

Balance Sheet Groups (Asset and Liability Accounts only):

Asset Accounts can be grouped together to show total assets. Liability Accounts can be grouped together to show total liabilities. Asset and Liability Accounts can be grouped together to show Equity—what remains when you subtract what you owe from what you own.

Income Statement Groups (Incoming and Outgoing Accounts only):

Incoming Accounts can be grouped together to show total revenue for a period. Outgoing Accounts can be grouped together to show total expenses for a period. Incoming and Outgoing Accounts can be grouped together to show Net Income—whether you made or lost money during the period.

You cannot mix Balance Sheet Accounts (Asset, Liability) with Income Statement Accounts (Incoming, Outgoing) because they measure different things.

One tracks position at a moment in time;

the other tracks performance during a period.

Combining them would be like adding kilometers to kilograms—the units don't match.

Consider a business recording these Transactions:

01/15/2025 | 5,000.00 | Services >> Bank | Customer payment received

01/20/2025 | 1,200.00 | Bank >> Rent | Office rent January

Services (Incoming, green) accumulated 5,000.00 for January—showing revenue performance for the month.

Bank (Asset, blue) shows the current balance reflecting all movements—it might have 25,000.00 from years of operations.

Rent (Outgoing, red) accumulated 1,200.00 for January—showing expense performance for the month.

You could group Services and Rent together to see January's Net Income (3,800.00 profit). You cannot group Bank with Services because one shows accumulated position (25,000.00) while the other shows period performance (5,000.00)—adding them produces a meaningless number (30,000.00).

Bkper's sidebar reflects this structure:

Asset and Liability Accounts appear at the top showing your Balance Sheet position.

Incoming and Outgoing Accounts appear below showing your Income Statement performance for the selected period.

This visual separation reinforces the fundamental difference between position and performance.

Groups containing only one type display that type's color. Groups mixing Asset and Liability, or mixing Incoming and Outgoing, display in gray—indicating they show the sum of both accounts (Equity or Net Income) rather than a single account type.

Understanding Account types and their grouping logic ensures your Books accurately represent financial reality, with every number meaningful and every Group adding insight rather than confusion.