How a business writes down what it does: debits and credits, journals, ledgers, and the trial balance that checks the work.
15
Games
6
Things you can do
What you will be able to do
By the end of this chapter
Explain what debit and credit really mean - left side and right side, not good and bad - and name the normal side of any account.
Use T-accounts (a simple two-sided page for one account) to place both halves of an entry and work out the account's balance.
Write a journal entry in the correct format, and build complete entries on your own, including ones that touch more than two accounts.
Build a trial balance (a list of every account balance) and explain why the two columns must add up to the same total.
Find the errors a trial balance catches - and the ones it hides - then write the entry that fixes them.
Work through the whole recording process from first entry to finished trial balance, and connect that trial balance to the financial statements.
Every game in this chapter
All 15 games
Listed in teaching order — the sequence a student plays them in. Every game in this chapter is finished, tested on real phones, and ready to play.
01
Word Ledger — Name That Term
Built and working. Being checked by hand.
02
Nature of Accounts
Built and working. Being checked by hand.
03
DEALER Visualizer
Built and working. Being checked by hand.
04
Double Entry Pro
05
The Balancer
Built and working. Being checked by hand.
06
Ledger Link
Built and working. Being checked by hand.
07
Syntax Inspector
08
T-Account Challenge
09
Entry Builder
10
Reverse Engineer
Built and working. Being checked by hand.
11
Trial Balance Builder
Built and working. Being checked by hand.
12
The Living Trial Balance
Built and working. Being checked by hand.
13
Statement Evolution: From Trial Balance to Statements
Built and working. Being checked by hand.
14
Error Detective
Built and working. Being checked by hand.
15
Cycle Challenge
Built and working. Being checked by hand.
The first nine games of this chapter are free — slots 01 to 09, up to and including Entry Builder, so a student can get all the way through on their own before anything is paid for. No sign-up, no email address.
Optional extra module
Accounting Theory
An optional module on the thinking behind the rules: why accounting exists and what makes its information useful. A separate set of 8 games you can include or leave out. It is not one of the fifteen core chapters and nothing later depends on it.
State why financial reporting exists: to give investors, lenders, and other outsiders information they can use to decide.
Describe the conceptual framework - the set of connected ideas behind the rules - including the basic assumptions, such as keeping the owner's money separate from the business's money.
Name the qualities that make information useful: it must matter to the decision (relevance) and picture reality honestly (faithful representation), and be comparable, checkable, timely, and clear.
Judge whether an item is material (big enough to change someone's decision) - a small amount can still be material.
Use the formal meaning of each element - asset, liability, equity, revenue, expense - to test a borderline case, such as a contract that is signed but not yet started.
Apply the main principles: record at cost, count revenue when the work is done, match expenses to the revenue they help earn, and disclose anything that would change a reader's decision.
Explain the cost constraint (report extra information only when it is worth more than it costs to produce), and say who writes the rules and who enforces them.
Want to see more, use these with your own students, or tell us something is wrong? Write to us.
Terms of Use
Effective Date: August 2026
1. Intellectual Property
All games, software, content, design, and materials on this website and within the Accounting Arcade SCORM game suite are the exclusive intellectual property of David van Brecht, trading as Accounting Arcade. All rights are reserved.
2. Demo Games
The demo games on this website are provided for evaluation. You may play them, and where we offer a sample package for download you may download it and load it into your own learning platform to try it with your class. That is what those packages are for.
You may not:
Copy or extract the game source code, or reproduce, modify, or create derivative works from any game
Redistribute or share any game content outside your own institution, or publish it on any public platform
Use any game content for commercial purposes without a licence
3. Licensed Products
The full Accounting Arcade game suite is available under a separate licence agreement. Licensed institutions may deploy the games on their own Learning Management System (LMS) for educational use by their students and staff. Full licence terms are provided upon purchase.
4. Prohibited Activities
You may not:
Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any software on this website
Remove or alter any copyright notices, branding, or proprietary markings
Attempt to access, copy, or scrape the source code of any game
Use automated tools to download or replicate content from this website
5. SCORM Compliance
Accounting Arcade games are designed to be SCORM 1.2 compliant. While we make every effort to ensure compatibility with standard LMS platforms, we cannot guarantee compatibility with all systems. We offer installation support to help ensure smooth deployment.
6. Limitation of Liability
This website and its content are provided "as is." Accounting Arcade shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from the use of this website or its products.
7. Contact
For licensing enquiries, support, or questions about these terms, please contact us at david@accountingarcade.org.
Privacy Policy
Effective Date: August 2026
1. Information We Collect
You can read this website and play every game on it without signing up, without an account, and without giving us your name or your email address. Nothing you do inside a game is sent to us.
The one place this website sends us anything about you is the contact form. If you choose to fill it in, it sends us what you typed: your name and your email address, and — only if you fill them in — your institution, what you would like help with, and your message. If you never use the form, we hold nothing about you at all.
Your message reaches us through a third-party form service, so what you type passes through their servers on its way to us. If you would rather not use the form, email us directly instead — the address is at the foot of every page.
Our pages load their typefaces from an external font service, so that service sees your IP address when a page loads. Beyond that we use no analytics, no tracking and no advertising.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use what you send us, through the contact form or by email, only to reply to you and — if that is what you have asked about — to arrange licensing and support. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not pass it to anyone beyond the form service that delivers your message to us.
3. Demo Games
The demo games on this website do not collect or store any personal data. When deployed via SCORM on your institution's LMS, any data collection is governed by your institution's own privacy policies.
4. Cookies
This website does not use tracking cookies or analytics services.