How to teach accounting online on a whiteboard: debits and credits, step by step

What an accounting tutor does on a whiteboard

Accounting is mostly written work in set layouts, which suits a shared page. In the same 2023 r/Accounting thread, replies caution against explaining debits and credits as balancing a checkbook, suggest real-life examples, and one teacher says to be open about what you do not know. In a 2022 r/AskAcademia thread of tutoring tips, one reply says to learn the exact methods the course uses, not to assume what the student already knows, not to skip steps, and to ask for a reasonable attempt first. In a 2026 r/Accounting thread, a controller says new hires with two to four years of experience cannot answer basic debit and credit questions, and replies blame coursework that teaches theory without applied practice. These are individual views, but they point to four jobs for the board:

• Write the entry in the standard layout, so the student sees the pattern before the words.
• Check it every time. Debits equal credits, and the accounting equation still balances.
• Post it to a T-account and total the two sides.
• Let the student do the next transaction in their own colour, without skipping a step.

A tablet or pen tablet makes handwriting faster than a mouse; see which pen tablet to buy and online tutoring setup. For the maths side of the same habit, see an online whiteboard for math.

A debits and credits lesson in five steps

OpenStax Principles of Accounting, Volume 1, section 3.2 expands the accounting equation: assets sit on the left, liabilities and equity on the right, and equity rises with common stock and revenue and falls with dividends and expenses. Section 3.5 gives the journal layout: a date, the debit accounts first and on the left, the credit accounts after them and indented, at least one of each, debits equal to credits, and a short description. It also says assets increase on the debit side and decrease on the credit side, and that a liability increases on the credit side and decreases on the debit side. The board follows that order with our own made-up numbers for a bike repair shop:

1. 1Ask first: what does the shop own, and what does it owe? Let the student answer before you write anything.
2. 2Write entry 1 and check it: stock issued for $5,000 cash. Debit Cash 5,000, credit Common Stock 5,000. Assets 5,000 = 0 + 5,000.
3. 3Write entries 2 to 4 the same way, checking the equation each time: tools bought on account for $1,200, repairs paid in cash for $800, a utility bill paid for $300.
4. 4Post the Cash entries to a T-account: debits 5,000 and 800 on the left, the 300 credit on the right. The balance is the difference of the two sides, 5,800 minus 300, which is 5,500.
5. 5Student's turn, entry 5: the $1,200 owed for the tools is paid in cash. Debit Accounts Payable 1,200, credit Cash 1,200. Cash falls to 4,300, so the left side is 4,300 + 1,200 = 5,500, and the right side is still 0 + 5,000 + 800 - 300 = 5,500.

The point worth saying out loud is the red note on the board: paying a bill lowers both sides. Cash falls on the left, and what the shop owes falls on the right. The usual slips are treating a debit as always meaning less, putting a cash payment on the debit side of Cash, and leaving the two sides out of balance.

Writing accounting on Instaboard

On Instaboard you write with the pen, like a whiteboard in a room. Here is what that means, so you can decide before the lesson:

• Hand-written entries and T-accounts. Journal lines, the T, the columns and the totals are pen strokes, as on the board above. The board does not check them or add them up.
• Hand-written sums. Every total is written by you or your student, which is the point of a first lesson, because the student sees where the number comes from.
• Cards and lists for the rest. Use a checklist beside the entries for steps, homework or the chart of accounts.
• The worksheet or textbook problem. Import the student's PDF and write on it. Each imported PDF uses one of the 5 free boards.

When another tool is the better choice

• Your student needs spreadsheet or software practice. In the 2026 r/Accounting thread, replies say coursework often lacks applied practice. A spreadsheet adds up for you and an accounting package shows a real ledger; Instaboard does neither.
• Your student only needs to watch. Screen-share annotation on your own platform is enough if you do not need them to write.
• Your platform already has a whiteboard you like. Keep it if it works for you.
• You want a recording of the lesson. Instaboard does not record.
• You teach a large class. Instaboard has no class mode.

OpenStax itself notes that T-accounts are only used for illustration in a textbook, classroom or business discussion, and that companies keep official ledgers instead. Instaboard fits when you teach the rules by writing, you want the student to do the next entry, and you want the call, the entries and the T-account on one link.

Use the lesson board in five steps

1. 1Open the accounting board above and make it yours.
2. 2Send your student the link, or press Call on the board so the lesson runs in one place. They sign in free once to write.
3. 3Swap in your topic. Replace the shop with the company in your student's textbook problem, or with a business they know.
4. 4Let the student do the next entry in their own colour and say which accounts rise and which fall.
5. 5Leave the board open as the revision sheet and start the next lesson from it.

The same pattern works for other subjects: how to teach math online and how to teach economics online. To keep notes across lessons, see the tutoring session notes template.

What Instaboard doesn't do for accounting

• No spreadsheet, no formulas, no automatic totals. Every sum is hand-written.
• No accounting software and no statement templates. There is no ledger that posts for you and no balance sheet or income statement layout.
• No Excel import. You can import a PDF, not a spreadsheet.
• No handwriting reading. Handwritten numbers are not searchable or checked.
• Whole-stroke eraser only. You cannot rub out part of a line; erase the stroke and rewrite it.
• No recording of the lesson, no class mode, no scheduling.
• Students sign in to write. Anyone with the link can view; writing needs a free sign-in. Free calls run 60 minutes.
• Free covers 5 boards. Each imported PDF uses one of them. Pen strokes do not count toward the 150-item limit; cards and lists do.
• Free boards are shared by link, so use first names only.

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