Sign convention

In reporting and modelling, a decision about the meaning of positive and negative numbers.

Many errors and failures of understanding result from not establishing sign conventions at all, or not following them consistently.

Examples of sign conventions include:

• Assets / (liabilities)
• Income / (expense)
• Inflow / (outflow)
• Mostly positive
• B/(W)

See also

• Assets/(liabilities)
• B/(W)
• Convention
• Financial model
• Financial reporting
• Income/(expense)
• Inflow/(outflow)
• Mostly positive
• Reconciliation
• Spreadsheet risk
• Variance analysis