Extensive use is made of the double entry method in national income accounting. National income accounts usually cover two broad phases of economic activity. The first of these is the production of the entire economy. The second covers the disposition of production among final users. For these purposes, the accounting system requires one or more accounts to record production and one or more accounts to record the disposition of production among final users. The production account shows unduplicated costs of output as debits and unduplicated output of commodities and services as credits. Each of the accounts used to record disposition of production among final users is essentially a receipts and expenditure type of account. In general, the mechanics of double entry recording in national income accounting are relatively simple. A cost item in the production account is an income item for some expenditure type account. Conversely, an income item in the production account is an expense or cost item for some expenditure type account. In addition, there are flows between the expenditure type accounts themselves. Any open balances remaining in the accounts are transferred to the capital account.

In the National-Income Accounts the National Income and Product Account is the production account for the entire output of the U.S. economy. Total unduplicated costs of producing the nation's output of products and services are listed on the left side of the account while the market values of final products and services produced are listed on the right side of the account. The purpose of this paper is to explain the nature and content of this important account in business-accounting terms. Most of the national-income terms in the production account are used also in business accounting and have a similar meaning. The production account of the U.S. economy may be regarded as consisting of four subsidiary production accounts covering business, persons, government, and foreign trade, respectively. The business production account includes the production activity of business firms, including that of government enterprises. The persons production account consists of wages paid by persons to other persons and interest paid by persons to business or government.