National Association of Accountants. This organization’s name was changed to Institute of Management Accountants and currently is referred to as IMA.
This organization has changed its name to Institute of Management Accountants. It is currently using the name IMA to reflect the many backgrounds of its membership.
The acronym for Institute of Management Accountants, an international organization dedicated to enhancing management accounting and financial management. It offers various programs and networking opportunities. IMA also...
The Certified Management Accountant (CMA) Exam is a 13-hour, four-part exam on business analysis, management accounting and reporting, strategic management, and business application. The exam is administered through IMA,...
This is a national organization of certified public accountants. For more information go to www.aicpa.org.
See American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
These pronouncements were issued by the Committee on Accounting Procedures of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants during the years 1953 to 1959. They were and are part of the generally accepted...
More formally known as the Uniform CPA Examination. This rigorous, 14-hour, computer-based exam consists of questions developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The exam is in English only and...
to make the best decisions, management accountants must work to identify, predict and estimate the relevant future amounts. However, only the future costs and future revenues that will be different will be relevant....
See managerial accounting.
A professional certification awarded to an accountant who has successfully completed the CMA Exam and has achieved the required work experience. The certified management accountant is recognized as a person with a strong...
Using the information generated in activity-based costing to plan and control activities and processes.
A subgroup of the supporting activities of a nonprofit organization. This functional expense classification is used to report the overall management of the nonprofit organization other than the direct expenses of...
A section of a publicly traded corporation’s annual report to the SEC (Form 10-K). This section contains extensive information from management about the corporation’s financial condition and its operations.
What does an accountant do? Some accountants are directly involved in preparing an organization’s financial statements. This is likely to include maintaining the general ledger and supervising some employees. Other...
Financial Executives Institute.
report a corporation’s assets as dollar amounts (rather than reporting details of all of the assets). If an asset cannot be expressed as a dollar amount, it cannot be entered in a general ledger account. For example,...
What is the difference in salaries between a bookkeeper and an accountant? I estimate that a bookkeeper’s salary will be less than half of an accountant’s salary. For example, an accountant with a year or two of...
What is the difference between financial accounting and management accounting? Definition of Financial Accounting Financial accounting has its focus on the financial statements which are distributed to stockholders,...
responsibilities are likely to be assigned to an accounts payable clerk, an accounts receivable clerk, and a payroll clerk. Generally, the bookkeeper (or accounting clerks) will not have a four-year accounting degree...
costs; what the costs should be) the company is on track to reach the cost part of its profit plan. If the actual costs deviate from the standard costs, management is alerted by the variances that are reported for...
What is an accountant? Definition of Accountant Accountants are employed by businesses and other organizations to report their financial results according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and income tax...
future transactions. The accountants’ cost principle prohibits a business from reporting some highly-valued assets such as trademarks, brand names, and an effective management team (assuming these were developed...
between the asset amounts reported on the balance sheet minus the liability amounts. Next, the accountant’s cost principle requires that only the cost of items purchased can be reported as an asset. This means that...
Our Explanation of Manufacturing Overhead gives you examples of what is included in manufacturing overhead. You will learn that these are indirect product costs and therefore are allocated to the products in order to...
Our Explanation of Nonmanufacturing Overhead provides examples of a manufacturer's expenses which are not considered to be costs of a product for financial reporting. However, they are operating expenses that will have...
. The combination of all the budgets is referred to as the company’s master budget or profit plan. Budgets help management decide which activities it will undertake and how the company’s resources will be used. If...
What are interim financial statements? Definition of Interim Financial Statements Interim financial statements report amounts for time intervals that are shorter than a company’s annual financial statements. The...
What is meant by the full cost of a product? Many (perhaps most) accountants use the term full cost to mean the full manufacturing or production cost of a product. To these accountants this means a product’s cost of...
. to utilize an outside accountant to assist in the preparation of the annual financial statements and tax reports. The outside accountant may also serve as a business advisor when needed. Some outside accountants are...
Also referred to as illusory profits. Occurs because accountants use past costs rather than replacement costs. For example, in computing the cost of goods sold accountants often use the FIFO cost flow assumption. This...
What is cost accounting? Definition of Cost Accounting Cost accounting is involved with the following: Determining the costs of products, processes, projects, etc. in order to report the correct amounts on a company’s...
in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles often referred to as GAAP or US GAAP. Examples of Management Accounting Another part of accounting focuses on providing a company’s management with the...
The accounting guideline requiring amounts in the accounts and on the financial statements to be the actual cost rather than the current value. Accountants can show an amount less than cost due to conservatism, but...
A potential gain that is not recognized by accountants in the financial statements until it actually occurs. For example, Company P is suing Company D over a patent infringement. Company P has a contingent gain. Because...
An accounting guideline which allows the readers of financial statements to assume that the company will continue on long enough to carry out its objectives and commitments. In other words, the accountants believe that...
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