that are recorded in income statement accounts. This allows the balance sheet account Owner’s Capital (or Retained Earnings) to avoid having all of the thousands or millions of revenue and expense transactions from...
that are recorded in income statement accounts. This allows the balance sheet account Owner’s Capital (or Retained Earnings) to avoid having all of the thousands or millions of revenue and expense transactions from...
What is a sale on credit? Definition of Sale on Credit A sale on credit is revenue earned by a company when it sells goods and allows the buyer to pay at a later date. This is also referred to as a sale on account....
What is an outstanding check? Definition of Outstanding Check An outstanding check is a check that a company has issued and recorded in its general ledger accounts, but the check has not yet cleared the bank account on...
What is a debit balance? Definition of Debit Balance In accounting and bookkeeping, a debit balance is the ending amount found on the left side of a general ledger account or subsidiary ledger account. Examples of Debit...
Should inventories be reported at their cost or at their selling prices? Definition of Inventory Cost Inventories are reported at cost, not at selling prices. A retailer’s inventory cost is the cost to purchase the...
What is a provision for discounts allowable? The provision for discounts allowable is likely to be a balance sheet account that serves to reduce the asset account Accounts Receivable. The provision account’s counter...
months later, the utility will record the purchase of only the coal that has arrived and the related account payable. Likewise, on the day the contract is signed, the coal company does not have a sale of the coal...
What is EOQ? Definition of EOQ EOQ is the acronym for economic order quantity. The economic order quantity is the optimum quantity of an item to be purchased at one time in order to minimize the combined annual costs of...
What is an expense? Definition of Expense Under the accrual method of accounting, an expense is a cost that is reported on the income statement for the period in which: The cost best matches the related revenues The cost...
its bank and signs a promissory note due in six months. Local Retailer records $20,000 as a credit to its current liability account Notes Payable (and debits its Cash account). The bank records the $20,000 promissory...
stock is the result of a corporation repurchasing its own stock and holding those shares instead of retiring them. In the general ledger there will be an account Treasury Stock with a debit balance. (At the time of the...
What is a lump sum payment? A lump sum payment is often associated with a single amount paid to acquire a group of items. For instance, a corporation might pay $50,000 for the inventory and equipment of a small...
What is accrued rent? Definition of Accrued Rent Accrued rent is the amount of rent that has not yet been paid by the tenant or received by the landlord for a past period of time. [If the tenant always pays the monthly...
(and the related depreciation expense) are associated with constructed assets such as buildings, machinery, office equipment, furniture, fixtures, vehicles, etc. Accumulated Depreciation is also the title of the contra...
What is the provision for bad debts? Definition of Provision for Bad Debts The provision for bad debts could refer to the balance sheet account also known as the Allowance for Bad Debts, Allowance for Doubtful Accounts,...
of merchandise on May 15, but allows the customer to pay on June 15. On May 15, the company will credit its income statement account Sales and will debit its current asset account Accounts Receivable. (When the customer...
What is leverage? Definition of Leverage In accounting and finance, leverage is the use of a significant amount of debt to purchase an asset, operate a company, acquire another company, etc. Since the cost of debt is...
What is the difference between the current ratio and the quick ratio? Definition of Current Ratio The current ratio is the proportion, quotient, or relationship between the amount of a company’s current assets and the...
What is the difference between revenues and receipts? Definition of Revenues A company’s revenues are amounts it has earned as the result of business activities such as selling merchandise or performing services. Under...
What is bookkeeping? Definition of Bookkeeping Bookkeeping includes the recording, storing and retrieving of financial transactions for a business, nonprofit organization, individual, etc. Examples of Bookkeeping Tasks...
Is there a difference between an expense and an expenditure? Definition of Expense An expense is reported on the income statement in the period in which the cost matches the related sales, has expired, was used up, or...
What is the gross margin ratio? Definition of Gross Margin Ratio The gross margin ratio is a percentage resulting from dividing the amount of a company’s gross profit by the amount of its net sales. (The gross margin...
What entry is made when selling a fixed asset? Defining the Entries When Selling a Fixed Asset When a fixed asset or plant asset is sold, there are several things that must take place: The fixed asset’s depreciation...
How can I learn bookkeeping? You can learn bookkeeping at no cost on our website AccountingCoach.com. We recently expanded our Explanation of Bookkeeping, and we have many other topics that are relevant including debits...
Are earnings different from profits? Earnings and profits are often used interchangeably. Others might make a distinction between the two words. In the case of earnings per share, earnings means a corporation’s net...
What is a balance sheet and why is it prepared? Definition of Balance Sheet The balance sheet is prepared in order to report an organization’s financial position at the end of an accounting period, such as midnight on...
What is long-term debt? Definition of Long-term Debt In accounting, long-term debt generally refers to a company’s loans and other liabilities that will not become due within one year of the balance sheet date. (The...
What is the difference between an invoice and a statement? Definition of an Invoice An invoice received from a supplier shows the items purchased, the cost per unit, the total cost or extension of each item, the total of...
Advertising Expense. The accounts for revenues are almost always credited. When a bakery sells its products, it credits Sales. When a bank earns interest on its loans, it credits Loan Interest Revenues. When a company...
What is the difference between the terms capitalize and depreciate? Definition of Capitalize In accounting, the term capitalize refers to adding an amount to the balance sheet as an asset (as opposed to immediately...
What is the difference between Rent Receivable and Rent Payable? Definition of Rent Receivable Rent Receivable is an asset account in the general ledger of a landlord which reports the amount of rent that has been earned...
What is inventory valuation? Definition of Inventory Valuation In the U.S., inventory valuation is the dollar amount associated with the items remaining in a company’s inventory. Generally speaking, the amount is the...
What is a current liability? Definition of Current Liability A current liability is: An obligation that will be due within one year of the date of the company’s balance sheet, and Will require the use of a current...
What is budgeting? Definition of Budgeting Budgeting is the process of preparing detailed projections of future amounts. Companies often engage in two types of budgeting: Operational budgeting, and Capital budgeting...
What does Accumulated Depreciation tell us? Definition of Accumulated Depreciation Accumulated depreciation reports the amount of depreciation that has been recorded from the time an asset was acquired until the date of...
What is lead time in purchasing? In purchasing, lead time is the estimated time between ordering goods and receiving the goods. For instance, if 100 units of Product X are ordered on April 11 and are expected to be...
What is the earnings per share (EPS) ratio? Definition of Earnings per Share The earnings per share ratio, or simply earnings per share, or EPS, is a corporation’s 1) net income (or earnings) after tax that is...
What are dividends? In accounting, dividends often refers to the cash dividends that a corporation pays to its stockholders (or shareholders). Dividends are often paid quarterly, but could be paid at other times. For a...
Is AccountingCoach.com based on GAAP or IFRS? The materials presented on AccountingCoach.com are based on U.S. GAAP. Since the accounting materials on AccountingCoach.com are generally introductory concepts, the...
Why are some plastic cards called debit cards? I assume the name debit card relates to the reduction in the cardholder’s checking account balance at the time that the card is used. The checking account balances of a...
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