What is an accounting period? Definition of Accounting Period An accounting period is the period of time covered by a company’s financial statements. Common accounting periods for external financial statements include...
What is an accounting period? Definition of Accounting Period An accounting period is the period of time covered by a company’s financial statements. Common accounting periods for external financial statements include...
with an accrual adjusting entry prior to issuing the financial statements. Example of Accrued Income One example of accrued income is the interest a company earns on a bond investment. To illustrate, let’s assume that...
What is the cost to store inventory? Definition of Cost to Store Inventory The cost to store, hold or carry inventory is the total of the following: Cost of the space used for storing inventory, such as rent, heat,...
What is income smoothing? Definition of Income Smoothing Income smoothing involves reducing the fluctuations in a corporation’s earnings. The reductions in fluctuations can result from some legitimate business methods...
Where in the chart of accounts is a suspense account located? Suspense Account in the Chart of Accounts A suspense account could be located in any one of these sections of an organization’s chart of accounts: Asset...
How do I calculate depreciation using the sum of the years' digits? Definition of the Sum-of-the-Years’-Digits Depreciation The sum-of-the-years’-digits depreciation (SYD depreciation) is one method for calculating...
What are the required financial statements? The required financial statements for U.S. business corporations are: Statement of income. This financial statement is also known as the statement of operations, statement of...
What is an imprest system of petty cash? Definition of Petty Cash Petty cash refers to a small amount of currency and coins that a company uses to pay small amounts without writing a check. The amount of petty cash (also...
What causes a reduction in Accumulated Depreciation? Definition of Accumulated Depreciation Accumulated Depreciation is a general ledger contra asset account associated with a company’s property, plant and equipment....
Why is a product that sells for $50 reported in inventory at its cost of $40? Generally, items in inventory are valued at their cost—not their selling prices—because of the cost principle. Another reason for not...
What is obsolete inventory? Definition of Obsolete Inventory Obsolete inventory refers to products that a company had purchased or produced which cannot be sold. The obsolete items may be the result of one or more of the...
How many days after a month ends should the bank reconciliation be done? Definition Bank Reconciliation The bank reconciliation (if prepared or reviewed by someone other than the person with access to the checking...
What is FICA? Definition of FICA FICA is the acronym for Federal Insurance Contributions Act. FICA consists of the U.S. Social Security payroll tax and the Medicare payroll tax. The FICA payroll tax is withheld from...
What is miscellaneous expense? Definition of Miscellaneous Expense In accounting, miscellaneous expense may refer to a general ledger account in which small, infrequent transaction amounts are recorded. The account...
Is a security deposit a current asset? Definition of Security Deposit A security deposit is often an amount paid by a tenant to a landlord to hold until the tenant moves. The amount of the security deposit is refundable...
What is the current ratio? Definition of Current Ratio The current ratio is a financial ratio that shows the proportion of a company’s current assets to its current liabilities. The current ratio is often classified as...
Why is there a large difference between share value and stockholders' equity? There can be many reasons why the market value of a corporation’s stock is much greater than the amount of stockholders’ equity reported...
Kindly illustrate various depreciation methods. Definition of Depreciation Depreciation is the systematic allocation of the cost of an asset to Depreciation Expenses over the asset’s useful life. If an asset will have...
What are the stockholders' equity accounts? The stockholders’ equity accounts are balance sheet accounts and a part of the accounting equation Assets = Liabilities + Stockholders’ Equity. In this light you can view...
Where can I get official information for federal payroll taxes? For official information on federal payroll taxes we recommend the Internal Revenue Service Publication 15 which is known by two names: Circular E and...
Why does a company debit Purchases instead of Inventory? Definition of Purchases and Inventory When a company uses the periodic inventory system the amount of the company’s inventory is determined by a physical count...
Why will some asset accounts have a credit balance? Definition of Asset Account Balances In accounting, asset accounts normally have debit balances. That is, the general ledger accounts for assets typically have their...
Do variance accounts have an impact on financial statements? Or are they for performance evaluation only? Since the financial statements must reflect the cost principle, both the standard costs and the variances must be...
What is revenue? Definition of Revenue Revenue is the amount a company receives from selling goods and/or providing services to its customers and clients. A company’s revenue, which is reported on the first line of its...
What is a cash cow? A cash cow is often a profitable product or service that dominates a market and generates far more cash than is needed to maintain its market position. Companies may use the money from the cash cow to...
Why does an inventory error affect two periods? Definition of Inventory Error An inventory error could be the result of any of the following: Omitting some items when physically counting inventory Double counting some...
Why would a company use LIFO instead of FIFO? Definitions of FIFO and LIFO FIFO and LIFO are two of the cost flow assumptions used by U.S. companies with inventory items. FIFO moves the first/oldest costs from inventory...
What is the statement of cash flows? Definition of Statement of Cash Flows The statement of cash flows (SCF) is one of the required external financial statements. The SCF is commonly referred to as the cash flow...
What is a controller's cushion? A controller’s cushion or controller’s reserve involves temporarily recording too much expense for an item that the controller calculates. For example, the controller might budget...
Where is a contingent liability recorded? Recording a Contingent Liability A potential or contingent liability that is both probable and the amount can be estimated is recorded as 1) an expense or loss on the income...
What is the operating cycle? Operating cycle definition The operating cycle is the time required for a company’s cash to be put into its operations and then return to the company’s cash account. Operating cycle...
What is inventory shrinkage? Definition of Inventory Shrinkage Inventory shrinkage is a term to describe the loss of inventory. The shrinkage could be the result of theft, breakage, poor recordkeeping, etc. The term...
What is operating income? Definition of Operating Income Operating income is defined as a corporation’s operating revenues minus its operating expenses. Operating income will be shown as a subtotal on many...
Where is accrued income reported in the balance sheet? Definition of Accrued Income Accrued income refers to amounts that have been earned, but the amounts have not yet been received. For example, a corporation may have...
How does petty cash affect expenses? Definition of Petty Cash Petty cash is a small amount of currency and coins that a company has available to make very small payments instead of requesting and processing a company...
What is the difference between public companies and public sector? Definition of Public Companies Public companies are those businesses owned by individuals (and not by a government). Definition of Publicly-Held...
Will I be able to pass the CPA Exam after studying the accounting material on AccountingCoach.com? AccountingCoach.com contains introductory accounting material. While you need to master the principles and concepts...
What is an overdraft? Definition of Overdraft An overdraft (also known as a bank overdraft) generally means that the amount of a company’s checks being presented at the bank for payment exceeded the amount on deposit....
How do you calculate staff turnover? To calculate staff turnover, I would use the W-2 wage statements for the most recent year. My first step would be to sort the W-2’s into meaningful groups such as full-time...
What are prepaid expenses? Definition of Prepaid Expenses Prepaid expenses are future expenses that have been paid in advance. In other words, prepaid expenses are costs that have been paid but are not yet used up or...
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