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 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 burn rate? In business, burn rate is usually the monthly amount of cash spent in the early years of a start-up business. Burn rate is an important metric since the new business must spend time and money...
What is ERP? Definition of ERP In accounting, ERP is the acronym for enterprise resource planning. ERP could be described as a database software package that supports all of a business’s processes and operations...
What is a limitation of the inventory turnover ratio? Definition of Inventory Turnover Ratio The inventory turnover ratio is often calculated by dividing a company’s cost of goods sold for a recent year by the average...
What is the cost of sales? Definition of Cost of Sales Cost of sales is often a line shown on a manufacturer’s or retailer’s income statement instead of cost of goods sold. The cost of sales for a manufacturer is the...
Why would a business change its chart of accounts? There can be several reasons for a business to change its chart of accounts. One reason for changing the chart of accounts is to better match how the business is...
How can a company have a profit but not have cash? Definition of Profit Under the accrual basis of accounting, profit is the amount of revenues earned minus the amount of expenses incurred. Note that revenues are not...
What are gross sales? Definition of Gross Sales Gross sales are the amounts a company earned from selling its products. The amounts originate from the company’s sales invoices but the total will be adjusted to the...
Does a company have to use the IRS years of useful life for depreciation? For the company’s financial statements, the economic life of the asset should be used—not the years of useful life required for income tax...
What is EBIT? EBIT is the acronym for earnings before interest and taxes. In other words, EBIT is a corporation’s net income assuming it had no interest expense and no income tax expense. (Since the amount of earnings...
How can a business increase its cash flow from operations? A business can increase its cash flow from operations (or operating activities) by looking closely at each of its current assets and current liabilities. For...
How do you calculate ending inventory? Physically Counting the Items in Inventory One method for calculating the cost of a company’s ending inventory is to 1) physically count the quantity of each of the items in...
Does the accrual method apply to the purchase of equipment? The accrual method does apply to the purchase of equipment (as well as applying to revenues and expenses). To illustrate, let’s assume that on December 29 a...
What is petty cash? Definition of Petty Cash Petty cash or a petty cash fund is a small amount of money available for paying small expenses without writing a check. Petty Cash is also the title of the general ledger...
What is a vendor? Definition of Vendor In the context of accounts payable, a vendor is a person or business that supplies goods or services to the company. Another term for vendor is supplier. The term vendor can also be...
What is the meaning of pro rata? Pro rata is a Latin term that means in proportion. Pro rata is related to prorate, a term used in cost accounting. To illustrate the term pro rata, let’s assume that a company’s...
How do I record exterior cement work? Is it an asset or an expense? If the cement work was done to repair or maintain existing cement work, then the expenditure should be recorded as an expense. Even if the cost is very...
If I want a gross margin of 25%, what percent should I mark up my product? Definition of Gross Margin Gross margin as a percentage is the gross profit divided by the selling price. For example, if a product sells for...
What are the notes to the financial statements? Definition of Notes to Financial Statements The notes to the financial statements are a required, integral part of a company’s external financial statements. They are...
What are cost flow assumptions? Definition of Cost Flow Assumptions The term cost flow assumptions refers to the manner in which costs are removed from a company’s inventory and are reported as the cost of goods sold....
What is the reorder point? Definition of Reorder Point The reorder point is the quantity of units in inventory at which time an order should be placed to purchase additional units. The reorder point is calculated by...
What is the free cash flow ratio? Definition of Free Cash Flow Free cash flow for a year is an amount (as opposed to a ratio or percentage) usually defined as: net cash provided by operating activities for the year minus...
What is cost incurred? Definition of Cost Incurred A cost incurred is a cost that a company (or other organization) becomes liable for. Example of Cost Incurred Assume that a retailer begins operations on December 1 and...
What is bad debts? Definition of Bad Debts The term bad debts usually refers to accounts receivable (or trade accounts receivable) that will not be collected. (Bad debts is also used for notes receivable that will not be...
What does it mean to reclassify an amount? Definition of Reclassify an Amount To reclassify an amount likely means to move an amount from one general ledger account to another general ledger account. Example of...
How do you record a deposit on utilities? Definition of Deposit on Utilities A new customer of a public utility (electricity, natural gas, telephone, etc.) may be required to pay a refundable amount known as a utility...
What are consolidated statements of operations? Consolidated statements of operations is the heading appearing on the financial statement also referred to as the income statement. In a small survey of 14 U.S....
How do you account for the rebate on an automobile? The rebate on the purchase of an automobile should be recorded as a reduction of the automobile’s cost. The lower automobile cost will result in lower depreciation...
Why are the amounts on the financial statements rounded to thousands or millions? Definition of Rounding Amounts on Financial Statements Rounding the amounts on a company’s financial statements means dropping the less...
What are sundry expenses? Definition of Sundry Expenses In accounting and bookkeeping, sundry expenses are expenses that are small in amount and rare in occurrence. For these rare and insignificant expenses, a company...
What is apportionment? An apportionment is an allocation based on some proportions. I associate the term apportionment with a corporation’s taxable income that was earned in many states within the U.S. In that...
How do you divide the cost of real estate into land and building? Dividing the Cost of Real Estate into Land and Building In accounting, the cost of real estate must be divided into: The cost of land (because land is not...
during March is $__________. 22. The projected balance in Accounts Receivable at March 31 is $__________. Use the following information for Questions 23 - 25: A company's production budget shows the following...
Our Explanation of Financial Statements provides you with the highlights of each of the five external financial statements issued by U.S. corporations. Our insights will give you a good understanding of what the...
of __________ service or support departments. 5. To be in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles, selling and administrative expenses and interest expense should be allocated to the cost of products...
, a not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit, will issue a statement of _____________. ACTIVITIES ISIETVTICA Unscramble ACTIVITIES VCIITISEAT Unscramble 2. The balance sheet of a nonprofit will likely have as part of...
Unscramble HISTORICAL RSTCAIIOHL Unscramble 4. __________ practices allows the format of a public utility's balance sheet to be different from that of a manufacturer. INDUSTRY TDUIYSNR Unscramble INDUSTRY YIRNDTSU...
Our Explanation of Income Statement helps you learn the most important features of a corporation's income statement (also known as the statement of operations or profit and loss statement). We provide more understanding...
depreciation is the declining-balance method often used for U.S. income tax depreciation.) Compared to the straight-line depreciation method, the sum-of-the-years’-digits method results in greater depreciation in the...
Our Explanation of Accounting Equation (or bookkeeping equation) illustrates how the double-entry system keeps the accounting equation in balance. You will see how the revenues and expenses on the income statement are...
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