Why are accruals needed every month? Reasons for Monthly Accruals Accrual adjusting entries are needed monthly only if a company issues monthly financial statements. Two reasons for the monthly accrual adjusting entries...
Why are accruals needed every month? Reasons for Monthly Accruals Accrual adjusting entries are needed monthly only if a company issues monthly financial statements. Two reasons for the monthly accrual adjusting entries...
What is the difference between stockholder and stakeholder? Definition of Stockholder A stockholder or shareholder is the owner of shares of a corporation’s common or preferred stock. Definition of Stakeholder A...
What is equity? Definitions and Examples of Equity Equity has several definitions that pertain to accounting: Equity can indicate an ownership interest in a business, such as stockholders’ equity or owner’s equity....
What is the matching principle? Definition of Matching Principle The matching principle is one of the basic underlying guidelines in accounting. The matching principle directs a company to report an expense on its income...
What is a credit balance? Definition of Credit Balance In accounting and bookkeeping, a credit balance is the ending amount found on the right side of a general ledger account or subsidiary ledger account. Examples of...
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...
What is the bookkeeping equation? Definition of Bookkeeping Equation The bookkeeping equation (or accounting equation) is similar to the structure of the balance sheet: For a sole proprietorship: Assets = Liabilities +...
In a bank reconciliation, what happens to the outstanding checks of the previous month? Definition of Outstanding Checks Outstanding checks are checks written by a company, but the checks have not cleared the bank...
Why do companies use cost flow assumptions to cost their inventories? Cost flow assumptions are necessary because of inflation and the changing costs experienced by companies. If costs were completely stable, it...
Why Does Inventory Get Reported on Some Income Statements? Reporting of Inventory on Financial Statements Inventory is an asset and its ending balance is reported in the current asset section of a company’s balance...
What is a deferred cost? Definition of Deferred Cost A deferred cost is a cost that is already recorded in a company’s accounts, but at least some of the cost should not be expensed until a future accounting period....
What is a natural business year? Definition of Natural Business Year A natural business year is the period of 12 consecutive months (or 52-53 consecutive weeks) ending at a low point of the organization’s activities...
Are payroll withholding taxes an expense or a liability? Definition of Payroll Withholding Taxes Payroll withholding taxes are amounts withheld from employees’ wages and salaries. The amounts withheld are actually the...
Why and how do you adjust the inventory account in the periodic method? Definition of Inventory Account in Periodic Method Under the periodic method or periodic system, the account Inventory is dormant throughout the...
What is a toxic asset? I would define a toxic asset as an investment whose value has dropped significantly and there is no market in which to sell the asset. To illustrate, let’s assume that at the peak of the real...
What is the consistency principle? Definition of Consistency In accounting, consistency requires that a company’s financial statements follow the same accounting principles, methods, practices and procedures from one...
What is the purpose of the Allowance for Doubtful Accounts? Definition of Allowance for Doubtful Accounts The Allowance for Doubtful Accounts or Allowance for Uncollectible Accounts is a general ledger contra account...
How do I learn of new accounting rules? The U.S. accounting rules issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) can be found on its free website www.fasb.org/st/. There you will find: FASB Statements...
What is a contra expense account? Definition of Contra Expense Account A contra expense account is a general ledger expense account that will intentionally have a credit balance (instead of the debit balance that is...
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...
What are the effects of depreciation? Definition of Depreciation Depreciation is the systematic allocation of the cost of a company’s assets used in its business from the balance sheet to the income statement (as an...
Are bonds payable reported as a current liability if they mature in six months? Definition of Bonds Payable Bonds payable are formal, long-term obligations that promise to pay interest every six months and the principal...
Are LIFO inventory amounts ever written-up to their market value? LIFO inventory amounts will not be written-up, even when the current market value of the inventory is far greater than the amount reported on the balance...
What is the total asset turnover ratio? Definition of Total Asset Turnover Ratio The total asset turnover ratio indicates the relationship between a company’s net sales for a specified year to the average amount of...
What is the difference between an invoice and a voucher? Definition of an Invoice An invoice received from a vendor is a billing for goods or services that it had provided. The vendor’s invoice will include the...
What is a bond sinking fund? Definition of Bond Sinking Fund A bond sinking fund is a corporation’s noncurrent asset that is restricted for the purpose of redeeming or buying back its bonds payable. Bonds that require...
What is a purchase return? Definition of Purchase Return A purchase return occurs when a buyer returns merchandise that it had purchased from a supplier. Since the return of purchased merchandise is time consuming and...
What is the difference between gross margin and markup? Definition of Gross Margin Gross margin or gross profit is defined as net sales minus the cost of goods sold. However, some people intend for the term gross margin...
When do you put parentheses ( ) around a number? Definition of Amounts in Parentheses Parentheses around a number could have a variety of meanings. For example, parentheses could indicate any of the following: A negative...
Is the provision for doubtful debts an operating expense? Definition of Provision for Doubtful Debts Some companies use Provision for Doubtful Debts as the name of the contra-asset account which is reported on the...
What is the accounting entry when an order is received? There is no accounting entry recorded in a company’s general ledger accounts when an order is received. The reason is that a sale or sales revenues has not yet...
What is the difference between gross profit margin and gross margin? Definition of Gross Profit Gross profit is an amount that is computed as follows: A company’s net Sales minus its cost of goods sold A product’s...
What is salvage value? Definition of Salvage Value In accounting, salvage value is the amount that is expected to be received at the end of a plant asset‘s useful life. Salvage value is sometimes referred to as...
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 is "deficit" appearing in stockholders' equity? Definition of Deficit Within Stockholders’ Equity The term deficit is used within the stockholders’ equity section of a corporation’s balance sheet in place of...
Are liabilities always a bad thing? Definition of Liabilities Liabilities are a company’s obligations and are usually defined as a claim on the company’s assets. However, liabilities (and stockholders’ equity) can...
What is the difference between expense and loss? Definition of Expense An expense is a cost that a company incurs or uses up when it earns revenues. Examples of Expenses A few examples of the many expenses that a company...
Why is it necessary to allocate a lump sum payment to individual items? It is necessary to allocate a lump sum payment to individual items in order to record a fair portion of the lump sum in each of the proper general...
What is contained on a 10-column worksheet? The 10-column worksheet that I am familiar with will have the general ledger account titles in the first column followed by ten columns of amounts. There will be one debit and...
What is a creditor? Definition of Creditor A creditor could be a bank, supplier or person that has provided money, goods, or services to a company and expects to be paid at a later date. In other words, the company owes...
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