What is a noncurrent asset? Definition of Noncurrent Asset A noncurrent asset is an asset that is not expected to turn to cash within one year of date shown on a company’s balance sheet. (This assumes that the company...
What is a noncurrent asset? Definition of Noncurrent Asset A noncurrent asset is an asset that is not expected to turn to cash within one year of date shown on a company’s balance sheet. (This assumes that the company...
What is the difference between a land improvement and a leasehold improvement? Definition of Land Improvement A land improvement is a long-term (long-lived) asset resulting from a physical addition to a company’s land....
What is the accounts receivable collection period? Definition of Accounts Receivable Collection Period The accounts receivable collection period is similar to the days sales outstanding or the days sales in accounts...
When are expenses credited? Definition of Expenses Credited Normally, the general ledger accounts for expenses are debited and are expected to have debit balances. The reason they are debited is they cause the normal...
Are retained earnings an asset? Definition of Retained Earnings Usually, retained earnings consists of a corporation’s earnings since the corporation was formed minus the amount that was distributed to the stockholders...
What is retained earnings? Definition of Retained Earnings Retained earnings is the cumulative amount of earnings since the corporation was formed minus the cumulative amount of dividends that were declared. Retained...
What is annualizing? Definition of Annualizing Annualizing means taking a partial year amount and converting it to a full year amount. We will use several examples to illustrate how this works. Examples of Annualizing A...
What is an asset's useful life? Definition of Asset’s Useful Life An asset’s useful life is the estimated period of time (or total amount of activity) that a long-lived asset will be economically feasible for use in...
What does crossfoot mean? Definition of Crossfoot or Crossfooting Accountants and auditors use the word foot to mean adding one or more columns of numbers. When there are several columns of numbers along with a...
Should a retailer's delivery surcharges be reported as revenues or as other income? I believe that a retailer’s delivery surcharges are a price adjustment and should be reported as operating revenues. The surcharges...
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...
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....
Why does commitment and contingencies appear on the balance sheet without an amount? Definition of Commitments and Contingencies Commitments and contingencies is a balance sheet line with no amount reported. The line...
What is a credit? Definition of a Credit In bookkeeping and accounting, a credit likely refers to the amount entered on the right side of a general ledger account or to the right side of a T-account. A credit could also...
How do you record the sale of land? Definition of Sale of Land Assume that a retailer sells land that it had been holding for a future store. The retailer must remove the cost of the land from its general ledger asset...
Are salaried employees entitled to overtime pay? Some salaried employees are entitled to overtime pay. The salaried employees entitled to overtime pay are referred to as nonexempt employees. Nonexempt means that the...
Where do credit card payments get recorded? Definition of Credit Card Payments We define a credit card payment as the amount a company remits to the credit card company for the purchases that occurred by using the credit...
What is a bond? There are several business definitions for bond. A bond could be a formal debt instrument issued by a corporation or government and purchased by investors. This is the meaning when we say that a public...
What is the effective interest rate for a bond? Definition of Effective Interest Rate of a Bond The effective interest rate of a bond is usually the market interest rate and the bond’s yield-to-maturity (as opposed to...
Can a fully depreciated asset be revalued? A fully depreciated asset cannot be revalued because of accounting’s cost principle. Definition of a Fully Depreciated Asset A fully depreciated asset is one that has...
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 capex? Definition of Capex Capex is a shortened form of the term capital expenditure or capital expenditures. Capex is often used when referring one or both of the following: Actual amounts that were spent during...
What is the difference between a bookkeeper and an accounting clerk? I envision a bookkeeper as a person employed by a smaller company and being responsible for recording nearly all of its transactions. Hence, the...
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...
Where do I record the refund of a registration fee? If the registration fee refers to a fee expense that you had originally paid but the amount is now being refunded to you, I would credit the same expense account that...
How should the cost of a yearly subscription for a newspaper be recorded? Definition of Recording a Yearly Subscription Typically, yearly subscriptions are paid in advance or at the start of the subscription period. If...
How does the aging of accounts receivable determine bad debts expense? Definition of Aging of Accounts Receivable The aging of accounts receivable sorts the amounts that a company is owed (from customers who had...
What is a suspense account? Definition of Suspense Account A suspense account is a general ledger account in which amounts are temporarily recorded. The suspense account is used because the appropriate general ledger...
What is the difference between a cost and an expense? Definitions of Cost and Expense Some people use cost interchangeably with expense. However, we use the term cost to mean the amount spent to purchase an item, a...
What is a revenue expenditure? Definition of Revenue Expenditure A revenue expenditure is a cost that will be an expense in the accounting period when the expenditure takes place. Revenue expenditures are often discussed...
Does paying an account payable affect net income? Definition of Paying Accounts Payable Under the accrual basis of accounting, expenses are recorded when they have occurred, not when they are paid. Therefore, if an...
What is the profit and loss statement? Definition of Profit and Loss Statement The profit and loss statement, or P&L, is a name sometimes used to describe a company’s income statement, statement of income, statement of...
What is net income? Definition of Net Income Net income is the positive result of a company’s revenues and gains minus its expenses and losses. A negative result is referred to as net loss. (There are a few gains and...
What is the difference between wages and salary? You should be aware that some people use the terms wages and salary interchangeably. I and many others make the following distinction… Definition of Wages Wages are...
Which accounts get closed at the end of a fiscal year? The temporary accounts get closed at the end of an accounting year. Temporary accounts include all of the income statement accounts (revenues, expenses, gains,...
How do the responsibilities of a bookkeeper differ from those of an accountant? I see a bookkeeper’s responsibilities as getting the business transactions into the company’s general ledger. This involves a tremendous...
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 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...
What is the three-way match? Definition of Three-Way Match In the accounting and bookkeeping area of accounts payable, the three-way match refers to a procedure used when processing an invoice received from a vendor or...
What is a general ledger? Definition of General Ledger A general ledger is a grouping of perhaps hundreds of accounts that are used to sort and store information from a company’s business transactions. The general...
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