What is the annual wage limit? Definition of Annual Wage Limit Annual wage limit is a payroll accounting term that is associated with the Social Security payroll tax. (The annual wage limit is also known as the annual...
What is the annual wage limit? Definition of Annual Wage Limit Annual wage limit is a payroll accounting term that is associated with the Social Security payroll tax. (The annual wage limit is also known as the annual...
Why do bonds rarely sell for their maturity value? The reasons why bonds rarely sell for their maturity value are: The interest paid is usually fixed at the interest rate that is stated on the face of the bond. As a...
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...
What is GAAP? Definition of GAAP GAAP is the acronym for generally accepted accounting principles. GAAP consists of the following: Basic underlying accounting principles, assumptions, and concepts such as the cost...
What is a recurring journal entry? Definition of Recurring Journal Entry A recurring journal entry is a journal entry that is recorded in every accounting period. Some recurring journal entries will involve the same...
What are some examples of financing activities? Definition of Financing Activities Financing activities often refers to the cash flows from financing activities, which is one of the three main sections of the statement...
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...
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 employee's Social Security tax rate for 2022 and 2023? Social Security Payroll Tax for 2022 The employee’s Social Security payroll tax rate for 2022 (January 1 through December 31, 2022) is 6.2% of the...
What is the meaning of systematic and rational allocation? Definition of Systematic and Rational Allocation Systematic and rational allocation is typically included in the definition of depreciation. In this context, it...
What is the days' sales in inventory ratio? Definition of Days’ Sales in Inventory The financial ratio days’ sales in inventory tells you the number of days it took a company to sell its inventory during a recent...
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 equivalent unit of production? Definition of Equivalent Unit of Production An equivalent unit of production is an expression of the amount of work done by a manufacturer on units of output that are partially...
How do you calculate the payroll accrual? Definition of Payroll Accrual The payroll accrual is the amounts a company owes for work done by employees, but the amounts have not yet been recorded in the company’s general...
What is a blank endorsement? In the case of a check payable to John Smith (the payee), a blank endorsement would be the signature of John Smith on the back side of the check without any other words above or below his...
What are some reasons that cause the balance on the bank statement to differ from the cash balance on the books? Reasons a Bank Balance Will Differ from a Company’s Balance Some of the reasons for a difference between...
What is preferred stock? Definition of Preferred Stock Preferred stock is a type of capital stock issued by some corporations in addition to its common stock. Preferred stock is also known as preference stock. The word...
What is the meaning of arrears? In accounting we use the word arrears in at least two ways. One use involves the omitted dividends on cumulative preferred stock. For example, if a corporation has cumulative preferred...
How do I record money received for an insurance claim on inventory loss? Definition of Money from Insurance Claim for Inventory Loss Let’s assume that a company has insurance on its inventory and its inventory 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 does it mean to report expenses by function? Definition of Reporting Expenses by Function Reporting expenses by function means to classify and report expenses according to the type of activity for which the expenses...
What is other comprehensive income? Definition of Other Comprehensive Income Other comprehensive income, or OCI, consists of items that have an effect on the balance sheet amounts, but the effect is not reported on the...
What is COS? Definition of COS In accounting, the acronym COS could indicate either cost of sales or cost of services. The income statement of a manufacturer or a retailer might use the term cost of sales or it might use...
What is the difference between public sector and private sector? Definition of Public Sector Public sector refers to: government-owned organizations, and government-provided services (Note: public sector entity is...
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...
Why is an increase in inventory shown as a negative amount in the statement of cash flows? Meaning of a Negative Amount on Statement of Cash Flows A negative amount on the statement of cash flows (SCF) indicates that the...
What is practical capacity? Definition of Practical Capacity Practical capacity is a manufacturer’s level of output (often expressed in machine hours, barrels, pounds, etc.). Practical capacity is less than its...
What is boilerplate? In business, boilerplate is a term to describe the standard wording that is contained in warranties and other documents. Generally, the information that is boilerplate is not subject to change....
What is prime cost? Definition of Prime Cost In cost accounting, the prime cost of a manufactured product is the combination of the following: Direct materials cost Direct labor cost The indirect manufacturing costs...
What is an outlier? In cost accounting, an outlier could be a cost or its related level of activity that is out of line with other observations. An outlier can be detected by plotting each observation’s cost and...
Are dividend payments shown as an expense on the income statement? Definition of Dividend Payments The cash dividends paid to stockholders are a distribution of the corporation’s earnings. Dividends are not an expense...
What is a noncash expense? Definition of a Noncash Expense A noncash expense is an expense that is reported on the income statement of the current accounting period, but the related cash payment took place in another...
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...
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 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 are nonmanufacturing overhead costs? Definition of Nonmanufacturing Overhead Costs Nonmanufacturing overhead costs are the business expenses that are outside of a company’s manufacturing operations. In other...
What is the difference between income and profit? Definition of Income The term income is used differently by many people. For some, income means the money coming in, such as What is your family income? What is your...
What is the distinction between debtor and creditor? Definition of Debtor A debtor is a person or enterprise that owes money to another party. The party to whom the money is owed might be a supplier, bank, or other...
What is the full disclosure principle? Definition of Full Disclosure Principle The full disclosure principle requires a company to provide the necessary information so that people who are accustomed to reading financial...
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