What is disinvestment? In business, disinvestment means to sell off certain assets such as a manufacturing plant, a division or subsidiary, or product line. Disinvestment is sometimes described as the opposite of capital...
What is disinvestment? In business, disinvestment means to sell off certain assets such as a manufacturing plant, a division or subsidiary, or product line. Disinvestment is sometimes described as the opposite of capital...
What is insurance expense? Definition of Insurance Expense Under the accrual basis of accounting, insurance expense is the cost of insurance that has been incurred, has expired, or has been used up during the current...
What is the margin of safety? Definition of Margin of Safety In break-even analysis, the term margin of safety indicates the amount of sales that are above the break-even point. In other words, the margin of safety...
What is the break-even point? Definition of Break-even Point In accounting, the break-even point refers to the revenues necessary to cover a company’s total amount of fixed and variable expenses during a specified...
What is the meaning of base year? In accounting, base year may refer to the year in which a U.S. business had adopted the LIFO cost flow assumption for valuing its inventory and its cost of goods sold. Under the...
How do you reduce a company's break-even point? Definition of Break-even Point The break-even point is the level of sales where a company’s income statement will report exactly zero net income. The level of sales can...
What is elastic demand? Definition of Elastic Demand Elastic demand is the situation in which demand for a product or service is sensitive to price changes. Elastic demand is a major concern for a manufacturer that...
What is an independent variable? In accounting, an independent variable is ideally a factor that causes a change in the total amount of the dependent variable. In other words, an independent variable should be something...
Do I buy a new machine or use an old one? One technique for deciding whether to buy a new machine or to use an old machine is to look at the future cash flows if you buy a new machine and the future cash flows if you use...
What are the limitations of the payback period? Definition of Payback Period The payback period is a common (but not the best) tool for screening a company’s potential investments. It uses the potential investment’s...
What is the discounted value of expected net receipts? Let’s first define expected net receipts. These are future receipts after deducting any related payments. For example, if you are likely to receive $1,200 one year...
How do you calculate the break-even point in terms of sales? Definition of Break-even Point in Sales Dollars The break-even point in sales dollars can be calculated by dividing a company’s total fixed expenses by the...
What is the interest coverage ratio? Definition of Interest Coverage Ratio The interest coverage ratio is a financial ratio used as an indicator of a company’s ability to pay the interest on its debt. (The required...
What happens when the high-low method ends up with a negative amount? The high-low method of determining the fixed and variable portions of a mixed cost relies on only two sets of data: 1) the costs at the highest level...
How much of the contribution margin is profit on units sold in excess of the break-even point? After the break-even point is reached, the entire contribution margin on the next units sold will be profit…provided the...
What is a static budget? Definition of Static Budget A static budget is a budget in which the amounts will not change even with significant changes in volume. In contrast to a static budget, a company’s sales...
as the asset Propane Inventory. As the propane is sold, the dealer will reduce Propane Inventory for the cost of the propane sold and will increase the expense Cost of Goods Sold. Example 3. A manufacturer uses propane...
What is the dividend payout ratio? The dividend payout ratio, or simply the payout ratio, is the percentage of a corporation’s earnings that is paid out in the form of cash dividends. The calculation of the dividend...
What is trend analysis? Definition of Trend Analysis In the analysis of financial information, trend analysis is the presentation of amounts from several years all expressed as a percentage of a base year. Trend analysis...
What causes an increase in break-even point? Definition of Break-even Point The break-even point is the sales volume or sales revenue that is needed to cover the company’s expenses. In other words, it is the point...
amount for warehouse rent (and every other expense) for the next budget is $0. Any budgeted expense greater than $0 must be justified. While zero-based budgeting will be more time consuming than focusing on incremental...
What are turnover ratios? Definition of Turnover Ratios In accounting, turnover ratios are the financial ratios in which an annual income statement amount is divided by an average asset amount for the same year....
of a company’s fixed expenses assists in understanding how the retailer’s net income will change as volume changes. The total amount of fixed expenses can also be used to quickly estimate a company’s break-even...
What is an unfavorable variance? Definition of a Variance In accounting the term variance usually refers to the difference between an actual amount and a planned or budgeted amount. For example, if a company’s budget...
or moment, there is an inconsistency between the numerator and the denominator. For example, the numerator in the inventory turnover ratio is the cost of goods sold for the 365-day year, while the denominator reflects...
What is ROI? Definition of ROI ROI is the acronym for return on investment. Traditionally, ROI related 1) the income statement profit to the 2) the balance sheet investment. A drawback of ROI is that the accounting...
other than the costs of direct materials and direct labor. Hence, manufacturing overhead is referred to as an indirect cost. Generally accepted accounting principles require that a manufacturer’s inventory and the...
What are pro forma financial statements? Definition of Pro Forma Financial Statement A pro forma financial statement is one based on certain assumptions and projections (as opposed to the typical financial statement...
What is a non-discount method in capital budgeting? Definition of Non-discount Method of Capital Budgeting A non-discount method of capital budgeting is one that does not consider the time value of money. In other words,...
Where can I find financial ratios for my industry? One source for financial ratios by industry is the RMA Annual Statement Studies Financial Ratio Benchmarks. RMA is the acronym for Risk Management Association and...
What causes an unfavorable fixed overhead budget variance? An unfavorable fixed overhead budget variance results when the actual amount spent on fixed manufacturing overhead costs exceeds the budgeted amount. The fixed...
What is cash flow net of tax? I view cash flow net of tax as the amount of cash spent minus the income tax savings when the amount is deductible on the corporation’s income tax return. To illustrate this, let’s...
What is a budget variance? A budget variance results when an actual amount is different from a planned or budgeted amount. A budget variance can occur for revenues and for expenses. Join PRO to Track Progress Mark the...
What is the payback reciprocal? The payback reciprocal is a crude estimate of the rate of return for a project or investment. The payback reciprocal is computed by dividing the digit “1” by a project’s payback...
What is separation of duties? What is Separation of Duties The separation of duties is one of various internal control techniques for safeguarding a company’s assets. By separating employee’s duties, the likelihood...
What is the meaning of a favorable budget variance? Definition of a Favorable Budget Variance A favorable budget variance means that the actual amount that occurred was better for the company (or organization) than the...
, the business will have a credit card expense of $300. If July’s sales are $30,000 the credit card expense will be $900. The total credit card expense varies with sales because the fee has a constant rate of 3% of...
consider a project, its internal rate of return must equal or exceed the hurdle rate. The hurdle rate is also used to discount a project’s future cash flows to its net present value. Example of Hurdle Rate The...
What is contribution margin? Definition of Contribution Margin In accounting, contribution margin is defined as: revenues minus variable expenses. The contribution margin can be expressed as an amount and/or as a ratio...
What is capital budgeting? Definition of Capital Budgeting Capital budgeting is a process used by companies for evaluating and ranking potential capital expenditures or investments that are significant in amount. A few...
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