Also referred to as a sunk cost. A past cost is not relevant to a decision.
Also referred to as a sunk cost. A past cost is not relevant to a decision.
The change in total costs in response to the change in some activity. For example, some of the costs of owning and operating a vehicle will increase in total with an increase in miles driven. These are referred to as...
What is a debenture? A debenture is an unsecured bond. In other words, a debenture is a bond without a lien on specific assets owned by the issuing corporation. Join PRO to Track Progress Mark the Question as Read...
Usually means every two weeks. For example, if an employee is paid every other Thursday, the employee is paid biweekly. The person paid biweekly will receive 26 paychecks per year. (People paid two times per month...
A potential liability dependent upon some future event occurring or not occurring. For example, a company is named as a defendant in a $1 million lawsuit. Does that mean the company automatically has a liability of $1...
An individual owner of a business that is not incorporated.
See stockholder.
See International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).
The amounts withheld for employees’ checks for Social Security tax, Medicare tax, federal income tax, state income tax, and voluntary deductions such as United Way, union dues, 401(k) contributions,...
A classification on a single-step income statement for both operating and nonoperating expenses and losses that pertain to the time interval shown in the heading of the income statement.
Receivables due from customers. See accounts receivable.
One of the cost flow assumptions associated with the periodic inventory system. The first (oldest) costs are removed from inventory first and are charged to the income statement as cost of goods sold. The recent costs...
A stock split, such as a 2-for-1, means that every stockholder will have twice as many shares as was held previously. Accordingly, the market price per share after the split should be one-half of the market price...
A mathematical tool to optimize profits (contribution margin) given a limited amount of inputs and other constraints.
What is a basis point? A basis point is a hundredth (1/100) of a percentage point. Expressed another way, one percentage point is equal to 100 basis points. This means that if an interest rate drops by 1/2 of a...
Is the direct method still used in the statement of cash flows? The direct method is one of two methods allowed for preparing the statement of cash flows (or cash flow statement). The direct method is recommended by the...
See full disclosure principle.
Relevant or meaningful data.
One hundredth (1/100) of a percentage point. In other words, one percentage point is equal to 100 basis points. The difference between an interest rate of 6.5% and 6.75% is 25 basis points.
A past, historical cost. They are called sunk because a past cost cannot be changed and decisions involve only the present and the future.
A difference between an actual cost and a budgeted or standard cost, and the actual cost is the lesser amount. In the case of revenues, a favorable variance occurs when the actual revenues are greater than the budgeted...
A series of equal amounts occurring at the end of each equal time interval. Also known as an ordinary annuity. An example would be the monthly payments on a loan. Another example is the semiannual interest on a bond.
Cost that is considered to be part of the cost of merchandise. For a retailer, the inventoriable cost is the cost from the supplier plus all costs necessary to get the item into inventory and ready for sale, e.g....
A company’s loss before nonoperating or other items. Other or nonoperating items include interest income, interest expense, and gains and losses on sale of assets used in the business, loss on lawsuit, etc.
Used in conjunction with cost or expense behavior. Mixed expenses consist of a constant or fixed portion and a variable portion. For example, sales salaries would be a mixed expense if each sales person’s...
What is the monthly close? Definition of Monthly Close In accounting, monthly close is a series of steps and procedures that are followed so that a company’s monthly financial statements are in compliance with the...
What is workers' compensation insurance? Workers’ compensation insurance is likely to be an insurance policy obtained by a company to cover the medical costs and lost wages for its employees’ work-related injuries...
See chief executive officer.
The result of subtracting total liabilities from total assets. It is also the term used by not-for-profit organizations instead of owner’s equity or stockholders’ equity. To learn more see our Explanation of...
A listing of the materials included in a product. A bill of material could be thought of as a bakery’s recipe for producing one of its products.
The abbreviation for the accounting and bookkeeping term debit.
Costs that have been divided up and assigned to periods, departments, products, etc. In depreciation it is the asset’s cost that is assigned to each of the years that the asset is in use. In cost accounting it is...
A phrase used in depreciation and amortization to indicate that the expense is being allocated on a logical basis (because a cause and effect relationship does not exist).
Approximate amounts. Accountants use estimates for depreciation expense, warranty expense, bad debts expense, monthly accruals for utilities, bonuses, income taxes, etc. Also see change in accounting estimate.
The increase in a carrying amount. Also see write-up work.
How can I determine the inventory methods used by other companies in my industry? Definition of Inventory Methods Inventory methods refers to the order or manner in which a company moves its actual costs out of the...
To loan money for a limited time in exchange for the borrower’s promise of repayment and interest compensation.
Delivery expense to be paid by the seller when its merchandise is sold with terms of FOB destination. This is an operating expense and is not included in the cost of merchandise.
Regular fees or charges often paid to an organization at regular intervals. For example, a state CPA organization might have annual dues of $200.
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