The acronym for cost of sales or for the cost of services.
The acronym for cost of sales or for the cost of services.
The rate that will discount all cash flows to a net present value of zero.
The combined federal and state income tax rate that applies to an additional amount of taxable income.
An interest rate that is not explicit. For example, if a business lends its majority owner $100,000 at 0% interest, the IRS might determine that a fair interest rate would be 6% and not 0%. The IRS will impute interest...
The average amount of inventory during a period of time. Since the amount reported in the Inventory account is the ending balance on one specific day, it is necessary to compute an average balance when relating this...
See exchange of similar nonmonetary assets.
Industries that are regulated by the government often have prescribed reporting requirements that carry over to the generally accepted reporting formats for financial reporting. For example, utilities’ balance...
An account with a balance that is the opposite of the normal balance. For example, Accumulated Depreciation is a contra asset account, because its credit balance is contra to the debit balance for an asset account....
The entry made in a journal. It will contain the date, the account name and amount to be debited, and the account name and amount to be credited. Each journal entry must have the dollars of debits equal to the dollars of...
Long term assets that are not classified as investments, property, plant, equipment, or intangible assets. An example is bond issue costs that are amortized to expense over the life of the bonds.
A company’s profit 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.
See membership dues.
Bonds with one maturity date (as opposed to serial bond).
The date a corporation pays a dividend to its shareholders. On this date the accounting entry will be a debit to Dividends Payable and a credit to Cash.
See earnings per share.
To record accounting entries into a journal.
An asset representing the right to receive the principal amount contained in a written promissory note. Principal that is to be received within one year of the balance sheet date is reported as a current asset. Any...
The cost transferred from one department to the next department in a process costing system.
See vacation pay payable.
Noncurrent assets. Assets that are not intended to be turned into cash or be consumed within one year of the balance sheet date. Long-term assets include long-term investments, property, plant, equipment, intangible...
The analysis of how profits change as volume changes. The calculation of the break-even point is a part of cost-volume-profit analysis.
A tax status allowed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
What are gross wages? Definition of Gross Wages Gross wages are the amounts earned by employees before the payroll withholding taxes and other deductions are subtracted. Sometimes gross wages is used to describe the...
A term used in break-even analysis to indicate the amount of sales that are above the break-even point. In other words, the margin of safety is the amount by which a company’s sales could decrease before the...
The formal planning for significant expenditures, such as property, plant and equipment.
A retirement plan that does not specify the amount that a retiree will receive. Rather, the employer’s obligation is to contribute a specific amount into a fund to be used for payments to retirees.
See contra equity account.
Financial ratios such as current ratio, quick ratio, receivables turnover ratio, and inventory turnover ratio. To learn more, see Explanation of Financial Ratios
Also referred to as manufacturing overhead, indirect manufacturing costs, factory burden, and manufacturing support costs. To learn more, see Explanation of Manufacturing Overhead.
The temporary contra purchases account used in a periodic inventory system which represents the discounts allowed by paying within prescribed credit terms such as 1/10 (1% can be deducted from the amount owed if paid...
See outstanding checks.
The amount that would be agreed upon by two independent persons. The amount to be received in the ordinary course of business in an arm’s length transaction.
The operating activities of a company, excluding the major segments of the company that are being discontinued.
What does arms length transaction mean? Definition of Arms Length Transaction An arms length transaction exists when two independent (unrelated) parties are each attempting to get the best deal possible. Example of Arms...
A top ranking corporation official usually reporting to the chief executive officer and responsible for the operations of the corporation.
See production service department.
See cost of goods sold.
An indicator of profitability that is measured by dividing the accounting net income by the amount invested.
Are fixed assets the same as plant assets? Definition of Fixed Assets and Plant Assets My experience indicates that people use the term fixed assets to mean the same as plant assets. As a result, I define both fixed...
A cost and/or volume of activity that is outside of an expected range.
Featured Review
"I've been a lifetime member for quite awhile now. This site is like having my college textbooks on hand, and it has helped me through multiple career paths: from Assistant Controller, to Controller, to Accounting Director, and now into Public Accounting. If ever I am stumped this is my first go to for why, how, and what to do. It is a tremendous help. Honestly, I find it much better than searching through my textbooks, and it is always up to date. Keep up the great work on this site and this wonderful resource." - Lorraine H.
Join PRO or PRO Plus and Get Lifetime Access to Our Premium Materials
Read all 2,645 reviews
For the past 52 years, Harold Averkamp (CPA, MBA) has
worked as an accounting supervisor, manager, consultant, university instructor, and innovator in teaching accounting online. He is the sole author of all the materials on AccountingCoach.com.
We now offer 10 Certificates of Achievement for Introductory Accounting and Bookkeeping: