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 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 difference between gross profit margin and gross margin? Definition of Gross Profit Gross profit is an amount that is computed as follows: A company’s net Sales minus its cost of goods sold A product’s...
What entry is made when selling a fixed asset? Defining the Entries When Selling a Fixed Asset When a fixed asset or plant asset is sold, there are several things that must take place: The fixed asset’s depreciation...
What is book value? Definition of Book Value In accounting, book value refers to the amounts contained in the company’s general ledger accounts (or books). It is important to realize that the book value is not the same...
is less than the asset’s book value, the difference is recorded as a loss. Example of a Gain on the Sale of an Asset On March 31, a company sells its old delivery van for $4,000. The van’s original cost was $45,000...
of the accounts receivable activity in a subsidiary ledger, employees in a company’s credit department of a company can access the credit sales information without having access to any information in the general...
Is there a difference between an expense and an expenditure? Definition of Expense An expense is reported on the income statement in the period in which the cost matches the related sales, has expired, was used up, or...
30, and will not include the goods in transit as its December 31 inventory. On December 31, the customer (buyer) is the owner of the goods in transit and will need to report a purchase, a payable, and must include the...
. The most common responsibility centers are the numerous departments within a company. Examples of Responsibility Centers Responsibility centers are often categorized by the degree of authority and responsibility given...
What is the difference between depreciation expense and accumulated depreciation? Definition of Depreciation Expense Depreciation expense is the amount of depreciation that is reported on the income statement. In other...
What is prepaid insurance? Definition of Prepaid Insurance Prepaid insurance is the portion of an insurance premium that has been paid in advance and has not expired as of the date of a company’s balance sheet. This...
What is a capital expenditure versus a revenue expenditure? Definition of Capital Expenditure A capital expenditure is an amount spent to acquire or significantly improve the capacity or capabilities of a long-term asset...
on the balance sheet are the company’s resources such as cash, accounts receivable, inventory, investments, land, buildings, equipment, some intangible assets . Generally assets are reported at their cost or a lower...
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...
incurred, the products have overabsorbed the overhead costs. At the end of the accounting year, the amount of the overapplied, overassigned, or overabsorbed overhead is often credited to the cost of goods sold. The...
What is accumulated depreciation? Definition of Accumulated Depreciation Accumulated depreciation is the total amount of a plant asset’s cost that has been allocated to depreciation expense (or to manufacturing...
the depreciation expense of an asset, the expected amount of the salvage value is not included. Example of Salvage Value Assume that a plant asset has a cost of $325,000 and is expected to have a salvage value of...
by reading our Nonmanufacturing Overhead (Explanation). 1. Selling expenses should be allocated to the cost of goods sold for external financial reporting. True Wrong. False Right! 2. According to U.S. accounting...
Depreciation However, U.S. companies continue to use the term reserve in regards to the accounting for inventories using the LIFO cost flow method. For example, the company will use a contra inventory account entitled...
What is the difference between revenues and earnings? Definition of Revenues and Earnings Revenues are the amounts earned from providing goods or services to customers during the period shown in the heading of the income...
. The accounting rule requires inventory to be reported at the lower of its cost or its net realizable value (NRV). The amount of the inventory write-down is reported on the current income statement. To illustrate,...
Our Explanation of Financial Ratios includes calculations and descriptions of 15 financial ratios. As you calculate the financial ratios you will also gain a deeper understanding of a company's operations and financial...
Our Explanation of Nonmanufacturing Overhead provides examples of a manufacturer's expenses which are not considered to be costs of a product for financial reporting. However, they are operating expenses that will have...
A cost and/or volume of activity that is outside of an expected range.
See cost-volume-profit (CVP).
The acronym for cost of goods sold.
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 gross profit? Definition of Gross Profit Gross profit is defined as net sales minus the cost of goods sold. Gross profit is sometimes referred to as gross margin. (However, gross margin can also mean the gross...
What are the accounting principles, assumptions, and concepts? Definition of Accounting Principles, Assumptions, and Concepts The basic underlying accounting principles, assumptions, and concepts include the following:...
Are depreciation, depletion and amortization similar? In accounting the terms depreciation, depletion and amortization often involve the movement of costs from the balance sheet to the income statement in a systematic...
of Sundry Debtors I suspect that the term sundry was more common when bookkeeping was done manually. For instance, prior to the low cost of computers and accounting software, the bookkeeper had to add a page to the...
How does an expense affect the balance sheet? Definition of Expense An expense is a cost that has been used up, expired, or is directly related to the earning of revenues. Most of a company’s expenses fall into the...
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...
Why isn't a key employee reported as an asset on the balance sheet? While an employee could be an organization’s most valuable asset, accountants record past transactions that can be measured. Since an employee...
balance could begin by comparing the balance with an aging of the accounts receivable. Another example is reconciling the balance in the general ledger account Utilities Payable. This might be accomplished by computing...
service department is responsible for its costs. Hence, the service departments are separate cost centers. The costs incurred by the service departments are considered to be indirect manufacturing costs that ultimately...
. For example, a small retailer can compare her cost of goods sold (perhaps 78%) to a much larger retailer’s cost of goods sold (perhaps 80%). Similarly, one company’s inventory might be 33% (of total assets) while a...
the insured company will be paid the cost of the inventory lost minus the amount of the insurance policy deductible. Example of Recording Insurance Claim for Inventory Loss Assume that a company received $105,000 from...
What is leverage? Definition of Leverage In accounting and finance, leverage is the use of a significant amount of debt to purchase an asset, operate a company, acquire another company, etc. Since the cost of debt is...
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