Our Explanation of Accounting Basics uses a simple story to introduce important accounting concepts and terminology. It illustrates how transactions will be included in a company's financial statements.
Our Explanation of Accounting Basics uses a simple story to introduce important accounting concepts and terminology. It illustrates how transactions will be included in a company's financial statements.
Our Explanation of Bookkeeping provides you with a rich understanding of the recording of transactions. It then discusses the additional steps necessary for preparing accurate financial statements. This is great for...
Our Explanation of the Balance Sheet provides you with a basic understanding of a corporation's balance sheet (or statement of financial position). You will gain insights regarding the assets, liabilities, and...
account with the title Inventory Change or with the title (Increase) Decrease in Inventory. This account is presented as an adjustment to purchases in determining the company’s cost of goods sold. Example of Inventory...
inventory details Since the ending inventory of one accounting period will automatically become the beginning inventory for the next accounting period, the calculation of the cost of goods sold for both accounting...
What is the meaning of pro rata? Pro rata is a Latin term that means in proportion. Pro rata is related to prorate, a term used in cost accounting. To illustrate the term pro rata, let’s assume that a company’s...
with significant amounts of inventory and plant assets. For example, when inventory is measured by using the first-in, first-out cost flow assumption under US GAAP, the actual historical cost of inventory that is...
Under the accrual method of accounting, this account reports the amount of worker compensation insurance expense that pertains to the period indicated in the heading of the income statement, whether or not the company...
not have been avoided, then the sales tax would be part of the cost of the merchandise purchased. If the merchandise has not been sold, the entire cost will be reported as inventory, a current asset on the balance...
and finished goods. The notes to the financial statements will also described how the manufacturer’s inventory is valued. For example, the notes will disclose whether FIFO lower of cost or net realizable value, LIFO,...
payment of $450,000 in order to acquire a building, the land on which the building sits, and also some equipment. The lump sum payment means that the total cost of $450,000 has to be allocated among three general ledger...
How do I record exterior cement work? Is it an asset or an expense? If the cement work was done to repair or maintain existing cement work, then the expenditure should be recorded as an expense. Even if the cost is very...
How are fully depreciated assets reported on the balance sheet? Definition of Fully Depreciated Asset A fully depreciated asset is a depreciable asset for which no additional depreciation expense will be recorded. In...
produced. In other words, the utility bill will be clinging to the units produced. Some of the utility cost will be clinging to the units in inventory and therefore will be part of the cost of the asset inventory. Some...
Can a fully depreciated asset be revalued? A fully depreciated asset cannot be revalued because of accounting’s cost principle. Definition of a Fully Depreciated Asset A fully depreciated asset is one that has...
What is the purpose of depreciation? Purpose of Depreciation The purpose of depreciation is to achieve the matching principle of accounting. That is, a company is attempting to match the historical cost of a productive...
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...
Our Explanation of Financial Statements provides you with the highlights of each of the five external financial statements issued by U.S. corporations. Our insights will give you a good understanding of what the...
statement that is distributed to someone outside of the corporation must comply with generally accepted accounting principles (referred to as GAAP or US GAAP). US GAAP includes basic underlying concepts such as the cost...
A gain from holding an asset and the gain has not yet been reported in the financial statements. As an example, assume that a company purchased land many years ago and continues to hold the land. The land was purchased...
This could be the difference between cost and the selling price. For example, a retailer may markup its cost by 50% to arrive at a selling price. In the retail method of costing inventory, markup is used to mean the...
What does it mean to check the extensions and to foot an invoice? To check the extensions on a purchase invoice means to verify that the number of units of each item multiplied by its unit cost agrees with the total...
Do variance accounts have an impact on financial statements? Or are they for performance evaluation only? Since the financial statements must reflect the cost principle, both the standard costs and the variances must be...
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...
The principle that requires a company to match expenses with related revenues in order to report a company’s profitability during a specified time interval. Ideally, the matching is based on a cause and effect...
A technique used to determine the variable rate (slope of a total cost line) of an independent variable and the fixed amount by using just two points: the highest point and the lowest point. For example, if at the...
of the monetary unit assumption, accountants at a U.S. corporation do not hesitate to add the cost of a parcel of land purchased in 2024 to the cost of another parcel of land that had been purchased in 2004. (See...
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...
How do you report a write-down in inventory? Definition of Write-down in Inventory Under FIFO and average cost methods, when the net realizable value of inventory is less than the cost of the inventory, there needs to be...
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...
What is the effect on financial ratios when using LIFO instead of FIFO? Definition of Effect of LIFO Instead of FIFO During periods of significantly increasing costs, the LIFO cost flow assumption instead of the FIFO...
What is the difference between expense and loss? Definition of Expense An expense is a cost that a company incurs or uses up when it earns revenues. Examples of Expenses A few examples of the many expenses that a company...
What is the difference between gross profit and net profit? Definition of Gross Profit Gross profit is defined as net sales minus the cost of goods sold. Example of Gross Profit Assume that a retailer had gross sales of...
is $400,000 and is expected to process 50,000 identical units of product. Some companies will develop standard costs for controlling its operations. For example, the standard cost of processing all identical units in...
of inventory so that it can meet the fluctuating demand of its customers, avoid disruptions in production, and minimize holding costs. Since the costs of the items purchased or produced are likely to change (especially...
in a general ledger intangible asset account. If a company designs and registers its trademark, the amount recorded is limited to its cost. Costs incurred to defend a trademark are also recorded in the trademark...
Is depreciation expense an administrative expense? Definition of Depreciation Expense Depreciation expense is the systematic allocation of a depreciable asset’s cost to the accounting periods in which the asset is...
between the asset amounts reported on the balance sheet minus the liability amounts. Next, the accountant’s cost principle requires that only the cost of items purchased can be reported as an asset. This means that...
and the depreciation expense begins. This expense will reduce the company’s profits (net income, earnings). There may also be some additional revenues and costs, and perhaps cost savings, that will also affect the...
What is the difference between gross margin and contribution margin? Definition of Gross Margin Some use the term gross margin to mean the same as gross profit, which is: net sales minus the cost of goods sold. Others...
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