See generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
See generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
The amount of income tax that is associated with (matches) the net income reported on the company’s income statement. This amount will likely be different than the income taxes actually payable, since some of the...
The symbol for the number of units of product, number of machine hours, or other indicator of activity or volume as shown in the equation of the cost line y = a + bx.
A contract to provide coverage or protection in exchange for a payment or “premium.” Examples of insurance protection include liability, property, business interruption, life, disability, etc. The company...
The fixed manufacturing costs (e.g., property tax, rent, and depreciation on factory) that have been assigned to (absorbed by) the products manufactured via a predetermined rate. Ideally, by the end of the accounting...
What is a liquidity ratio? Definition of Liquidity Ratio A liquidity ratio is a financial ratio that indicates whether a company’s current assets will be sufficient to meet the company’s obligations when they become...
One of two broad functional categories for sorting and reporting a nonprofit organization’s expenses. (The other is program expenses.) Supporting services expenses consists of 1) management and general expenses,...
A negative balance in the bank’s records for the company’s checking account.
See direct labor efficiency variance and variable manufacturing overhead efficiency variance.
See direct materials price variance.
See Explanation of Standard Costing.
See perpetual system of inventory.
See carrying amount.
Raw materials that are a traceable component of a manufactured product. For example, the direct material of a baseball bat is the wood. Flour, sugar, and vegetable oil are direct materials of a company that manufactures...
Also referred to as a sunk cost. A past cost is not relevant to a decision.
Also referred to as the fixed overhead spending variance. The difference between the actual fixed overhead incurred and the amount of fixed overhead that had been budgeted.
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...
In the context of inventory, net realizable value or NRV is the expected selling price in the ordinary course of business minus the costs of completion, disposal, and transportation. In the context of accounts receivable...
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 contra equity account.
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,...
The exchange or trade-in of a long-term asset for a completely different long-term asset. For example, exchanging an antique car for land.
Receivables due from customers. See accounts receivable.
See death spiral.
A current liability account that reports the amounts of cash dividends that have been declared by the board of directors but not yet distributed to the stockholders.
Asset, liability, and owner’s equity accounts. Also referred to as permanent or real accounts. To learn more, see Explanation of Balance Sheet.
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...
An assumption that determines the order in which costs should flow out of a balance sheet account (e.g. Inventory, Investments, Treasury Stock) when the item is sold. For an illustration of the cost flow assumption, see...
See cash basis of accounting.
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 check often referred to as an NSF check, a rubber check, or a check that bounced. It is a check that was not paid by the bank of the issuer (writer) of the check because the checking account of the issuer did not have...
A mathematical tool to optimize profits (contribution margin) given a limited amount of inputs and other constraints.
An income statement account that reports the amount of service revenues earned during the time interval indicated in the heading of the income statement. (Under the accrual basis of accounting, fees earned are reported...
See full disclosure principle.
Relevant or meaningful data.
Featured Review
"Right after graduating from university and getting my bachelor's degree in accountancy, I didn't manage to land a job in the accounting field, instead I got a job in banking. While the pay was a little bit higher than what many other fresh graduates would get in the accounting field, I didn't particularly enjoy what I was doing. So I decided to give what I was most interested in to begin with another shot. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling very confident in my ability and knowledge in accounting because there was a particularly long lapse of time where I wasn't exposed to accounting. Thankfully I discovered this website, which explains the basics of what you need to know about accounting in a very concise and rather layman way. I also really appreciate that the administrator of the website tries to improve and add more content to the site instead of stagnating them after getting my money. I can definitely recommend this site if you need to refresh yourself with accounting, or even just to help you with your study if you're still in the process of getting your degree." - Leonard L.
Join PRO or PRO Plus and Get Lifetime Access to Our Premium Materials
Read all 2,645 reviewsWe now offer 10 Certificates of Achievement for Introductory Accounting and Bookkeeping: