Accounting is the measurement of economic activity for a business operation. It is customarily reported via financial information. Learn about the basic accounting concepts and the associated principles used in accounting to report financial information.
Each industry is different in determining costs of goods sold or cost of services rendered. Retail uses two distinct methods to calculate costs of goods sold. The first is called ‘Specific Identification’ whereby each item sold is specifically identified to its recorded cost. The second method is referred to as ‘Inventory Adjustment’ format. In this method, a beginning and ending balance is recorded along with the purchases throughout the year.
Accrual accounting is the preferred method of accounting for all business operations. Any publicly traded company must comply with the principles of accrual accounting. Small business operations can choose between cash and accrual accounting for their records. Although cash accounting is the easiest to work with as a small business operation, accrual accounting will provide a more accurate picture of the financial status and affairs of any business operation.
Cash flow is the ability of a business to turn its product or service into cash. It is generally measured in dollars or in dollars against a time period. The simplest example I can think of is a child selling lemonade.
Non-physical assets are expensed to the income statement or profit and loss statement via a method called amortization. It is most commonly used in the mortgage industry to refer to the monthly payment made to pay interest and the principal (the amortizable portion) on a debt instrument.
In business, liquidity is defined as the period of time it takes to turn assets into cash. It takes 20 minutes to turn the balance in the checking account into cash. You head on down to the bank and present a check. You get cash. But most businesses run on just more than the cash in the bank account.
The Internal Revenue Service sets the depreciation allowance based on the Code as promulgated by Congress. The most commonly referenced section is 179. This is a form of accelerated depreciation allowing the small business owner the opportunity to take a large expense deduction and reduce their tax obligation immediately.
Simply put, ‘cost of goods sold’ equals the direct costs of materials, human resources, and equipment needed to produce the item sold. However, this can be confusing because there are many marginal cost items that affect the real cost of producing and selling the item.
In the world of accounting, there are two types of expenses on the reports widely misunderstood. They are depreciation and amortization. I will try to help the novice gain an understanding of depreciation in this article.
Simply stated, accounting is the measurement of economic activity. Its primary principle is to report information to the user so that (s)he can make informed decisions. The primary reporting format is in the form of dollars. There are two important reports used by pretty much 99% of all business operations to determine the status of the business operation. These are the income statement and the balance sheet.
