Introduction In this text, I discuss a number of accounting concepts and terms. In so doing, I also explain the accounting equation and the various accounts that belong to each component of the equation. Further, I point out those considered the key audience of financial statements as well as other groups who may be interested in the information contained in financial statements. Part I Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) Basically, these include all those procedures as well as standards recommended by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and utilized by entities as they seek to draft their financial statements. These standards can hence be seen as a compilation of agreed upon procedures that govern not only the reporting but also the recording of information contained in financial statements. According to Edwards and Hermanson (2007), "Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) set forth standards or methods for presenting financial accounting information." Adherence to these standards enhances the standardization of financial accounting information. This standardization in one way or the other enables those interested in the information contained in financial statements to compare financial statements from different entities in a more straightforward way. Further, by ensuring that firms embrace consistency in the preparation of financial statements, GAAPs ease the work of investors as the performance of a company over the years can be
Statements are prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which refers to a set of rules, standards, and practices. They are used throughout the accounting industry to prepare and standardize financial statements that are issued and help investors and creditors compare companies within the same industry. Companies are expected to follow generally accepted accounting principles when they report their financial information. GAAP affects the measurement of economic activities and the disclosure of information about activities. It also affects the preparation and summarization of economic information, and the record keeping of measurements at average intervals.
GAAP is implemented through measurement principles and disclosure principles. Measurement principles recognize and determine the timing and basis of items that enter the accounting cycle and impact the financial statements, such as the period in which transactions will be recorded. Disclosure principles determine what specific numbers and other information are essential to be presented in financial statements. Basically, GAAP is concerned with:
To over view the knowledge we learnt from accounting theory and practice, the main thing I can conclude that is the tendency of accounting will shift away from technical way to people’s behaviour way. By understanding what should do, we should ask why and how we could improve and change it into a better way. This essay aims to explain how the theoretical material that we learn in lectures can be developed under a real practical manner.
This case uses a small business as its setting so that students can visualize the business's activities, and so questions of generally accepted accounting principles will be essentially irrelevant. In fact, a shift the student needs to make as he/she begins Part 2 of the book is to think of accounting primarily in terms of its usefulness to a company's management, rather than in terms of reporting to shareholders and other outside parties. Because of the differing focus of Part 1 of
While generally accepted accounting principles include wide guidelines of general application, the standards also include comprehensive practices and procedures that offer the standard for evaluating financial presentations. As a result, these principles in financial recording and reporting tend to imply a substantial and significant authoritative support. Notably, GAAP standards are not a series of specific tailor-made guidelines that can be easily accessible in a single convenient range of rules. This is primarily because they originate from several sources and within a developed hierarchy. Generally, the standards range from the guidelines established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, financial reporting literature from the AIPCA, and some financial
Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are the standard structure of the guideline for financial accounting. GAAP contain balance sheet item sorting, share measurement and revenue recognition, organizations need to carefully scan their financial statement when they use GAAP. When accountants record and summarize financial statement, they need to apply these standards into their work. The Financial
As we progress in our study about accounting every new chapter introduces relevant information while consequently building on the data introduced in the previous chapters. This lesson expands further on the accounting cycle by explaining how to adjust and update accounts at the end of the period. Therefore, we learn a new concept which is also referred to as adjusting the books. I am quite convinced that there are numerous people who are familiar with that term, nevertheless, in accounting when we talk about adjusting the books, we mean special journal entries, called “adjusting entries”.
The report also covers how managerial accounting and financial accounting differ and why managerial accounting cannot be replaced by financial accounting. These branches of accounting differ in various ways like managerial accounting is more future-oriented while financial accounting based on past records. Also, managerial accounting is made for internal users like managers while financial accounting focus more on external users.
The financial statement is a financial document used to indicate the financial position of a business at a particular moment in time. A business’s financial position can be analysed into three main areas: Profitability, liquidity and stewardships. The statement is prepared at the end of each financial year using accounting basis. The Accrual accounting basis is one of them, it is perhaps the most commonly used approach to keep up with revenues and expenses in the preparation of financial statement . It is suitable to use by organisations that have business activities involving
The aim of this report is to define the terms ‘accounting’ and ‘finance’. Also it will show how accounting and finance integrate together. Furthermore, there will be a literature review arguing the available evidence on the relative topic of the report. Additionally, it will account on why they are considered important for business with the appropriate evidences. Finally, the conclusion shall be reached summarising the arguments. The conclusion will also discuss any limitations and also recommendations for future research on this topic.
The focus of this assignment is to understand accounting terms, importance of accounting and reporting and how accounting and reporting take place in the business entity. It is also aimed to find out the flow of accounting information from the beginning to the end. And to understand accounting standards and principles.
The aim of this assignment is to “Identify the ‘other users’ [of business accounts] and assess the extent to which financial accounting information is of use to managers, and management accounting information is of use to ‘other users’.” The appropriate definitions and roles of financial and management accounting will be given and the ‘other users’ of accounts will be identified. Thereafter, the uses of both financial accounting information and management accounting information will be discussed and analysed to evaluate the extent to which each is of use to the needs of managers and ‘other users’ respectively.
The major accounting principles that guide accounting practices are endorsed on the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). This is an international guidelines that all the companies and organizations are expected to apply in their operations. These principles are further classified into assumption and constraints. The assumption principles include business entity, going concern, monetary unit and time period assumption principles (Hendrick, 2011). Other principles listed in the GAAP include historical cost, revenue recognition principle, and matching, and full disclose principles. On the other hand, constraints are also divided into objectivity principle, materiality principle, consistency principle, and conservatism principle (Weygandt J. J., 2012). Disney Company adhered to these concepts while preparing its financial reports to present fair information to the users is recommended in the International Financial Reporting Standards. This research work dwells on the analysis of the various principles and constraints with regards to Walt Disney Company.
In the main analysis, this essay will describe the predictions and effects of financial accounting reports to discuss the statement based on the previous answer. In the conclusion, the essay will explain how the question helps to understand the importance of learning about accounting in its context.
ii) Answer PART B, C and D in the Answer Booklet. Start each answer on a new page.