The Accounting Cycle
Presented to
Ms. Aisha Meeks
Department of Business Management
College of Business Administration
Alabama State University
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course
ACT.214.04
By
Krystal Hall
January 26, 2013
Memo:
To: Ms. Aisha Meeks
From: Krystal Hall
Date: 2/26/2013
Re: The Accounting Cycle
Every company has an accounting cycle. An Accounting cycle is the process that begins with analyzing and journalizing transactions and it ends with the post-closing trial balance. When preparing the accounting cycles there are ten steps that are included. They are as follow; transactions are analyzed and recorded in the journal, posted to the ledger, an unadjusted trial balance is
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Journalized and Posting Adjusting Entries Then, adjusting entries are journalized and posted to the ledger. At the end of the accounting period the adjusting entries appearing in the work sheet are recorded in the journal and posted to the ledger; bringing the ledger into agreement with the data reported on the profit and loss account and balance sheet. The adjusting entries are dated as on the last day of the accounting period, even though they are usually recorded some time later Preparing an Adjusting Trial Balance The next step involves an adjusting trial balance being prepared. The adjusted trial balance is prepared to verify the equality of the total of the debit and credit balances. This is the last step before preparing the financial statements. If the adjusted trial balance does not balance, an error had occurred and must be found and corrected. Preparing the Financial Statements The financial statements are then prepared. The financial statement is the most important outcome of the account cycle. In this process the income statement is prepared first, followed by the statement of owner’s equity, and then the balance sheet. The statement can be prepared directly from the adjusted trial balance, the end-of-period spreadsheet, or the ledger. The net income or net loss shown on the income statement is reported on the statement of
(Ohara, 2007) Most financial statements are made public for the benefit of stakeholders and potential investors. The bottom-line is that financial statements are the main source for analyzing how well a company is operating. The income (or profit and loss) statement is simply a report card of how much activity (revenue) was performed in the period, how profitable that activity was (gross profit/loss), and what it cost the contractor to run the business (overhead). (Murphy, 2006)
All of the revenue and expense account balances in the adjusted trial balance will be extended. The statements of retained earning is prepared by entering the net income in the credit statement of retained earning column, and then add that to the beginning of the retained earning
The process requires Peyton Approved to discover how much inventory is sold and what the cost of goods will result in. The process requires the business to review three forms of merchandise inventory to determine which summary benefits the business’s operational behavior. One will discover when assuming that first inventory purchased by the store is the first to be sold, it is determined that the FIFO method displays the best financial outcome for the business. During the process of updating journal entries, one must enter the information proved appropriately into the T-accounts to add the balance under each record. Once the T-accounts for transactions and adjusted transactions are balanced, the next step is to enter the information provided on the balance sheet. The balance sheet will list Peyton Approved assets, liabilities and stockholders equity after added during the T-account process (Nobles, 2014). Once the balance sheet is completed the income statement, statement of retained earnings, and closing entries can be filled with the information proved. This will give the business a full review from journal entry to closing entries of the business for the six month accounting
An adjusting journal entry or an adjusting entry, involves an income statement account (revenue or expense) along with a balance sheet account (asset or liability) and typically relates to the accounts for accrued expenses, accrued revenue, prepaid expenses and unearned revenue. (Investopedia.com, n.d.) When accounts are not updated to show the correct transactions or a mistake has been made, adjusting entry will provide insight in order to ensure all entries are appropriately recorded. This action will then reflect the accurate amounts of expenses and revenues. Once this is done, a business may close accounts for the ending period.
If Allowance for Doubtful Accounts has a credit balance of $1,100 in the trial balance, journalize the adjusting
When you’re looking at the income statement, you can get information about profitability for a particular period. This is also called the profit and loss statement. The income statement is composed of both income and expenses. This statement can be used to deduct expenses from income and report either a net profit or net loss for that period. This statement will deduct all expenses from income and then report your net profit or net loss for that period. This will allow the business owner to determine if the business is bringing in a good amount of revenue to make a profit. The cash flow statement shows the movement in cash and balance over period. The cash flow can vary depending on the operating activities, investing and financing activities. This statement provides one business owner with insight to the company’s liquidity which is vital to the growth of the business. Reinvesting in business is very important, looking at the statement of retained earnings will tell a business owner how much were reinvested in the company. After profitable period, every big business has to give some of its profits to stockholders, and keep the rest amount as retained earnings. Out of all statements, retaining statement is important to companies that sells stocks to the public. This statement can also provide you with assets and liabilities information. These informations can be used to assess the financial health of your business. The results of a balance sheet will help the business owners to show the risk of liquidity and credit. Looking at these information you can measure trends and relationships to show where in the areas you can improve. These can also be compared to similar companies to show how the business measures up to leading competitors (Ali, 2010). In summary, the financial statements can provide a business owner
You may omit explanations of the transactions. Skip a line between eah set of journal entries.
Time period : to make a sound economic and financial decision we need time period. A business needs a timely decision in today’s world. The accounting period is the period of time over which
An accounting cycle is a process, or a series of activities, that consists of collecting an organization’s transactions at the end of a reporting period to prepare essential financial statements of a business (Fleury, 2015). The accounting cycle is a strict, methodical set of rules used to ensure the accuracy and conformity of financial statements (Investopedia, 2017). The steps involved with an accounting cycle, the roles each of the step facilitate, the impact of omission, and what financial statements are assembled from the accounting cycle data.
Accounting transactions are professional occasion that has either a positive or negative budgetary impact on the financial statements. One impact of transactions in a financial statement will increase or decrease the accounts contingent on the transaction that has taken place. The history of revenue that has come or gone from the business will be shown on both financial statements and accounting transactions. Many businesses make several transactions daily. Errors can have a negative impact on financial statements, because the facts come from the accounting transactions
It seems hard to believe that the current US economic expansion is the fourth longest in duration since the Great Depression. Despite growth averaging “only” 2% since the 2009 Q2 trough, the performance of corporate profits was impressive, at least up until 2014 H1. The structure of the US economy has shifted with the passage of time, notably the gravitation away from manufacturing to services. This shift has, therefore, impacted the composition of corporate profits. Historically, corporate profits have grown in tandem with nominal GDP over the course of the economic cycle, but, more recently, earnings have been able to outpace economic growth due to a number of special factors, both endogenous and exogenous. Some of these tailwinds, such as falling interest expenses and unit labour costs, are now becoming obstacles for further corporate profits growth. There are three main drivers behind corporate profits expansion: 1) operational gearing, 2) labour productivity, and 3) interest expenses. Meanwhile, there is also the important issue of pricing power to be considered. The prevalence of low inflation in the US economy is seemingly indicative of limited corporate pricing power. Historically, corporations have raised selling prices to preserve profit margins due to rising cost pressures, notably labour. Growing pricing power is, therefore, synonymous with the economy entering overheating territory. Continued economic growth will
It is important for every business to carry out financial statement analysis in order to gain an understanding of their current financial status. There are two main types of financial statements that businesses commonly use when it comes to financial analysis. These are known as the Profit and Loss Account and the Statement of Financial Position. A profit and loss account consists of a list of expenses incurred by the company, against their revenues over a certain period of time. It shows whether the organisation
Accounting is the art of measuring and communicating financial information. To maintain uniformity and consistency in preparing and maintaining books of accounts, certain rules or principles have been evolved. These rules or principles are classified as concepts and conventions. One of the important concept in accounting is “Measurement” (Mattessich, 1977)