Category: Accounting

The act of preparation of financial statements, reports, tax documents required by businesses and individuals in their dealings with the IRS, SEC and local and state authorities. Some statements included might be profit and loss, interim statement and balance sheets. Most accounting is done in accordance with GAAP (generally acceptable accounting principles)

A Brief Insight Into GAAP

While many businesses assume that accountants are bound by generally accepted accounting practices and that these are inviolate, nothing could be further from the truth. Everything is subject to interpretation, and GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) is no different. For one thing, GAAP permit alternative accounting methods to be used for certain expenses and for revenue in certain specialized types of businesses.

For another, GAAP methods require that decisions be made about the timing for recording revenue and expenses, or they require that key factors be quantified. Deciding on the timing of revenue and expenses and putting definite values on these factors require judgments, estimates and interpretations which, when arrived at in a forthright and responsible manner are acceptable to GAAP, despite the method used.

The mission of GAAP over the years has been to standardize accounting methods in order to bring about uniformity across all businesses. But alternative methods are still permitted for certain basic business expenses. No tests are required to determine whether one method is more preferable than another. A business is free to select whichever method it wants.

However, if a business is to use an alternative accounting method, it must choose which cost of goods sold expense method to use and which depreciation expense method to use. For other expenses and for sales revenue, one general accounting method has been established, which is GAAP, a set of accounting rules used to standardize the reporting of financial statements in the United States; there are no alternative methods.

Notwithstanding, a business has a fair amount of latitude in actually implementing the methods. One business applies the accounting methods in a conservative manner, and another business may apply the methods in a more liberal manner. The end result is more diversity between businesses in their profit measure and financial statements than one might expect, considering that GAAP have been evolving since 1930.

The pronouncement on GAAP prepared by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is now more than 1000 pages long. And that doesn’t even include the rules and regulations issued by the federal regulatory agency that has jurisdiction over the financial reporting and accounting methods of publicly owned businesses – the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).




 

Budgeting – Uninspiring But Critically Needed Work


Budgeting is one of those topics you would rather avoid, but in business, it’s an absolute necessity. To prepare a reasoned and thoughtful budget, an accountant must start with a broad-based critical analysis of the most recent actual performance and position of a given business by the managers who are responsible for getting results.

Then the managers decide on specific and concrete goals for the coming year. It demands a fair amount of management time and energy. A budget should be worth this time and effort because it’s one of the key components of a manager’s job. To construct budget financial statements, a manager needs good models of the profit, cash flow and financial condition of your business.

Models are blueprints or schematics of how things work. A business budget is, at its core, a financial blueprint of the business. Budgeting relies on financial models that are the foundation for preparing budgeted financial statements. Those statements include:

–Budgeted income statement (or profit report): This statement highlights the critical information that managers need for making decisions and exercising control. Much of the information in an internal profit report is confidential and should not be divulged outside the business.

–Budgeted balance sheet: The connections and ratios between sales revenue and expenses and their corresponding assets and liabilities are the elements of the basic model for the budgeted balance sheet.

–Budgeted statement of cash flows: The changes in assets and liabilities from their balances at the end of the year just concluded to the projected balances at the end of the coming year determine cash flow from profit for the coming year.

Budgeting requires good working models of profit performance, financial condition, and cash flow from profit. Constructing good budgets is a strong incentive for businesses to develop financial models that not only help in the budgeting process but also help managers in making strategic decisions.