| Accounting | A system that collects and processes (analyzes, measures, and records) financial information about an organization and reports that information to decision makers.
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| Accounting Entity | The organization for which financial data are to be collected.
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| Accounting Period | The time period covered by the financial statements.
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| Audit | An examination of the financial reports to ensure that they represent what they claim and conform with generally accepted accounting principles.
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| Balance Sheet (Statement of Financial Position) | Reports the amount of assets, liabilities, and stockholders' equity of an accounting entity at a point in time.
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| Basic Accounting Equation (Balance Sheet Equation) | Assets = Liabilities + Stockholders' Equity.
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| Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) | The private sector body given the primary responsibility to work out the detailed rules that become generally accepted accounting principles.
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| Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) | The measurement rules used to develop the information in financial statements.
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| Income Statement (Statement of Income, Statement of Earnings, Statement of Operations) | Reports the revenues less the expenses of the accounting period.
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| Notes (Footnotes) | Provide supplemental information about the financial condition of a company, without which the financial statements cannot be fully understood.
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| Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) | The private sector body given the primary responsibility to work out detailed auditing standards.
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| Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) | The U.S. government agency that determines the financial statements that public companies must provide to stockholders and the measurement rules that they must use in producing those statements.
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| Statement of Cash Flows | Reports inflows and outflows of cash during the accounting period in the categories of operating, investing, and financing.
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| Statement of Retained Earnings | Reports the way that net income and the distribution of dividends affected the financial position of the company during the accounting period.
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