Archive for Accounting Information
November 19, 2008 at 4:41 am · Filed under Accounting Information
Wild’s FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING incorporates a real-world emphasis that focuses on both corporations and noncorporations (particularly on smaller, entrepreneurial businesses). This is the only textbook in the financial accounting market that focuses on the innovation and excitement of entrepreneurs and small businesses. Nearly all financial accounting texts focus exclusively on big corporations, which isn’t in step with many students’ career paths or goals. Nor is it in step with the realities of today’s business world. FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING also includes numerous pedagogical elements that motivate students and help them learn to make business decisions. The pedagogical elements extend into a “Decision Center,” which emphasizes using accounting information in business decision making. The text focuses early on business and technology, offering students and faculty a modern, dynamic, and relevant presentation of accounting. There is also extensive coverage of real-world, corporate financial statements throughout the text.
About the Author
John J. Wild is Professor of Business and Vilas Research Scholar at The University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he also received his Ph.D. He has received numerous teaching awards at Wisconsin as well as from Michigan State University. He is a frequent speaker at universities and national and international conferences.
November 17, 2008 at 6:10 am · Filed under Accounting Information
The sources of information for the accounting statements:
1. The statements of Selling and Administrative Expenses which is obtained directly from the selling and administrative expense accounts in the General Ledger.
2. The detailed Machine Cost Statements which is obtained in part from the departmental labor and expense accounts in the general ledger.
3. The Statement of Factory costs which is prepared from Cost Ledger accounts. Also the machine cost charged to jobs section of the statement can be matched in journal entry.
4. The Income and expense statement which is prepared partly from the Cost ledger and partly from the General Leger. The job costs by sales classification comes from the cost ledger.
5. The Balance Sheet which is prepared from the General Ledger after the usual closing entries have been recorded. To all intents and purposes, the General ledger operates exactly as if no Cost ledger existed.
http://finance-accountingandbookkeeping.blogspot.com/2008/11/source-of-information-for-finance.html
November 14, 2008 at 1:43 am · Filed under Accounting Information
Businesses of all sizes need to ensure that accounting is paid due attention, since accounting it is at the core of any business process. In recent times more and more small and medium size businesses are considering accounting outsourcing. The decision to outsource accounting and bookkeeping allows a company to concentrate in their area of specialization and not worry about the accounting aspect of the business. Outsourcing has several advantages and these include the following:
* The services of experts are available at a fraction of what would have been paid to hire them on a full time or part-time basis.
* Outsourcing relieves the company of the tedious and yet crucial process of accounting bookkeeping.
* When a company considers outsourcing not only does it not bother with recruitment of accounting professionals but also saves on office space and related expenditure.
* An offshore accounting outsourcing service provider provides reliable and competent services that are an asset to the company and simplify its working.
When outsourcing small business accounting and finance it is important to keep certain tips in mind in order to make informed decisions:
1. Be clear about what you expect of the accounting company that you are outsourcing to. It is vital that you specify the needs of the job and what you expect from the outsourcing service provider. This will ensure that both companies have a clear understanding of what is expected and what is being delivered.
2. Is the accounting outsourcing company reliable and dependable?Do not make a decision blindly, but in fact take the time and effort to check on the references provided by the outsourcing company. Accounting needs to be done by certified public accountants and in case of offshore outsourcing you need to confirm that the accountants are qualified to handle and provide accounting solutions.
3. Don’t shy away from asking the vendor about similar accounting management projects that they have worked on. You don’t want a trial and error technique used on your small business accounting. It would be a good idea to ask the accountants to provide material that indicates their skill and knowledge of accounting, auditing and bookkeeping.
4. Reviewing previous projects that the vendor has done will give you a fair idea of the level and quality of accounting that they can deliver. You could also ask the accountants as to how they would like to handle the accounting information, so that you can judge their line of thinking and working. It is also recommended that you initially start with a pilot project that will assure you of the services that you have been promised.
5. While the total cost may be a guiding factor when you are selecting an accounting company, it should not be the only factor. The lowest bidder need not always be the best bet. Accounting and any deficiencies in the process can create serious legal problems for the business and you would not want to risk that. A large percentage of small and medium businesses that have turned to accounting outsourcing have done so not just because of the low costs but also due to the quality of work that they are assured.
6. It is important that you have a contract drawn up that clearly specifies what is expected of the project and how and when it will be completed. Such an understanding facilitates transparency in the dealings with the outsourcing accounting service provider.
7. Start with a small project and take it from there. To begin with provide a small amount of work and allow the outsourcing accounting company to prove its caliber.
8. Creating milestones in the project will help create a smooth flow of work to its completion. Also this ensures that both parties are clear on the deadlines and required work. Furthermore it allows the company to make payments in installments as and when the work is completed.
9. Security issues need to be discussed upfront and you need to be clear on the security measures taken by the accounting outsourcing company to protect crucial accounting data. Accounting information is crucial to the success of every business and any leak of such information can have drastic consequences. You would need to discuss how accounting, auditing and bookkeeping files will be transferred securely to the outsourcing company and also issues such as how accountants will have access to these files.
10. Communication with the accounting outsourcing firm is of utmost importance and you should be able to interact and communicate freely. Thus the service provider ought to have communication facilities that are satisfactory and should be easily contacted.
Accounting outsourcing should ideally be an asset for any small or medium business. And keeping these tips in mind can make that a reality.
Source : http://www.cybelink.com/
http://outsourcebookkeepingservices.blogspot.com/2008/11/accounting-outsourcing-tips.html
November 13, 2008 at 12:35 am · Filed under Accounting Information
As part of the good old PhD, I’m looking at some of the impacts of reporting changes around the adoption of IFRS in Australia upon audits. As part of this, I’m taking a look at accounting for the Emissions Trading Scheme - mostly because it’s interesting and topical.
The Australian Government has flagged an intention to create an emissions trading scheme, but has rather less-than-helpfully (in some ways) left the creation of accounting for its business impact to the International Accounting Standards Board. According to the IASB work program, an exposure draft regarding accounting for emissions trading scheme will be provided in the second half of 2009, and IFRS standards will be released in 2010. Alternative accounting models are to be brought to IASB in Q3 2008 (presumably, about now).
Rather less than conveniently, if IASB’s work program doesn’t slip, the new accounting standards will be released about the time the emissions trading scheme is implemented. Hmmm.
The project overview is provided here for IASB: emissions trading scheme.
However, the above seems to relate to how to account for the dollar impact of the scheme (presumably, accounting for assets and expenses created by the scheme etc). There is in addition a current reporting obligation under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007. This is of course NOT the ETS, but it does give us some things to do right now. A copy of the guidelines for reporting obligations can be found on the government’s website.
By 2010, organisations that produce more than 50 kilotonnes of CO2 and/or use 200 terajoules of energy are subject to these requirements. There is an enormous scope of the non-accounting information that is required just in order to determine whether or not the corporation exceeds the threshold (see also this link: https://www.oscar.gov.au/Deh.Oscar.Extension.Web/Content/NgerThresholdCalculator/Default.aspx).
These reporting requirements appear to apply to at least government agencies, although it is uncertain whether State Departments (e.g. Queensland Health) are captured by these requirements. The advice for government agencies is that they should set up their systems to make this apply, and likely it will be made apply in any event due to the need for them to maintain a reputation.
A lot to absorb. By the way this blog is starting to creak under its own weight and desperately needs a redesign - I will redesign the categories and so on when I get a chance (so perhaps this is permanent).
http://michealaxelsen.com/blog/?p=342
