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Earnings Management
Earnings management, in accounting, is the act of intentionally influencing the process of financial reporting to obtain some private gain.Schipper, Katherine. 1989. “Commentary on Earnings Management.” ''Accounting Horizons'' (December): 91–102. Earnings management involves the alteration of financial reports to mislead stakeholders about the organization's underlying performance, or to "influence contractual outcomes that depend on reported accounting numbers."Healy, Paul M., and James Wong. Wahlen. 1999. “A Review of the Earnings Management Literature and Its Implications for Standard Setting.” ''Accounting Horizons'' 13 (4): 365–383. Earnings management has a negative effect on earnings quality, and may weaken the credibility of financial reporting. Furthermore, in a 1998 speech Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt called earnings management "widespread". Despite its pervasiveness, the complexity of accounting rules can make earnings manag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accounting
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activities and conveys this information to a variety of stakeholders, including investors, creditors, management, and Regulatory agency, regulators. Practitioners of accounting are known as accountants. The terms "accounting" and "financial reporting" are often used interchangeably. Accounting can be divided into several fields including financial accounting, management accounting, tax accounting and cost accounting. Financial accounting focuses on the reporting of an organization's financial information, including the preparation of financial statements, to the external users of the information, such as investors, regulators and suppliers. Management accounting focuses on the measurement, analysis and reporting of information for internal use by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Debt
Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money Loan, borrowed or otherwise withheld from another party, the creditor. Debt may be owed by a sovereign state or country, local government, company, or an individual. Commercial debt is generally subject to contractual terms regarding the amount and timing of repayments of #Principal, principal and interest. Loans, bond (finance), bonds, notes, and Mortgage loan, mortgages are all types of debt. In financial accounting, debt is a type of financial transaction, as distinct from equity (finance), equity. The term can also be used metaphorically to cover morality, moral obligations and other interactions not based on a monetary value. For example, in Western cultures, a person who has been helped by a second person is sometimes said to owe a "debt of gratitude" to the second person. Etymology The English term "debt" was first used in the late 13th century and comes by way of Old French from the Latin verb ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accounting Research
Accounting research examines how accounting is used by individuals, organizations and government as well as the consequences that these practices have. Starting from the assumption that accounting both measures and makes visible certain economic events, accounting research has studied the roles of accounting in organizations and society and the consequences that these practices have for individuals, organizations, governments and capital markets. It encompasses a broad range of topics including financial accounting research, management accounting research, auditing research, capital market research, accountability research, social responsibility research and taxation research.Oler, Derek K., Mitchell J. Oler, and Christopher J. Skousen. 2010. "Characterizing Accounting Research." ''Accounting Horizons'' 24 (4): 635–670. Academic accounting research "addresses all aspects of the accounting profession" using the scientific method, while research by practicing accountants focuses ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Management Accounting
In management accounting or managerial accounting, managers use accounting information in decision-making and to assist in the management and performance of their control functions. Definition One simple definition of management accounting is the provision of financial and non-financial decision-making information to managers. In other words, management accounting helps the directors inside an organization to make decisions. This is the way toward distinguishing, examining, deciphering and imparting data to supervisors to help accomplish business goals. The information gathered includes all fields of accounting that educates the administration regarding business tasks identifying with the financial expenses and decisions made by the organization. Accountants use plans to measure the overall strategy of operations within the organization. According to the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), "Management accounting is a profession that involves partnering in management decisi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earnings Call
An earnings call is a teleconference or webcast in which a public company discusses its financial results for a reporting period, often providing earnings guidance for future performance. The term stems from earnings per share (EPS), calculated as net income (the "bottom line" from the income statement) divided by shares outstanding. Earnings calls typically accompany a press release summarizing results and are often paired with mandatory filings under local securities laws. These calls are a key mechanism for companies worldwide to communicate financial health and strategy to investors, financial analysts, and stakeholders, with practices varying by region and regulatory framework. In the United States, a 2014 survey by the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) found that 97% of its member companies conducted quarterly earnings calls, with most offering webcasts. Globally, listed companies on exchanges like the London Stock Exchange (LSE), Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accruals
In accounting and finance, an accrual is an asset or liability that represents revenue or expenses that are receivable or payable but which have not yet been paid. In accrual accounting, the term accrued revenue refers to income that is recognized at the time a company delivers a service or good, even though the company has not yet been paid. Likewise, the term accrued expense refers to liabilities that are recognized when a company receives services or goods, even though the company has not yet paid the provider. Accrued revenue is often recognised as income on an income statement and represented as an accounts receivable on the balance sheet. When the company is paid, the income statement remains unchanged, although the accounts receivable is adjusted and the cash account increased on the balance sheet. On the other hand, an accrued expense is recognised as an expense on the income statement and represented as a liability on the balance sheet. Once payment is made, the income ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inventories
Inventory (British English) or stock (American English) is a quantity of the goods and materials that a business holds for the ultimate goal of resale, production or utilisation. Inventory management is a discipline primarily about specifying the shape and placement of stocked goods. It is required at different locations within a facility or within many locations of a supply network to precede the regular and planned course of production and stock of materials. The concept of inventory, stock or work in process (or work in progress) has been extended from manufacturing systems to service businesses and projects, by generalizing the definition to be "all work within the process of production—all work that is or has occurred prior to the completion of production". In the context of a manufacturing production system, inventory refers to all work that has occurred—raw materials, partially finished products, finished products prior to sale and departure from the manufacturing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
FIFO And LIFO Accounting
FIFO and LIFO accounting are methods used in managing inventory and financial matters involving the amount of money a company has to have tied up within inventory of produced goods, raw materials, parts, components, or feedstocks. They are used to manage assumptions of costs related to inventory, stock repurchases (if purchased at different prices), and various other accounting purposes. The following equation is useful when determining inventory costing methods: \text + \text = \text + \text. FIFO "FIFO" stands for ''first-in, first-out'', meaning that the oldest inventory items are recorded as sold first (but this does not necessarily mean that the exact oldest physical object has been tracked and sold). In other words, the cost associated with the inventory that was purchased first is the cost expensed first. A company might use the LIFO method for accounting purposes, even if it uses FIFO for inventory management purposes (i.e., for the actual storage, shelving, and sal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Net Income
In business and Accountancy, accounting, net income (also total comprehensive income, net earnings, net profit, bottom line, sales profit, or credit sales) is an entity's income minus cost of goods sold, expenses, depreciation and Amortization (accounting), amortization, interest, and taxes, and other expenses for an accounting period. It is computed as the residual of all revenues and gains less all expenses and losses for the period,Weil, Schipper, Francis. (2009) Financial Accounting: An Introduction to Concepts, Methods, and Uses. Cengage Learning and has also been defined as the net increase in Equity (finance), shareholders' equity that results from a company's operations.Weil, Schipper, Francis. (2010) Financial Accounting. Cengage Learning. It is different from gross income, which only deducts the cost of goods sold from revenue. For Household, households and individuals, net income refers to the (gross) income minus taxes and other deductions (e.g. mandatory pension cont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bad Debt
In finance, bad debt, occasionally called uncollectible accounts expense, is a monetary amount owed to a creditor that is unlikely to be paid and for which the creditor is not willing to take action to collect for various reasons, often due to the debtor not having the money to pay, for example due to a company going into liquidation or insolvency. A high bad debt rate is caused when a business is not effective in managing its credit and collections process. If the credit check of a new customer is not thorough or the collections team is not proactively reaching out to recover payments, a company faces the risk of a high bad debt. Various technical definitions exist of what constitutes a bad debt, depending on accounting conventions, regulatory treatment and institution provisioning. In the United States, bank loans with more than ninety days' arrears become "problem loans". Accounting sources advise that the full amount of a bad debt be written off to the profit and loss accou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Financial Statements
Financial statements (or financial reports) are formal records of the financial activities and position of a business, person, or other entity. Relevant financial information is presented in a structured manner and in a form which is easy to understand. They typically include four basic financial statements accompanied by a management discussion and analysis: # A balance sheet reports on a company's assets, liabilities, and owners equity at a given point in time. # An income statement reports on a company's income, expenses, and profits over a stated period. A profit and loss statement provides information on the operation of the enterprise. These include sales and the various expenses incurred during the stated period. # A statement of changes in equity reports on the changes in equity of the company over a stated period. # A cash flow statement reports on a company's cash flow activities, particularly its operating, investing and financing activities over a stated perio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Financial Ratio
A financial ratio or accounting ratio states the relative magnitude of two selected numerical values taken from an enterprise's financial statements. Often used in accounting, there are many standard ratios used to try to evaluate the overall financial condition of a corporation or other organization. Financial ratios may be used by managers within a firm, by current and potential shareholders (owners) of a firm, and by a firm's creditors. Financial analysts use financial ratios to compare the strengths and weaknesses in various companies. If shares in a company are publicly listed, the market price of the shares is used in certain financial ratios. Ratios can be expressed as a decimal value, such as 0.10, or given as an equivalent percentage value, such as 10%. Some ratios are usually quoted as percentages, especially ratios that are usually or always less than 1, such as earnings yield, while others are usually quoted as decimal numbers, especially ratios that are usually mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
