Glossary of Accounting Terms

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A Misstatement is Inconsequential
If a reasonable person would conclude after considering the possibility of further undetected misstatements that the misstatement either individually or when aggregated with other misstatements would clearly be immaterial to the financial statements. If a reasonable person could not reach such a conclusion regarding a particular misstatement, that misstatement is more than inconsequential.

Abatement
Complete removal of an amount due (usually referring to a tax abatement a penalty abatement or an interest abatement within a governing agency).

Accelerated Depreciation
Method that records greater depreciation than straight-line depreciation in the early years and less depreciation than straight-line in the later years of an asset's holding period. (See straight-line depreciation.)

Account
Formal record that represents, in words, money or other unit of measurement, certain resources, claims to such resources, transactions or other events that result in changes to those resources and claims.

Account Payable
Amount owed to a creditor for delivered goods or completed services.

Account Receivable
Claim against a debtor for an uncollected amount, generally from a completed transaction of sales or services rendered.

Accountable Plan
An accountable plan is any reimbursement or other expense allowance arrangement of an employer that meets all of the following requirements (therefore excluding it from gross w-2 earned income and tax): (1) it provides reimbursements advances or allowances including per diem and meals, to employees for any job related deductible business expense; (2) employees must be able to substantiate expenses covered in the plan; (3) employee must return any excess advances or payments.

Accountant
Person skilled in the recording and reporting of financial transactions. (See Certified Public Accountant.)

Accountants' Report
Formal document that communicates an independent accountant's: (1) expression of limited assurance on financial statements as a result of performing inquiry and analytic procedures (Review Report); (2) results of procedures performed (Agreed-Upon Procedures Report); (3) non-expression of opinion or any form of assurance on a presentation in the form of financial statements information that is the representation of management (Compilation Report); or (4) an opinion on an assertion made by management in accordance with the Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements (Attestation Report). An accountants' report does not result from the performance of an AUDIT. (See Auditors' Report.)

Accounting
Recording and reporting of financial transactions, including the origination of the transaction, its recognition, processing, and summarization in the financial statements.

Accounting Change
Change in (1) an accounting principle; (2) an accounting estimate; or (3) the reporting entity that necessitates disclosure and explanation in published financial reports.

Accounting Principles Board (APB)
Senior technical committee of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) which issued pronouncements on accounting principles from 1959-1973. The APB was replaced by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).

Accrual Basis
Method of accounting that recognizes revenue when earned, rather than when collected. Expenses are recognized when incurred rather than when paid.

Accumulated Depreciation
Total depreciation pertaining to an asset or group of assets from the time the assets were placed in services until the date of the financial statement or tax return. This total is the contra account to the related asset account.

Additional Paid in Capital
Amounts paid for stock in excess of its par value or stated value. Also, other amounts paid by stockholders and charged to equity accounts other than capital stock.

Adjusted Basis
After a taxpayer's basis in property is determined, it must be adjusted upward to include any additions of capital to the property and reduced by any returns of capital to the taxpayer. Additions might include improvements to the property and subtractions may include depreciation or depletion. A taxpayer's adjusted basis in property is deducted from the amount realized to find the gain or loss on sale or disposition.

Adjusted Gross Income
Gross income reduced by business and other specified expenses of individual taxpayers. The amount of adjusted gross income affects the extent to which medical expenses, non business casualty and theft losses and charitable contributions may be deductible. It is also an important figure in the basis of many other individual planning issues as well as a key line item on the IRS form 1040 and required state forms.

Adjusting Journal Entry
An accounting entry made into a subsidiary ledger called the General journal to account for a periods changes, omissions or other financial data required to be reported "in the books" but not usually posted to the journals used for typical period transactions (the cash receipts journal, cash disbursements journal, the payroll journal, sales journal and so on) the entry is posted to the general ledger accounts directly and usually will be numbered itself, dated and have an explanation. Example: AJE# 1 12-31-2003, debit Cash in bank $1,000. Credit interest income $1,000, to record interest income on business bank account at year end, not recorded in cash receipts journal but credited by the bank. (Cross-reference bank reconciliation and account where it was found.)

Adverse Opinion
Expression of an opinion in an auditors' report which states that financial statements do not fairly present the financial position, results of operations and cash flows in conformity with Generally Accepted Accounting Principals (GAAP). The auditor will issue an adverse opinion when there is an existence of a material weakness on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting.

Affiliated Company
Company, or other organization related through common ownership, common control of management or owners, or through some other control mechanism, such as a long-term lease.

Agency Fund
Fund consisting of assets where the holder agrees to remit the assets, income from the assets, or both, to a specified beneficiary in due course or at a specified time.

Agreed-Upon Procedures Report
See Accountants' Report.

AICPA
See American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Alternative Dispute Resolution
An alternative to formal litigation which includes techniques such as arbitration, mediation, and a non-binding summary jury trial.

Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
Tax imposed to back up the regular income tax imposed on a corporation and individuals to assure that taxpayers with economically measured income exceeding certain thresholds pay at least some income tax.

American Depository Receipts (ADRs)
Receipts for shares of foreign company stock maintained by an intermediary indicating ownership.

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
National professional membership organization that represents practicing Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). The AICPA establishes ethical and auditing standards as well as standards for other services performed by its members. Through committees, it develops guidance for specialized industries. It participates with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) in establishing accounting principles.

Amortization
Gradual and periodic reduction of any amount, such as the periodic writedown of a bond premium, the cost of an intangible asset or periodic payment of mortgages or other debt.

Analytical Procedures
Substantive tests of financial information which examine relationships among data as a means of obtaining evidence. Such procedures include: (1) comparison of financial information with information of comparable prior periods; (2) comparison of financial information with anticipated results (e.g., forecasts); (3) study of relationships between elements of financial information that should conform to predictable patterns based on the entity's experience; (4) comparison of financial information with industry norms.

Annual Report
Report to the stockholders of a company which includes the company's annual, audited balance sheet and related statements of earnings, stockholders' or owners' equity and cash flows, as well as other financial and business information.

Annuity
Series of payments, usually payable at specified time intervals.

Anti-dilution
Condition that may increase the computation of earnings per share (EPS) or decrease loss per share solely because of the inclusion of common stock equivalents, such as stock options, warrants,  convertible debt or convertible preferred stock, nomination or selection of the independent auditors.

Articles of Incorporation
The articles are the primary legal document of a corporation; they serve as a corporation’s Constitution. The articles are filed with the state government to begin corporate existence. The articles contain basic information on the Corporation as required by state law.

Articles of Organization
LLCs must file the articles with the proper state authorities to begin existence. The articles of organization are very similar to a corporation’s articles of incorporation.

Assembly of Financial Statements
The providing of various accounting or data-processing services by an accountant, the output of which is in the form of financial statements ostensibly to be used solely for internal management purposes.

Assertion
Explicit or implicit representations by an entity's management that are embodied in financial statement components and for which the auditor obtains and evaluates evidential matter when forming his or her opinion on the entity's financial statements.

Asset
The entire property of a person, association, corporation, or estate applicable or subject to the payment of debts.

Audit
A formal examination of an organization's or individual's accounts or financial situation.

Audit Documentation
The written record of the basis for the auditor's conclusions that provides the support for the auditor's representations, whether those representations are contained in the auditor's report or otherwise. (May be referred to as work papers or working papers.)

Audit Engagement
Agreement between a CPA firm and its client to perform an audit.

Audit Risk
The risk that the auditor may unknowingly fail to modify appropriately his or her opinion on financial statements that are materially misstated.

Audit Sampling
Application of an audit procedure to less than 100% of the items within an account balance or class of transactions for the purpose of evaluating some characteristic of the balance or class.

Auditing Standards
Guidelines to which an auditor adheres. Auditing standards encompass the auditor's professional qualities, as well as his or her judgment in performing an audit and in preparing the auditor's report. Audits conducted by independent Certified Public Accountant (CPA) usually in accordance with Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS), which consist of standards approved and adopted by the membership of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

Auditor
Person who audits financial accounts and records kept by others. Includes both public accounting firms registered with the PCAOB and associated persons thereof.

Auditors' Report
Written communication issued by an independent Certified Public Accountant (CPA) describing the character of his or her work and the degree of responsibility taken. An auditors' report includes a statement that the audit was conducted in accordance with Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS), which require that the auditor plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, as well as a statement that the auditor believes the audit provides a reasonable basis for his or her opinion. (See accountants' report.)

* Definitions courtesy of the New York State Society of CPAs

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