Accounting And Finance Flashcards
What is needed when making financial comparisons?
- avoid bias or misrepresentation
- are all assets of the business been valued on the same manner?
- financial figures are just numbers doesn’t show you other indications
What needs to be noted when setting financial objectives?
- size of business
- other objectives
- budgets
- state of the economy
- level of competition
- government
- interest rates
- legislation
What does working capital mean?
Short term finance required for the day to day running of the business
How long is short term?
Up to 3 years
What is cash flow?
A business needs sufficient inflows of cash to finance its day to day outgoings; if cash receipts are insufficient, the business is said to have cash flow problem
What are examples of short term finance?
- overdraft
- loan
- trade credit
- factoring
- hire purchase
What factors do banks consider when deciding whether to lend?
- what the finance is to be used for
- company’s past trading record
- type of product being sold
- businesses current financial position
What is factoring?
When a business sells its debt to raise finance (“IOU”)
What is trade credit?
When here is delayed payment of products
What are the advantages and disadvantages of factoring?
Advantages - receives most of the finance at once
Disadvantage - lost a percentage of the money owed
What ae examples of medium term finance?
Medium term loan
Leasing
Hire purchase
Retained profit
What is a debenture?
A long term loan that are only available to a plc. The company does not borrow but sells debentures to investors in order to raise finance.
What are types of long term finance?
Loan Debenture Share issue Sale of assets Sale and lease back
What is depreciation?
Where the value of the asset falls over time
What is venture capital?
Finance from individuals or firms who lend money to, or buy shares in, small and medium sized businesses that require finance for starting up.
What should a business consider when choosing a method of finance?
- length of time
- legal structure of the business
- quantitative factors
- qualitative factors (e.g. control)
- state of the economy
What are the two categories in accounting?
- financial accounting
- management accounting
What is management accounting?
Concentrates on the internal financial accounts, allowing the business to monitor and evaluate its performance
What are the principles of accounting?
- consistency
- going concern
- matching (accruals)
- materiality
- objectivity
- prudence (conservatism)
- realisation
What does matching/accruals mean?
The dates used to record financial transactions are those when the transaction occurred and not when the actual payment is made.
What dopes materiality mean?
Don’t count the value of all assets in the business when calculating the value of the business
What does objectivity mean?
Principle that means the accounts must be backed up by evidence and must be realistic and therefore based on facts, not opinions or guesses.
What does prudence mean?
Means don’t overstate the financial situation.
What is generally accepted accountancy practice (GAAP)?
Is a framework of accounting rules or principles
Why might a business want to comply with GAAAP?
Allows stakeholders to make comparisons on the basis that the businesses all use the same set of principles.
What is a fixed cost ?
Where costs do not vary with the level of out put e.g. factory’s rent, business rates, machines
What are overheads/indirect costs?
Costs that can not be attributed to a particular unit of output.
What is a stepped fixed cost and what is an example?
When production increases the business buys additional machinery to cope with the extra production required.
What are variable costs?
Costs that are directly related to the level of output or sales
What are direct costs?
Costs that are directly attributable to a unit output (raw materials)
What are variable costs?
Costs that change in proportions to the level of goods or services a business produces
How do you workout total costs?
Fixed costs + variable costs
How do you work out unit cost?
Total cost/output
What is a marginal cost?
It is the cost of producing one additional good. It is the increase in variable costs
What is a social cost?
It is a cost on an external stakeholder - e.g. pollution
What is opportunity cost?
what a business could have spent the money on the next best alternative.
How do you work out average revenue?
Total revenue/number of sales
What is standard costing?
Is the cost that the business would normally expect for the production of a particular product. E.g. the cost for a hairbrush is $3 this is what the business expects the final cot of production.
What are the advantages of standard costs?
- gives the business a simple target
- gives employees a target to aim for and can alert them to problems as and when they arise
- can be used as a reward motivation policy
- encourages workers to look for better and more efficient ways of completing a job.
What are the disadvantages of standard costs?
- may be time consuming to collect information
- may result in a situation where quality is sacrificed to keep costs of production down
What is a cost centre?
Specific part of a business where costs can be identified and allocated with reasonable ease. E.g. the marketing department may get $10000 is costs allocated to them
What are the advantages if cost centres?
- use the information to highlight inefficient departments
- can be used to motivate workers
- may encourage management to fin new suppliers or more efficient production techniques.
What are the disadvantages of cost centres?
- time consuming
- for some businesses it may be difficult
- the way in which costs are allocated can have a significant effect on the performance
- some costs for a business may be out of their control
What are profit centres?
Profits are split into different parts of the business
What is absorption costing?
Where all indirect costs or overheads of a business are absorbed by different cost centres.
What is contribution or marginal costing?
Where fixed costs or overheads are ignored and the business only considers the variable costs of production
How might costing methods be useful to stakeholders?
- may affect future investment (shareholders)
- may affect job security
- may use it to back up loans etc
How do you calculate contribution per unit?
Price - variable costs
How do you work out contribution?
Revenue - variable costs
How do you work out profit?
Total contribution - fixed costs
How do you work out break-even level by formula?
Fixed costs/contribution per unit
How would you find break even by using a chart?
Total revenue = Total costs
What would the break even point look like on a graph?
Where the total revenue and total cost lines intercept.
What is the margin of safety?
The difference between the actual and breakeven level of output
What are the benefits if break even analysis?
- easy to view and compare
- aids the decision making process
- can be used to show the level of profit at a given level of output
- can consider the impacts of changes on a particular product
What are the limitations of break even analysis?
- used using redacted figures
- direct and variable costs may change
- doesn’t take into account economies of scale
- if batch production is being used breakeven wont be obtainable because they are producing a fixed quantity
How do you work out total revenue?
Price x quantity sold
What are three methods of investment appraisal?
- Pay back
- accounting rate of return
- Net present value
What is pay back?
Measures how quickly the cost of the investment can be paid back.
Longer it is to payback the riskier the investment.