FA2016Q4 Flashcards
What are the three different business entities?
- Sole proprietorships
- Partnerships
- Corporations
What are non-business entities?
Government entities
- Federal government and its agencies
- State and local governments and their agencies
Private organizations
- Hospitals, universities, cooperatives and philanthropic organizations/NGOs
Here you typically use fund accounting
What is a liability?
A liability is an obligation of a business: for example when a company borrows money at a bank.
What is a creditor?
Someone to whom a company or person has a debt. Also called a lender.
What is an asset?
A future economic benefit; a valuable resource to the company that controls it. For example cash, buildings and equipment, inventory. It does not have to be tangible but could be intangible such as a patent right.
What are the three areas of business activities?
- Financing: borrowing, sale of stock
- Operating activities: Sale of products/services + costs incurred to operate
- Investment: purchase and sale of assets
Who are the users of accounting information?
- Internal users: The management
- External users:
- Stockholders and potential stockholders
- Bondholders, bankers and other creditors
- Government agencies
- Other: suppliers, trade associations, stockbrokers, financial analysts
What is ratio analysis?
Looking at relationships among financial statement items
What is horizontal analysis?
Looking at trends over time.
What is vertical analysis?
Comparing financial statement items in a single period
What is the accounting equation?
Assets = Liabilities + Owners’ equity (stockholder/shareholders equity)
What is the balance sheet?
The balance sheet is the financial statement that summarizes the assets, liabilities and owners’ equity at a specific point in time. It is also called the statement of financial position (Balancen fra VØ)
What is the income statement?
The income statement is a statement that summarizes revenues and expenses. It is also called the statement of income (Resultatopgørelsen fra VØ)
What are dividends?
Distribution of net income of a business to its owners. They are NOT on the income statement.
What is the statement of retained earnings?
The statement that summarizes income earned and dividends paid over the life of a business.

What is the statement of cash flows?
The financial statement that summarizes a company’s cash receipts and cash payments during the period from operating, investing and financing activities (Pengestrømsopgørelsen I VØ)

What is the cost principle?
The cost principle is such that assets are recorded at the cost to acquire them. It is also called the original cost/historical cost (later you can adjust to for example fair value).
What is the principle of going concern?
The assumption that an entity is not in the process of liquidation and that It will continue indefinitely.
What is the time period assumption?
The assumption that it is possible to prepare an income statement that accurately reflects net income or earnings for a specific time period.
What is the monetary unit?
The monetary unit is the currency used, which is important in the sense that internationally trading entities profits are strongly affected by exchange rate changes.
Who determines the rules for financial statements?
- SEC: Securities and exchange commission
- FASB: The Financial Accounting Standards Board
- AICPA: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (the professional organization of CPA: Certified public accountants)
- PCAOB: Public company accounting oversight board
- IASB: The international accounting standards board
- GAAP: Generally accepted accounting principles
What is auditing?
The process of examining the financial statements and the underlying records of a company to render an opinion as to whether the statements are fairly presented. Big corporations will have external auditors looking through/testing the procedures used.
What is the concept of material errors?
After an auditor has looked through a financial report, the report should now only have material errors; material errors is errors that are so small that it would not change the users’ perception of the report (subjective definition but auditors will look at the percentage difference between their calculations of, for example, revenue or assets and the stated value. If the difference is small, it is typically accepted. In other words, a financial report is most likely, not completely, accurate).
What are the main qualities of good financial reporting?
- Understandability
- Relevance
- Faithful representation
- Comparability and consistency
- Materiality (linked to relevance but deals with the size of an error in accounting information)
- Conservatism; using the least optimistic estate when two estimates of amounts are about equally like



























































































