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The most basic identity in accounting is that the balance sheet must balance, that is, that assets must equal the sum of liabilities (debts) and equity (the value of the firm to the owner). In its most common formulation it is known as the accounting equation: Assets = Liabilities + Equity. where debt includes non-financial liabilities.
In computerized accounting systems with computable quantity accounting, the accounts can have a quantity measure definition. Account numbers may consist of numerical, alphabetic, or alpha-numeric characters, although in many computerized environments, like the SIE format, only numerical identifiers are allowed. The structure and headings of ...
Resources, events, agents (REA) is a model of how an accounting system can be re-engineered for the computer age. REA was originally proposed in 1982 by William E. McCarthy as a generalized accounting model, [ 1 ] and contained the concepts of resources, events and agents (McCarthy 1982).
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) [a] is the accounting standard adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), [1] and is the default accounting standard used by companies based in the United States.
For example, consider the accounts payable department when processing an invoice. With an accounting information system, an accounts payable clerk enters the invoice, provided by a vendor, into the system where it is then stored in the database. When goods from the vendor are received, a receipt is created and also entered into the AIS.
He states that traditional cost accounting focuses on what it costs to do something, for example, to cut a screw thread; activity-based costing also records the cost of not doing, such as the cost of waiting for a needed part. Activity-based costing records the costs that traditional cost accounting does not do.
This method is also very hard to use on interchangeable goods. For example, relating shipping and storage costs to a specific inventory item becomes difficult. These numbers often need to be estimated, diminishing the specificity advantage of the specific identification method.
Substance over form is an accounting principle used "to ensure that financial statements give a complete, relevant, and accurate picture of transactions and events". If an entity practices the 'substance over form' concept, then the financial statements will convey the overall financial reality of the entity (economic substance), rather than simply reporting the legal record of transactions ...