Glossary

Accounts receivable

is an outstanding customer debt on a credit sale.

Accrued expenses

are expenses that a business has incurred but not yet paid for by the company.

Accumulated depreciation

is a contra account, meaning it is attached to another account and is used to offset the main account balance that records the total depreciation expense for a fixed asset over its life.

Allowance for doubtful accounts

is a contra asset account and is subtracted from Accounts Receivable to determine the Net Realizable Value of the Accounts Receivable account on the balance sheet.

Allowance method

is the more widely used method because it satisfies the matching principle.

Bad debts

are uncollectible amounts from customer accounts.

Balance sheet method

estimates bad debt expenses based on the balance in accounts receivable.

Bill of materials (BOM)

is a source of information containing a list of items to design or manufacturing a product.

Book value

is the asset’s original cost less accumulated depreciation.

Break-even point

is the dollar amount (total sales dollars) or production level (total units produced) at which the company has recovered all variable and fixed costs.

Budgeted balance sheet

is the estimated assets, liabilities, and equities that the company would have at the end of the year if their performance were to meet its expectations

Budgeted income statement

is formatted similarly to a traditional income statement except that it contains budgeted data.

Capitalization

is the process by which a long-term asset is recorded on the balance sheet and its allocated costs are expensed on the income statement over the asset’s economic life.

Cash budget

is the combined budget of all inflows and outflows of cash. It should be divided into the shortest time period possible, so management can be quickly made aware of potential problems resulting from fluctuations in cash flow.

Contra account

has an opposite normal balance to its paired account, thereby reducing or increasing the balance in the paired account at the end of a period; the adjustment can be an addition or a subtraction from a controlling account.

Copyright

provides the exclusive right to reproduce and sell artistic, literary, or musical compositions.

Cost of Goods Sold

represents the amount a company paid for the manufactured items that it sold.

Cost of Goods Sold Schedule

is the total manufacturing costs for the period that were added to work‐in‐process, and adjusts these costs for the change in the work‐in‐process inventory account to calculate the cost of goods manufactured.

Depreciable base

is the depreciation expense over the asset’s useful life.

Depreciation

is the process of allocating the cost of a tangible asset over its useful life, or the period of time that the business believes it will use the asset to help generate revenue.

Direct labor

is the work of the employees who are directly involved in the production of goods or services.

Direct labor (DL)

is the total cost of wages, payroll taxes, payroll benefits, and similar expenses for the individuals who work directly on manufacturing a particular product.

Direct materials

are the raw materials and component parts that are directly economically traceable to a unit of production.

Direct materials (DM)

are those materials that can be directly traced to the manufacturing of the product.

Direct write-off method

delays recognition of bad debt until the specific customer accounts receivable is identified.

Finished goods

are manufactured products that have been completed but not yet sold to customers.

Finished goods inventory

is the account that tracks inventory ready to sell.

Fixed cost

is an unavoidable operating expense that does not change in total over the short term, even if a business experiences variation in its level of activity.

Goodwill

refers to the value of certain favorable factors that a business possesses that allows it to generate a greater rate of return or profit.

Gross profit

is the amount of markup on the manufactured goods.

Income statement

A statement that shows the organization’s financial performance for a given period of time.

Income statement method

estimates bad debt expenses based on the assumption that at the end of the period, a certain percentage of sales during the period will not be collected.

Inventory

is a company asset that includes beginning inventory plus purchases, which include all additions to inventory during the period.

Manufacturing costs

are direct materials, direct labor, and overhead added together.

Manufacturing overhead

(sometimes referred to as factory overhead) includes all of the costs that a manufacturing business incurs, other than the variable costs of direct materials and direct labor required to build products.

Note Payable

is used to keep track of amounts that are owed as short-term or long-term business loans.

Patent

is a contract that provides a company exclusive rights to produce and sell a unique product.

Period costs

are simply all of the expenses that are not product costs, such as all selling and administrative expenses.

Periodic inventory system

updates and records the inventory account at certain, scheduled times at the end of an operating cycle.

Perpetual inventory system

automatically updates and records the inventory account every time a sale, or purchase of inventory, occurs.

Prepaid expenses

are items paid for in advance of their use.

Prime rate

is normally higher than the federal funds rate and is based on the bank's desired rate of return and general economic conditions.

Product costs

are all those costs associated with the acquisition or production of goods and products.

Proforma

means budgeted.

Raw materials

consist of items in inventory that have not yet been entered into production or used.

Raw materials inventory

is the total cost of materials that will be used in the production process.

Residual value

is the price the asset will sell for or be worth as a trade-in when its useful life expires.

Salvage Value

is the price the asset will sell for or be worth as a trade-in when its useful life expires.

Trademark

is the exclusive right to the name, term, or symbol it uses to identify itself or its products.

Transaction

is a business activity or event that has an effect on financial information presented on financial statements.

Useful life

is the length of time the asset will be productively used within operations.

Variable cost

is one that varies in direct proportion to the level of activity within the business.

Vertical analysis of an income statement

is calculated by dividing each account by total sales revenue.

Work in process

includes manufactured products that have been started but are not yet completed.

Working capital

is the difference between a is the difference of the company’s current assets (money available in the next year to use) and current liabilities (bills and obligations that are required to be paid in the next year).

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Accounting, The Language of Business Copyright © 2024 by JoAnn Wood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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