Accounting may be categorized as financial accounting, management accounting, and cost accounting.
Financial Accounting: Financial accounting is the field in which stakeholders are most involved. The stakeholders group include the securities and exchange commission(SEC), shareholders, prospective share buyers, business owners, and boards of directors. Financial accounting typically comprises of a cash flow statement, income statement, and balance sheet.
Managerial Accounting: Managers use financial information for forecasting techniques to produce as reliable forward-looking information as possible. This information is used to make future decisions concerning operations, product offerings, pricing, or marketing plans.
Cost Accounting: Cost accounting is used to analyze the costs incurred by the product/service operation. Cost accounting includes account contingent, fixed, indirect, direct, and operational costs for cost measurements. The cost performance (cost control efficiency) and actual cost (how much the project or product costs) are few standard cost metrics.
Businesses:
A business is an enterprise where people collaborate and work together. People work in a business to produce and sell goods or services.
The nature of business organizations can be classified as below:
Manufacturing firms turn specific inputs into goods marketed to individual customers.
Merchandising firms also market goods to their clients. However, rather than producing goods, they are purchased from other businesses (such as manufacturers).
Service businesses offer services to consumers rather than goods. The most common types of business organizations are proprietorship, partnership, company, or limited liability company.
A single person owned the proprietorship. Local small businesses such as hardware stores, repair shops, laundries, and restaurants are categorized as proprietorships.
Two or more persons can own the partnership. Local small businesses such as automotive repair shops, music stores, beauty salons, and clothing stores are categorized as partnerships.
A company is structured under state or federal law as a separate legal taxable entity. The ownership of the company is split into shares of the company. The opportunity to acquire vast quantities of capital by issuing stocks is a primary benefit of the corporate type. The examples of companies include General Motors, International Business Machines (IBM), Ford, Coca-Cola, and General Electric.
Accounting in Business:
The purpose of business accounting is to provide business information for managers to use in the operation of the company. Besides, accounting offers information to other consumers when determining the performance of the company.
Accounting plays a critical role in running a business as it helps you monitor revenue and expenditure, ensures regulatory compliance, and provides customers, administrators, and governments with the detailed financial information that can be mainly used to create business decisions.
Three main financial statements that can be created from the accounting records are as follows:
The income statement caters with information about profit and loss.
The balance sheet provides a direct picture of the financial state of a company on a given date.
The cash flow statement is a link between the income details and the balance sheet and the cash created and spent over a particular period.
The following are a few reasons why financial statements are relevant for a business:
Financial reports represent the results of a company as well as the financial status of a business or an organization in determining the performance of a business.
The proper accounting systems and procedures can help to ensure legal statutory compliance of the business.
Financial documents will play a key role in the production of the budget and future estimates.
Accounting documents help companies file their financial statements with the Registrar of Companies.
Accounting describes the information system that provides users with information on the economic activities of a company and conditions of a company.
