Companies and businesses employ several employees who perform tasks to achieve organizational goals. In exchange, employees receive salaries, wages, and other benefits. For companies, these payments are expenses that fall under the payroll system. Companies record these expenses using payroll journal entries. What is a Payroll Journal Entry? The term …

What is Deferred Rent? Deferred rent usually arises when a rent agreement grants a tenant free rent for one or several periods. In most cases, this period falls at the start of the lease agreement between the tenant and landlord. Accounting standards require companies to record this transaction as deferred …

Companies use various costing techniques to derive the cost of their products. Once they do so, they can apply a markup or margin to that cost to determine the sale price for a specific item. However, companies may also work with fixed prices in the market to stay competitive. It …

Notional principal contracts (NPCs) are a type of derivative contract that allow two parties to exchange payments based on the changes in an underlying asset. The IRS has specific rules in place for the taxation of NPCs, and it’s important to understand how they are treated in order to make …

Accounting principles define an expense as an outflow of economic resources during a period. Although it may sound adverse, expenditure is crucial to running any business. Most companies incur expenses in various areas, which they charge for a specific period. These items become a part of the income statement and …

Most industries follow a continuous production cycle. Consequently, companies follow a process throughout the year without much modification to their work. Process costing is the primary technique to determine product or service costs in these companies. However, some industries do not follow the same continuous system to serve clients. Companies …

Accounting is a field that involves collecting, analyzing, summarizing, recording, and reporting financial transactions. It includes branches that apply to various areas. One of these branches includes public accounting, which is a prevalent field. It is one of the most prominent forms of business based on accounting services. Therefore, it …

Companies prepare financial statements to report on their finances to their stakeholders. Usually, the balance sheet and income statement get preference because they include crucial information. However, companies also prepare two other reports, including the statement of cash flows and the statement of changes in equity. Although often overlooked, the …

What is a Trial Balance? The trial balance is a part of a company’s internal records used to prepare the financial statements. It gets its information from the balances reported in the general ledger accounts. Usually, the trial balance includes both income statement and balance sheet items. However, some versions …

A balance sheet is a financial statement that includes account balances from accounting systems. It classifies those balances under three categories, assets, liabilities, and equity. Primarily, it follows the accounting equation. This equation states the total of assets should equal the total of liabilities and equity. Therefore, the balance sheet …