Personal Finance guide

I would like to start speaking about this topic with defining what accounting is. So accounting is keeping financial records, recording income & expenditure, valuing assets& liabilities, eleberation of budjets & so on. We can devide accounting into two large groups.

Accounting:

Financial accounting

preparing financial statements of various kinds

- financial statements

- tax reterns -

is used for:

Managerial accounting

preparing financial information,

necessary for the company itself;

- controlling

- marketing & management

- pricing

- negotiations

- analyzing the flows of capital

But also there are a lot of other kinds of accounting, such as:

Cost accounting – working out the unit cost of products, including materials, labour & all othe expenses.

Tax accounting – calculating an individual’s or a company’s liability for tax.

“Creative accounting” (or “window dressing”) – using all available accounting procedures & tricks to disguise the true financial position of a company.

Also at the begining of the topic I would like to stress, that we shouldn’t muddle accounting with bookkeeping. Bookkeeping is just writing down (recording) all the details of transactions (debits & credits). Bookkeepers have to record every purchase and sale that a business makes, in the order that they take place, in journals. At a later date, these temporary records are entered in or posted to the relevant account book or ledger. At the end of an accounting period, all the relevant totals are transferred to the profit and loss account. Double-entry bookkeeping records the dual effect of every transaction – a value both receives and parted with. Payments made or debits are entered of the left-hand (debtors) side of an account, and payments received or credits on the right-hand side. Bookkeepers periodically do a trial balance to test whether both sides of an account book match.

Continue reading ‘Accounting & balance sheet’ »

Accounting is keeping financial records, recording income and expenditure, valuing assets and liabilities, and so on. Accountants, unlike bookkeepers, analyze financial records, and decide how to present them. There are several types of accounting:

-Managerial accounting is preparing budgets and other financial reports necessary for management.

-Cost accounting working out the unit cost of products, including materials, labor and all other expenses.

-Tax accounting calculating an individual’s or a company’s liability for tax.

-Creative accounting uses all available accounting procedures and tricks to disguise the true financial position of a company.

And bookkeeping is writing down the details of transactions (debits and credits). Bookkeepers have to record every purchase and sale that a business makes, in the order that they take place, in journals. At a later date, these temporary records are entered in or posted to the relevant account book or ledger. At the end of an accounting period, all the relevant totals are transferred to the profit and loss account. Double-entry bookkeeping records the dual effect of every transaction – a value both receives and parted with. Payments made or debits are entered of the left-hand (debtors) side of an account, and payments received or credits on the right-hand side. Bookkeepers periodically do a trial balance to test whether both sides of an account match.

Actually, bookkeeping is only a part of accounting – the record-making part. And accounting itself includes also analytic and interpretation part, it shows the relationship between the financial results and events, which have created them.

There are three main steps in making records in bookkeeping:

- Recording every purchase and sale that a business makes

- Entering these temporary records in the ledger – a book of secondary, final entry, containing individual accounts.

- Transferring all the relevant totals to the profit and loss account.

The main principle of bookkeeping is double-entry principle. It states that each transaction must be recorded as two separate entries: a value both received and parted with. Payments made or debits are entered on the left-hand (debtor) side of an account, and payments received or credits on the right-hand (creditor) side.

Continue reading ‘A brief summary on Accounting’ »

Many professional careers require further education beyond the initial training and licensing. Some careers will offer a license that is essentially good forever, but this is rare in most industries. Things change, and in order to be the best at your career, you need to be able to get the CPA continuing education that you need on a regular basis so that you are informed about the latest and most critical changes and trends in accounting. There are many ways that you can take classes, but the internet is often the preferred source for today’s CPA continuing education seekers.

The internet makes training easier than ever before. You can do everything at your own pace and on your own time, allowing you to get the CPA continuing education that you need without having to make time in your busy schedule or worry about excessive traveling when you’re not able or willing to do so. You can learn the same things that you would learn in a typical course, but from the comfort of home and often for a much more affordable cost. There are a few things to keep in mind, though.

Continue reading ‘CPA Continuing Education- Online Accounting Courses’ »

CPA courses start with a four year degree in accounting or a related field that usually includes 24 hours of auditing or accounting. Once that education has been completed, people can become certified and licensed by the AICPA, or the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. This is going to be the critical part of your career, because without licensure and certification, you essentially cannot practice as a CPA. 42 states and the District of Columbia now require the recommended standards of the AICPA for their CPA candidates. That includes 150 semester hours of course work, which is 30 hours past a four-year degree.

Fortunately, there are training providers and programs that will allow you to take the necessary CPA courses beyond college requirements so that you can get your CPA license when you want it. You can find seminars, lab classes, typical classroom courses, and even online courses that will teach you everything and anything that you need to know about becoming a CPA so that you can make up that other 30 hours of training before you take your exam. Not everyone learns the same, so don’t think that you have to take a certain type of course or another. The options are there so that you can choose what works best for you.

Once you have completed your CPA courses, you’ll take a 2-day exam that comes in four parts. Most states allow you to pass each part individually, giving you the advantage in the event that you don’t pass one section or another. You will only have to retake the section that you failed in most cases, before your license is granted. After the test, you will get your CPA license, but that’s not where it ends. Many states require CPA courses as continuing education throughout the lifetime of your career in order to keep your certification valid and current.

Continue reading ‘CPA Courses- Making the Most of Your Training’ »