The Accounting Cycle is a series of steps that businesses take to track transactions and consolidate financial information over a specific accounting period (month, quarter, year). The end result of is the production of accurate financial statements for that period and preparedness for the next accounting period. Read this article for more information.

A cash budget is used internally by management to estimate cash inflows (receipts) and outflows (disbursements) of cash during a period and the cash balance at the end of a period. In other words, a cash budget is a plan for an organization to obtain and use resources over a specific period of time. Profitable businesses go bankrupt every day because of cash flow problems – don’t let it happen to you!

Since the accountancy profession is only as good as the quality of service provided by its members, regulations and ethical guidelines are essential to having effective accountants.

A company’s accounting department must meet several criteria that are used to recognize revenue when a sale transaction occurs, and when expenses are recorded. This recognition is essential for meeting the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

GAAP – the Generally Accepted Accounting Practices. These are a set of a standard means of doing financial reporting and bookkeeping. This helps analysts and auditors can compare apples-to-apples financial data from one year to another, and even between organizations.