WHAT IS ACCOUNTING
Accounting is a process of identifying the events of financial nature, recording them in journal, classifying in their respective ledgers, summarizing them in Profit and Loss Account and Balance Sheet and communicating the results to the users of such information. The users of accounting information include owners, creditors, bank and financial institutions, employees, government, etc. According to the American Accounting Association “Accounting is the process of identifying, measuring and communicating economic information to permit informed judgments and decisions by users of the information.”- Economic Events:-
- The following are the examples of such transactions:
- Sale of merchandise to the customers.
- Rendering services to the customers by ABC Limited.
- Purchase of materials from suppliers.
- Payment of monthly rent to the landlord.
2. Identification, Measurement, Recording & Communication:-
- Identification:- It means determining what transactions to record, i.e., to identity events which are to be recorded. It involves observing activities and selecting those events that are of considered financial character and relate to the organization. The business transactions and other economic events therefore are evaluated for deciding whether it has to be recorded in books of account. For example, the value of human resources, changes in managerial policies or appointment of personnel are important but none of these are recorded in books of account.
- Measurement:- It means quantification (including estimates) of business transactions into financial terms by using monetary unity, viz. rupees and paise as a measuring unit. That is why important items like the appointment of a new managing director, signing of contracts or changes in personnel are not shown in the book of accounts.
- Recording:- Once the economic events are identified and measured in financial terms, these are recorded in books of account in monetary terms and in a chronological order.
- Communication:- The economic events are identified, measured and recorded in order that the pertinent information is generated and communicated in a certain from to management and other internal and external users. The information is regularly communicated through accounting reports.
Accounting as a source of information
Accounting is a definite processes of interlinked activities, that begins with the identification of transactions and ends with the preparation of financial statements. Every step in the process of accounting generates information. Generation of information is not an end in itself. To be useful, the accounting information should ensure to:- Provide information for making economic decisions;
- Serve the users who rely on financial statement as their principle source of information;
- Provide information useful for predicting and evaluating the amount, timing and uncertainty of potential cash-flows;
- Provide information for judging management’s ability to utilize resources effectively in meeting goals;
- Provide information on activities affecting the society.
- Qualitative Characteristics of Accounting Information:- Qualitative characteristics are the attributes of accounting information which tend to enhance its understandability and usefulness. In order to assess whether accounting information is decision useful, it must possess the characteristics of reliability, relevance, understandability and comparability.
- Reliability:- Reliability means the must be able to depend on the information. The reliability of accounting information is determined by the degree of correspondence between what the information conveys about the transactions or events that have occurred, measured and displayed.
- Relevance:- to be relevant, information must be available in time, must help in prediction and feedback, and must influence the decisions of users by:
- Helping them form prediction about the outcomes of past, present or future events;
- Confirming or correcting their past evaluations.
- Understandability:- Understandability means decision-makers must interpret accounting information in the same sense as it is prepared and conveyed to them. The qualities that distinguish between good and bad communication in a message are fundamental to the understandability of the message.
- Comparability:- It is not sufficient that the financial is relevant and reliable at a particular time, in a particular circumstance or for a particular reporting entity.
OBJECTIVES OF ACCOUNTING:-
As an information system, the basic objective of accounting is to provide useful information to the interested group of users, both external and internal. The necessary information, particularly in case of external users, is provided the form of financial statements, viz., profit and loss account and balance sheet.- Maintaining Accounting Records – The objective of accounting is to record financial transactions and events of the organization in the books of account in a systematic manner following the principle of accountancy.
- Determining Profit or Loss – Another objective of accounting is to determine whether during the accounting period, the firm has earned profit or has incurred loss. For this purpose, a statement called as Income Statement or the Trading and Profit and Loss Account is prepared.
- Determining Financial Position – Another objective of accounting is to determine financial position. It is known from the Balance Sheet, Which shows value of the assets on one side and liabilities on the other side. Financial position of the business is a relevant for the users of financial statements as is the income statements, Profit and Loss Account.
- Facilitating Management – The Management often required financial information for decision-making, effective control, budgeting and forecasting. Accounting provides financial information to assist the management in discharging this function.
- Providing Accounting Information To Users – Yet another objective of accounting is to provide accounting information to users, both internal and external, who analyze them according to their requirements.
Role of Accounting
For centuries, the role of accounting has been changing with the changes in economic development and increasing societal demands. It describes and analyses a mass of data of an enterprise through measurement, classification and summarization, and reduces those date into reports and statements, which show the financial condition and results of operations of that enterprise Hence, it is regarded as a language of business. It also performs the service activity by providing quantitative financial information that helps the users in various ways.Basic Terms in Accounting
- Entity:- Entity means a reality that has a definite individual existence. Business entity means a specifically identifiable business enterprise like Super Bazaar, Hire Jewellers, ITC Limited, etc. An accounting system is always devised for a specific business entity (also called accounting entity).
- Transaction:- ‘Business Transaction’ means a financial transaction or economic event entered into by two parties that initiates the accounting process of recording it in the books of account of an enterprise. It is an agreement between two parties involving transfer or exchange of goods or services. Example of business transactions are sale of goods, purchase of goods. It has dual aspects or two sides- ‘Receiving’ called Debit and ‘Giving’ called Credit of the benefit.
- Assets:- Assets are the properties (tangible assets and intangible assets) owned by an entity or enterprise. They are the economic resources of the business. Example of assets are land, building, machinery, furniture, stock, debtors, cash and bank balances, trademarks, copyrights, goodwill, etc.
- Non-current Assets
- Current Assets
- Fictitious Assets
- Non-current liability – Liabilities payable after 12 months from the date of Balance Sheet. That is non current liability. Example of Non-current Liability is long-term loans, debentures, etc.
- Current Liability – Liabilities payable within 12 months from the date of Balance Sheet. That is current liability. Example of Current Liability is bills payable, short-term loans, etc.
- Prepaid Expense – It is an Expense that has been paid in advance and the benefit of which will be available in the following year or years. E.g. advance rent, insurance premium.
- Outstanding Expense – It is an expense that has been incurred but has not been paid. E.g. outstanding salary, rent, subscription.
- Capital Expenditure – Amount spent or liability incurred for purchasing assets. It may be incurred to acquire tangible assets or intangible assets. Example of capital expenditure are purchase of machinery to manufacture goods, purchase of furniture. Capital expenditure is shown on the assets side of the Balance Sheet.
- Revenue Expenditure – Amount spent or liability incurred for purchasing goods or services taken to earn revenue. It has direct relationship with revenue or with the accounting period, e.g. cost of goods sold, salaries, rent, electricity expenses, etc.
- Deferred Revenue Expenditure – Expenses of revenue nature written off in more than one year. For example, large advertising expenditure that will give benefit for more than one accounting period is a Deferred Revenue Expenditure.
- Gross Profit– Excess of revenue over direct expenses.
- Net Profit – Excess of total revenue and other income over total expenses.
- Trade Discount – Trade Discount is the reduction in prices by the seller to the purchaser of goods when they buy goods of certain quantity or value. Dales are recorded at net value, i.e., sales- trade discount.
- Cash Discount – Cash discount is the discount allowed for timely payment of due amount. It is an expense for the party allowing the discount and income for the party receiving cash discount.
- Rebate – Rebate is the discount allowed by the seller of goods to the purchaser for reasons other than for which trade discount or cash discount is allowed. It is allowed after the sale
- Opening stock is the stock in hand in the beginning of accounting year. In other hand it is stock in hand at the end of the previous accounting year.
- Closing stock is stock in hand at the end of the current accounting period.
- Define accounting.
2. State the end product of financial accounting.

3. Enumerate main objective of accounting.
4. Who are the users of accounting information?
- The five users who have indirect interest in accounting are given below.
- Tread associations
- Labour unions
- Stock exchanges
- Tax authorities.
5. State the nature of accounting information required by long-term lenders.
Ans. – Accounting information required by the long term lenders are repaying capacity of the business, profitability, liquidity, operational efficiency, potential growth of business, etc.6. Who are the external users of information?
7. Enumerate information needs of management.
8. Give any three examples of revenues.
- Sales revenue
- Interest received
- Dividends
9. Distinguish between debtors and creditors; profit and gain
Ans. –| Basis of difference | Debtors | Creditors |
| Meaning | Persons or Organisations that are liable to pay money to a firm are called debtors. | Persons or organisations to whom the firm is liable to pay money are called creditors. |
| Nature | They have debit balance to the firm | They have credit balance to the firm. |
| Payment | Payments are received from them. | Payments are made to them. |
| Shown | They are shown as assets in the Balance sheet under current assets | They are show as liabilities in the Balance Sheet under current liabilities. |
10. ‘Accounting information should be comparable’. Do you agree with this statement? Give two reasons.
Ans. – Accounting information should be comparable because of the following reasons.- Comparable accounting information helps in inter-firm comparisons. This helps in assessing viability and advantages of various policies adopted by different firms.
- It also helps in intra-firm comparisons that help in determining the changes and also to ascertain the results of various policies and plans adopted in different time periods. This also helps to figure out the errors, ascertain growth and assist in management planning.
11. If the accounting information is not clearly presented, which of the qualitative characteristic of the accounting information is violated?
Ans. – If the accounting information is not clearly presented, then the qualitative characteristics like, comparability, reliability and understandability, are violated. This is because if the accounting information is not clearly presented, then meaningful comparison may not be possible, as the data is not trustworthy, which may lead to faulty conclusions.12. “The role of accounting has changed over the period of time”- Do you agree? Explain.
13. Give examples, explain each of the following accounting terms:
- Fixed assets
- Revenue
- Expenses
- Short-term liability
- Fixed assets:- These are held for long term and increase the profit earning capacity of the business, over various accounting periods. These assets are not meant for sale; for example, land, building, machinery, etc.
- Revenue:- The amount of money that a producer receives in exchange for the sale of goods is known as revenue. In short, revenue means sales revenue. It is the amount received by a firm from the sale of a given quantity of a commodity
- Expenses:- Amount spent or incurred to earn revenue. Such as salaries, wages, rent, etc.
- Prepaid Expense – It is an Expense that has been paid in advance and the benefit of which will be available in the following year or years. E.g. advance rent, insurance premium.
- Outstanding Expense – It is an expense that has been incurred but has not been paid. E.g. outstanding salary, rent, subscription.
- Trade accounts payable
- Accrued expenses
- Taxes payable
- Dividends payable
- Customer deposits
- Short-term debt
- Current portion of long-term debt
- Other accounts payable
14. Define revenues and expenses?
- Revenue:- Revenues refer to the amount received from day to day activities of the business, likesale proceeds of goods and rendering services to the customers. Rent received, commission received, royalties and interest received are considered as revenue, as they are regular in nature and concerned with day to day activities. It is shown in the credit side of the profit and loss account or trading account.
- Expenses:- Expenses refer to those costs that are incurred to earn revenue for the business. It is incurred for maintaining profitability of the business. It indicates the amount spent to meet short-term needs of the business. It is shown in the debit side of the profit and loss account or trading account. For example, wages, rent paid, salaries paid, outstanding wages, etc.
15. What is the primary reason for the business student and others to familiarise themselves with the accounting discipline?
Ans. – Every monetary transaction must be recorded in such a manner that various accounting users must understand and interpret these results in the same manner without any ambiguity. The reasons for why business students and others should familiarise themselves with the accounting discipline are given below. 1. It helps in learning the various aspects of accounting. 2. It helps in learning how to maintain books of accounts. 3. It helps in learning how to summarise accounting information. 4. It helps in learning how to interpret the accounting information with relative accuracy. Long Answers- What is accounting? Define its objectives.
- Maintaining Accounting Records – The objective of accounting is to record financial transactions and events of the organization in the books of account in a systematic manner following the principle of accountancy.
- Determining Profit or Loss – Another objective of accounting is to determine whether during the accounting period, the firm has earned profit or has incurred loss. For this purpose, a statement called as Income Statement or the Trading and Profit and Loss Account is prepared.
- Determining Financial Position – Another objective of accounting is to determine financial position. It is known from the Balance Sheet, Which shows value of the assets on one side and liabilities on the other side. Financial position of the business is a relevant for the users of financial statements as is the income statements, Profit and Loss Account.
- Facilitating Management – The Management often required financial information for decision-making, effective control, budgeting and forecasting. Accounting provides financial information to assist the management in discharging this function.
- Providing Accounting Information To Users – Yet another objective of accounting is to provide accounting information to users, both internal and external, who analyze them according to their requirements.
2. Explain the factors which necessitated systematic accounting.
Ans. – The factors that necessitated systematic accounting are given below. 1. Only financial transactions are recorded- Those events that are financial in nature are only recorded in the books of accounts. For example, salary of an employee is recorded in the books but his/her educational qualification is not recorded. 2. Transactions are recorded in monetary terms- Only those transactions which can be expressed in monetary terms are recorded in the books. For example, if a business has two buildings and four machines, then their monetary values is recorded in the books, i.e. two buildings costing Rs 2,00,000, four machines costing Rs 8,00,000. Thus the total value of assets is Rs 10,00,000. 3. Art of recording- Transactions are recorded in the order of their occurrence. 4. Classification of transaction- Business transactions of similar nature are classified and posted under their respective accounts. For example, all the transactions relating to machinery will be posted in the Machinery Account. 5. Summarising of data- All business transactions are summarised in the form of Trial Balance, Trading Account, Profit and Loss Account and Balance Sheet that provides necessary information to various users. 6. Analysing and interpreting data- Systematic accounting records enable users to analyse and interpret the accounting data in a proper and appropriate manner. These accounting data and information are presented in form of graphs, statements, charts that leads to easy communication and understandability by various users. Moreover, these facilitates in decision making and future predictions.3. Describe the informational needs of external users.
Ans. – There are various external users of accounting who need accounting information for decision making, investment planning and to assess the financial position of the business. The various external users are given below. 1. Banks and other financial institutions- Banks provide finance in form of loans and advances to various businesses. Thus, they need information regarding liquidity, creditworthiness, solvency and profitability to advance loans. 2. Creditors- These are those individuals and organisations to whom a business owes money on account of credit purchases of goods and receiving services; hence, the creditors require information about credit worthiness of the business. 3. Investors and potential investors- They invest or plan to invest in the business. Hence, in order to assess the viability and prospectus of their investment, creditors need information about profitability and solvency of the business. 4. Tax authorities- They need information about sales, revenues, profit and taxable income in order to determine the levy various types of tax on the business. 5. Government- It needs information to determine national income, GDP, industrial growth, etc. The accounting information assist the government in the formulation of various policies measures and to address various economic problems like employment, poverty etc. 6. Researcher- Various research institutes like NGOs and other independent research institutions like CRISIL, stock exchanges, etc. undertake various research projects and the accounting information facilitates their research work. 7. Consumer- Every business tries to build up reputation in the eyes of consumers, which can be created by the supply of better quality products and post-sale services at reasonable and affordable prices. Business that has transparent financial records, assists the customers to know the correct cost of production and accordingly assess the degree of reasonability of the price charged by the business for its products and thus helps in repo building of the business. 8. Public- Public is keenly interested to know the proportion of the profit that the business spends on various public welfare schemes; for example, charitable hospitals, funding schools, etc. This information is also revealed by the profit and loss account and balance sheet of the business.4. What do you mean by an asset and what are different types of assets?
Ans. – Any valuable thing that has monetary value, which is owned by a business, is its asset. In other words, assets are the monetary values of the properties or the legal rights that are owned by the business organisations. Fixed Assets- These are those assets that are hold for the long term and increase the profit earning capacity and productive capacity of the business. These assets are not meant for sale, for example, land, building machinery, etc. Current Assets- Assets that can be easily converted into cash or cash equivalents are termed as current assets. These are required to run day to day business activities; for example, cash, debtors, stock, etc. Tangible Assets- Assets that have physical existence, i.e., which can be seen and touched, are tangible assets; for example, car, furniture, building, etc. Intangible Assets- Assets that cannot be seen or touched, i.e. those assets that do not have physical existence, are intangible assets; for example, goodwill, patents, trade mark, etc. Liquid Assets- Assets that are kept either in cash or cash equivalents are regarded as liquid assets. These can be converted into cash in a very short period of time; for example, cash, bank, bills receivable, etc. Fictitious Assets- These are the heavy revenue expenditures, the benefit of whose can be derived in more than one year. They represent loss or expense that are written off over a period of time, for example, if advertisement expenditure is Rs.1,00,000 for 5 years, then each year Rs.2,00,000 will be written off.5. Explain the meaning of gain and profit. Distinguish between these two terms.
Ans. – Profit- Excess of revenue over expense is known as profit. It is normally categorised into gross profit or net profit. It increases the owner’s capital as it is added to the capital at the end of each accounting period. For example, goods costing Rs.1, 00,000 is sold at Rs.1,20,000, then the sale proceeds of Rs.1,20,000 is the revenue and 1,00,000 is the expense to generate this revenue. Hence, accounting profit of Rs.20,000 (i.e. Rs.1,20,000 – Rs.1,00,000) is the difference between the revenue and expense that is earned by the business. Gain- It arises from irregular activities or non-recurring transactions. In other words, a gain is a result of transactions that are incidental to the business, other than operating transactions. For example, an old machinery of book value Rs.20,000 is sold at Rs.25,000. Hence, the gain is Rs.5,000 (i.e. Rs.25,000 – Rs.20,000). Here, the sale of the old machinery is an irregular activity; so, the difference is termed as gain Thus, in other words the only difference between profit and gain is that profit is the excess of revenue over expense and gain arises from other than operating transactions.6. Explain the qualitative characteristics of accounting information.
Ans. – The following are the qualitative characteristics of accounting information: 1. Reliability- It means that the user can rely on the accounting information. All accounting information is verifiable and can be verified from the source document (voucher), viz. cash memos, bills, etc. Hence, the available information should be free from any errors and unbiased. 2. Relevance- It means that essential and