Understand the importance of accounting in monitoring financial activities and making informed decisions for your business. Gain insight into accounting fundamentals and its role in legal and tax matters.
By Brad Nakase, Attorney
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Accounting is a method of monitoring all financial activities within a company, including any inflow and outflow of funds. It’s crucial for firms not just for normal company administration and recordkeeping, but also for legal and tax concerns. Even though many companies hire professionals to handle their accounting, it’s a good idea to know the fundamentals of accounting if you’re managing a company. We’ll go over all you need to understand about accounting fundamentals to help.
Accounting: a definition
The process of documenting, categorizing, and reporting financial transactions is called accounting. It gives you a clear image of your company’s performance and financial health, which can aid in the management of resources and strategic expansion.
Accounting is similar to a strong computer that processes information (financial statements) from raw data (numbers). The main goal is to give you a notion of what’s working and what isn’t so you can make the necessary adjustments.
Accounting data reveals the financial status of your business. It indicates whether you’re ultimately turning a profit or just losing money.
This information is accessible not only to you but also to other users, including creditors, investors, and stakeholders. These parties want to learn more about your company to determine whether investing in it will be a wise decision and what kind of returns to anticipate.
Accounting not only helps to ensure that stakeholders are informed, but it also guarantees that choices are well-supported by data.
You may come across specific titles in accounting that seem to have identical responsibilities but have distinct job descriptions. We’ll quickly go over the differences between the jobs of accountants, CPAs, and tax professionals in this section.
A professional with a bachelor’s degree in accounting offers bookkeeping, tax preparation, and financial guidance. They handle cash management, payroll, and the creation of financial reports, among other corporate duties.
A professional accountant with more education and experience than the average accountant is known as a certified public accountant (CPA). A bachelor’s degree, at least two years of experience in public accounting, passing all four sections of the CPA exam, and fulfillment of any extra state-specific requirements are prerequisites for becoming a certified public accountant (CPA). License holders in the United States who hold CPA designations must have obtained them from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
CPAs, lawyers, accountants, brokers, financial planners, and others are examples of tax professionals. Assisting consumers with their taxes is their main responsibility in order to prevent them from paying excessive or insufficient federal or state income taxes.
In general, tax professionals are thought to be less qualified than CPAs when it comes to doing individual taxes. This is because CPAs are trained to assess personal and business finances in order to get the most savings and reduce taxes. It’s important to remember that not all accountants are CPAs, even if all CPAs are accountants.
Accounting can be divided into a number of areas, each of which deals with a particular collection of data or records of a certain transaction. We go through 4 of the most popular accounting specialties in this section:
Accounting for Finances
This is the process of keeping track of and disclosing cash flows and financial activities. In particular, this kind of accounting is required to provide financial reports for the benefit of outside parties and governmental organizations. A company’s financial health and performance are disclosed in these financial statements. For instance, whereas the income statement provides revenues and expenses, the balance sheet shows assets and liabilities. Accounting standards and guidelines like IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) and U.S. GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) control financial accounting.
Accounting for Management
This focuses on how to make wise business decisions by using and interpreting financial data. It is like financial accounting. However, this time, financial statements are generated more regularly to assess and analyze financial performance, and they are only used internally.
Expense Reporting
This is the procedure for monitoring, evaluating, and comprehending the expenses related to a particular commercial activity. This covers every expense, both direct and indirect, related to running your company on a daily basis. The reason cost accounting is so crucial is that it makes sure your expenditure is going toward improving the bottom line of your company.
Accounting for taxes
This is the process of keeping track of and filing taxes-related income and expenses for your business. Avoid finding yourself in a position where you’re required to pay more income tax than the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) typically mandates.
We’ve already seen the different kinds and advantages of accounting. This brings up the second issue, which is how to do accounting effectively. Your company’s accounting can be managed in a variety of ways. Among them are:
Contract with Experts
You can hire outside experts who focus on bookkeeping and filing taxes to handle your accounting tasks. Because it enables you to utilize particular skill sets that might not be available when employing someone in-house, outsourcing can provide a number of benefits. In general, it is less expensive and adaptable as well.
Making Use of Accounting Software
Basic accounting software functions include inventory management, payment processing, and the creation of sales and expense reports. For freelancers and small enterprises without the funds to employ an accountant or bookkeeper, it can be helpful. Additionally, this frees up time for you to concentrate on efficiently managing your firm.
Recruiting an Internal Accountant
Alternatively, you may decide to hire a CPA or internal accountant to handle your company’s accounting. This has certain disadvantages, but it can be a wonderful solution if you want to be sure your records are in order and the financial information about your company is accurate. For starters, the expense of employing someone of this caliber may place a heavy strain on the resources of your company.
Accounting may be performed in many different ways. That said, there are a few methods that make handling your money easier. Among the top practices are:
Because it not only makes it easier to manage your finances but also to make well-informed business decisions, accounting is commonly referred to as “the language of business.” To ensure proper financial audits and reporting, you can hire accounting specialists or invest in accounting software.
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