Financial accounting
Financial accounting (or financial accountancy) is the field of accounting concerned with the summary, analysis and reporting of financial transactions related to a business. This involves the preparation of financial statements available for public use. Stockholders, suppliers, banks, employees, government agencies, business owners, and other stakeholders are examples of people interested in receiving such information for decision making purposes.
Financial accountancy is governed by both local and international accounting standards. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is the standard framework of guidelines for financial accounting used in any given jurisdiction. It includes the standards, conventions and rules that accountants follow in recording and summarizing and in the preparation of financial statements.
On the other hand, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is a set of passionable accounting standards stating how particular types of transactions and other events should be reported in financial statements. IFRS are issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). With IFRS becoming more widespread on the international scene, consistency in financial reporting has become more prevalent between global organizations.
While financial accounting is used to prepare accounting information for people outside the organization or not involved in the day-to-day running of the company, managerial accounting provides accounting information to help managers make decisions to manage the business.
Financial accounting and financial reporting are often used as synonyms.
1. According to International Financial Reporting Standards: the objective of financial reporting is:
To provide financial information that is useful to existing and potential investors, lenders and other creditors in making decisions about providing resources to the reporting entity.
2. According to the European Accounting Association:
Capital maintenance is a competing objective of financial reporting
The Importance of Ethics in Accounting: Reasons to Keep in Mind
Even though you aren’t a professional accountant, you’re still responsible for keeping your business’s books in order. And if you’re the one handling your small business books, you need to follow ethics in accounting.
Why is ethics important in accounting?
Accountants are expected to act ethically when they handle clients’ books. They must:
Demonstrate integrity
Keep things confidential
Stay up-to-date with the latest accounting news
Act professionally
Ethics are important in many aspects of business, especially when it comes to your company’s accounting books. Even though you might not be an accountant, you’re expected to exhibit the same qualities as them when you handle your books.
You’re dealing with sensitive information
As a business owner, you deal with sensitive information on the daily. When it comes to your business books, you need to handle your business bank account information, transaction totals, and other financial data.
Your mistakes are on you
Think about this: if you’re caught being unethical in accounting, who will be to blame? That’s right … you. When you make accounting mistakes or act unethically because you’re not competent in accounting, it’s on you.
Reasons to become a Chartered Accountant
Why become a Chartered Accountant?
The Chartered Accountancy qualification opens the door to a vast range of exciting career opportunities, in every sector of business and finance, both in Ireland and internationally. Chartered Accountants are in constant demand both at home and abroad, being recognised for their technical competence, professional standards, and veracity.
Becoming a Chartered Accountant combines innovative education with mentored work experience, to produce accountants who possess a greater ability to analyse and interpret business problems and develop dynamic solutions. Perhaps that’s why Chartered Accountants have the edge over their counterparts: they rise further and faster into more diverse and important roles in organisations.
The Chartered difference
We’re often asked what the difference between studying Chartered Accountancy and other accounting qualifications is. The answer is that no other professional accounting qualification provides students with the same support, structure, guidance and quality of education throughout the training process.
Exam Success
Where other professional accountancy bodies outsource their education, Chartered Accountancy trainees benefit from classes run directly by us. Students have greater levels of contact both with the Institute and their lecturers, both of whom work closely together to ensure the highest standards of delivery.
The education programme
There are a variety of education courses on offer, with lectures held in venues around the country and online. Chartered Accountancy courses have the finest accounting lecturers in Ireland, all of whom are committed to providing the best possible education to our students.
Differences between a Chartered Accountant and an Accountant?
Chartered Accountants discussed by Hayvenhursts Chartered Accountants
A Chartered Accountant gives you advice and trustworthy information about your businesses financial records and status. They can be involved in financial reporting, taxation, auditing, forensic accounting, corporate finance, business recovery and insolvency. They will support you with accounting systems and processes and will work alongside you and your business to drive your business forward, bringing skills of strategic forecasting along with expertise in finance, accountancy, auditing and taxation which is essential to each and every business in today’s climate.
CA stands for Chartered Accountant and it is one of the most coveted professional degrees in the world. To qualify as a Chartered Accountant, you qualify with a specialised bachelor’s degree in accounting, followed by a Certificate in the Theory of Accounting (CTA) which is offered as a postgraduate honours degree, or as a postgraduate diploma dependent on the university attended.
What is the difference between a Chartered Accountant and an Accountant?
A Chartered Accountant has to complete post-graduate honours or diploma degree and following this have had 3-year’s work experience alongside a Chartered Accountant expert who will mentor them through their 3-year work experience. Chartered are experts in the field of accounting, finance and business compared to an accountant which is more of a transactional financial role.
What does a Chartered Accountant do?
A Chartered Accountant focuses on providing accurate records of all financial transactions for an individual or business and they tend to work with commercial businesses such as larger non-profit organisations, corporations and e-commerce or industrial sectors.
Chartered Accountants will:
Work as key senior managers or alongside senior managers and decision-makers within a business, steering it in the right strategic direction, solving problems and implementing change
Report on the financial performance of a company to impact and direct key business decisions and strategies
Be trusted advisors, supporting as a consultant or as a practising partner
Work in a wide range of business sectors and in a broad spectrum of roles, from financial controllers and directors to chief executives
Advise on a range of day-to-day financial aspects and reporting, preparing corporate and personal tax statements and formulate tax strategies including financial choice, how to plan and manage a merger or acquisition, deferral of taxes, when to expense items and so on
Plan and manage business audits which include; checking accounting ledgers and financial statements within businesses including processes, manual, automatic and random real-time auditing
Budget planning, negotiation and analysis, managing an organisation’s current and future financial plans, working alongside marketing, operations, new business, service and HR. They will manage and or participate in decisions about budgeting alongside a businesses’ financial analysis
Conduct risk analysis for companies to make investment decisions in the future.
The Ultimate Guide to Accounting Basics
In college, I started a local consignment business. It was very different from my freelance writing business for a few key reasons: I had employees, I had physical products (which meant a physical store and check-out process), and I had a different legal business entity.
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Regardless of your business size and budget, accounting is an incredibly useful practice to master. We wrote this guide to ease you into the subject, and by the end, you’ll feel equipped to tackle your own business’s accounting (or find someone who can help).
What is business accounting?
Accounting is the process of systematically recording, analyzing, and interpreting your business’s financial information. Business owners use accounting to track their financial operations, meet legal obligations, and make stronger business decisions.
Business Accounting Basics
Regardless of who manages your business accounting, it’s wise to understand accounting basics. If you can read and prepare these basic documents, you’ll understand your business’s performance and financial health — as a result, you’ll have greater control of your company and financial decisions.
Here are the documents and calculations we recommend mastering, even if you work with a professional, consulting agency, or have hired a certified public accountant (CPA). They provide valuable snapshots and measures of your business performance.
An income statement, which shows your company’s profitability and tells you how much money your business has made or lost.
A balance sheet, which is a snapshot of your business’ financial standing at a single point in time. A balance sheet will also show you your business’s retained earnings, which is the amount of profit that you’ve reinvested in your business (rather than being distributed to shareholders).
A profit and loss (P&L) statement, which is a snapshot of your business’s income and expenses during a given time period (e.g. quarterly, monthly, or yearly). This calculation will also be reflected on your business’s Schedule C tax document.
A cash flow statement, which analyzes your business’s operating, financing, and investing activities to show how and where you’re receiving and spending money.
A bank reconciliation compares your cash expenditures with your overall bank statements and helps keep your business records consistent. (This is the process of reconciling your book balance to your bank balance of cash.)
