Simplestudies.com Updates

How to calculate accrued payroll

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 14:34:24 GMT

Let’s start with a quick example. A company pays its hourly employees every two weeks on the day following the pay period. The very last payroll disbursement for a given year takes place four days before the end of the fiscal year. The next payroll disbursement will take place ten days after the new fiscal year begins. Does the company have to worry about the payroll expense for the four days in the current fiscal year? If so, what does the company have to do to account for the services employees provided before the end of the year, but which will not be paid for until the next year?

Accounting Test Set for Time Value of Money Added

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:48:39 GMT

For our customers: A new practice test set for tutorial Time Value of Money has been added. Login, go to My Studyboard and click Practice Test link for tutorial Time Value of Money. The test set number is 56.

Helpful tips on cash management and controls

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 23:16:15 GMT

Cash management practices are set in place to predict and possibly prevent or minimize short term cash flow problems. They are often inexpensive and easy to implement and can not only speed up cash handing process but also reduce cash requirements in different operating areas.

Read more about helpful tips on cash management and controls.

Simplestudies.com Video Tour

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 03:04:48 GMT

Short video explains the features that learners can use to study financial and managerial accounting on http://simplestudies.com.

Online accounting dictionary expanded to 500+ terms!

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 03:42:22 GMT

Online dictionary for learners of accounting on Simplestudies.com has been expanded to 500+ terms.

How to prepare general ledger to sub-ledger reconciliation

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:41:38 GMT

In another article about reconciliations (see "Bank Account Reconciliation"), we reviewed in detail the purposes of accounting reconciliation statements, identified two major types of reconciliations (bank reconciliation and general ledger to sub-ledger reconciliation), provided step-by-step instructions for the bank reconciliation process, and showed a real life example of the bank reconciliation. In this article, we continue explaining the reconciliation process and switch our gears to the general ledger to sub-ledger reconciliation.

Activity-based management (ABM)

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:39:49 GMT

Activity-based management (ABM) is a discipline about the management of activities that improve values received by customers and the profit generated by providing such values. ABM uses a lot of information from an activity-based costing (ABC) system. There are two types of ABM: operational ABM and strategic ABM.

Operational ABM manages activities that increase operational efficiency and lower production costs. Operational AMB utilizes such techniques as total quality management (TQM), performance measurement, and activity management.

How to accrue for and record utility expenses

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:39:07 GMT

In accounting, the matching principle states that expenses are to be matched with revenues. In practice this means that all expenses associated with generation of revenues within a month (quarter, year) should be included in the income statement in the same period as the revenues.

Accounting events are based on source documents. For example, receipt of inventory is supported by a packing slip or bill of lading. Accounting would use this document to record the inventory received.

Who is the father of modern accounting? (Accounting Q&A)

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 23:47:05 GMT

In 1494 the book Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita (The Collected Knowledge of Arithmetic, Geometry, Proportion and Proportionality) was published in Italy. Its author was the forty-nine-year-old Luca Pacioli (c. 1445–1517) from Sansepulcro, in Tuscany – a Franciscan friar, mathematician, university teacher and “Magister” (or master).

The Summa consisted of twenty-four chapters. One of them - Particularis de Computis et Scripturis - was devoted to accounting. In that chapter Pacioli described a system of bookkeeping (also known as "Method of Venice"), which Italian merchants used in those days – the Renaissance period.

How to account for customer returns

Mon, 30 May 2011 18:58:51 GMT

Many businesses, whether a large chain store or a small “mom-and-pop” shop, have to deal with returns of merchandise because sold items may be broken or damaged. It is important to understand accounting for purchases and sales of damaged goods not only to make appropriate journal entries but also to design a good internal control system over returned merchandise and related accounts (e.g., Cash, Accounts Payable).
here are two common approaches to refunding customers for returned goods:

* a cash refund
* a store credit

Let us look at each one using the following example: