What is Accounting?

What is accounting?
 Definition of Accounting Accounting is the recording of financial transactions along with storing, sorting, retrieving, summarizing, and presenting the results in various reports and analyses. Accounting is also a field of study and profession dedicated to carrying out those tasks. Examples of Financial Accounting One part of accounting focuses on presenting the financial information in the form of general-purpose financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, etc.) that are distributed to people outside of the company. These external reports must be prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles often referred to as GAAP or US GAAP. Examples of Management Accounting Another part of accounting focuses on providing a company's management with the information needed to keep the business financially healthy. Although some of the information comes from recorded transactions, many of the analyses and reports include estimated and projected amounts based on various assumptions. Generally, this information is not distributed to people outside of the company's management. A few examples of this information are budgets, standards for controlling operations, and estimating selling prices when quoting prices for new work.

 Accounting vs bookkeeping: Accounting and bookkeeping are both part of the same process: keeping your financial records in order. However, bookkeeping is more concerned with recording everyday financial transactions and operations, while accounting puts that financial data to good use through analysis, strategy, and tax planning. The accounting cycle Accounting begins with recording transactions. Business transactions—any activity or event that involves your business’s money—need to be put into your company’s general ledger. Recording business transactions this way is part of bookkeeping.
Bookkeeping is the first step of what accountants call the “accounting cycle”: a process designed to take in transaction data and spit out accurate and consistent financial reports.
The accounting cycle has six major steps:

a. Analyze and record transactions. Collect any invoices, bank or credit statements, and receipts from business transactions.

b. Post journal entries to the ledger. It’s time to take those documents and start making journal entries for your transactions. Journal entries include three components of a transaction: when it happened, what it was for, and how much it was. Some businesses use single-entry accounting where only the expense or revenue is entered. But more common is double-entry accounting, which records each transaction in two accounts: where money is coming from and where it’s going.

c. Prepare an un-adjusted trial balance. At the end of a reporting period, list all of your business’s accounts and figure out their balances.

d. Prepare adjusting entries at the end of the period. When you need to update entries you’ve already made, you prepare adjusting entries. For example, if a client is late on paying an invoice and you offer a 5% discount to help them pay, you would enter the discount as an adjusting entry, as opposed to changing the entry you’ve already made.

e. Prepare an adjusted trial balance. After entering in adjusting entries, you’re left with an adjusted trial balance. This information is now ready to be turned into financial statements.

f. Prepare financial statements. Finally, all the information you’ve collected is converted into your financial statements. This final step includes summarizing all your financial information into succinct reports for easy review.

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