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How to Understand Your Financial Statements

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        Financial Statements are important tools to recognize the performance of a company. Income statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement are three official financial statements that are common to see. They not only present accounts balance and your profit or loss but also reflect some deeper information such as the profitability of a company. However, deep information does not show up itself. In order to make a further analysis of a business, you need to do some calculation and comparison to get some ratios.  1.Current Ratio=Current assets\Current liability     Current ratio is used to measure the liquidity of a company. It reflects the short-term debt-paying liability by comparing the value of current assets and current liabilities.      For example, the current ratio for Tim Hortons INC. In 2014 is 1.155 to 1 , which means Tim Hortons has $1.16 of current assets for every dollar of current liabilities. While the c...

Three Activities in Cash Flow Statement

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        Cash Flow Statement is a formal financial statement that shows the performance of a company. It tells investors and creditors whether the company is worth to invest. A cash flow statement can be divided into three parts, which are operating activities, investing activities and financing statement. These three parts provide different kinds of cash information and also reflect the performance of business from various aspects.  1.Operating Activities     Operating Activities are transactions related to providing services and selling products. This the most frequent activity in a business. This part turns the accrual net income on income statement into a cash basis.      The cash from operating activities is always be compared with the profit. If the cash is greater than profit, the profitability of this company is in a good condition. On the other hand, if the cash from operating activities is less than the profit, it means...

Big 4 Accounting Firms

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    If you are on the way to becoming a successful accountant, you are sure to hear the name of ”Big 4”, the biggest four accounting firms around the world. They deal with various accounting and auditing business for lots of global companies, actually, they audit for more than 80% US companies[1]. It can be said that today’s accounting market is dominated by only these four companies: 1.Deloitte LLP     Deloitte is a brand that has thousands of independent accounting firms under this name. These firms are the members of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL). They deal with various accounting business including consulting service, auditing, risk management and taxation[2]. Deloitte has a history of 150 years and it provides the best consulting service for many world-famous companies.    2.PwC LLP     The full name of PwC is PricewaterhouseCoopers. It’s the second large accounting firm in the world, right after Deloitte. It is a network of...

Careers Related to Accounting

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Accounting deals with different kinds of transactions and financial statements, which makes it become a fundamental part of the business. However, the whole accounting field might be very different from many people’s imagination. Accounting does not only means mechanically recording entries and numbers; instead, it requires various analytical skills to judge the financial condition of a company. Therefore, plenty of careers are developed and play an irreplaceable role in the business world. Here are some popular careers for accounting people : • Bookkeeper Bookkeeping is considered to be the most basic and simple job in the accounting field, but it still requires enough carefulness to make sure the accuracy. It includes works like posting day-to-day general journals and general ledgers. In other words, bookkeeper’s job ends at trial balance part of the accounting cycle, and provide reliable data for accountants to do further analysis. Generally, a bookkeeper should hav...

Partnership vs. Corporation

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      It is not surprising that many people want to start their own business these days. The first problem they meet is which type of company they should register. Some people prefer to start with a partnership, while other people like a corporation better. However, no matter which type you choose, it should be the most appropriate one for your business. So it is necessary to learn the differences partnership and corporation before you make your final decision. 1.  Income Taxes A partnership is not taxed as a separate entity. Actually, since the profit of the business is shared by each partnership as their personal income, the tax for business is already calculated in partners’ personal income taxes. On the other hand, a corporation must pay income taxes as a separate entity every month. Moreover, shareholders don’t need to pay personal income taxes for their capitals in business unless they receive dividends. Generally, the tax rate for compan...