Depreciation might sound simple in theory - the company buys a fixed asset and then writes off the cost over a period of time. But what if a company has hundreds or thousands of depreciable assets, each with its own cost, salvage value, and useful life? What if a particular machine has several dozen separate parts that must be replaced at different times? Situations like this call for specialized methods of depreciation.

In the first two parts of this article series, we discussed general capital lease accounting. For this final article, we’ll take a brief look at a special kind of transaction called a sale-leaseback.

In the first part of this article series about capital lease accounting, we discussed accounting for the asset and related liability from the perspective of the lessee. Now we’ll turn to other side of the transaction to look at accounting from the lessor’s perspective.

In this three-part article series, we’ll discuss the accounting treatment for various aspects of a leasing arrangement. This first part will cover capital lease accounting by the lessee (the party that takes possession of an asset in exchange for monthly lease payments).

This article touches upon accounting for stock options which was (and still is) a hot topic in the accounting realm.

Some costs are easy to identify as those which can be capitalized as part of inventory costs because they are clearly related to the manufacturing process. This is the case with direct costs and some indirect costs. Other costs are not as easy to analyze from the standpoint of inventory capitalization. In this article we will look at such costs and whether they should be included in inventory costs.

Some corporations are willing to sign stock purchase contracts with prospective shareholders. This is called a stock subscription, and the accounting treatment for such transactions is different than accounting for a regular stock issuance.

Fixed assets aren’t always ready for intended use as soon as they are purchased. There may be some activities which need to be completed before assets become ready for use. Can fixed assets be depreciated before they are ready for use? Can fixed assets go without being depreciation while they are not in use after pre-operating periods have ended? These questions will be answered in this article.

A sale of an asset for cash is generally easy to account for. A gain or loss is recorded for the difference between the asset’s book value and the cash received. What happens when an asset is exchanged for a similar asset? In this article we’ll cover the accounting treatment for such nonmonetary exchanges.

Derivative accounting is a complex subject filled with complicated transactions, financial statement presentations, and disclosures. In this article, we’ll scratch the surface of the derivative field and hedging activities, which are integrally related to derivatives.