Companies can invest in debt and equity securities. In this article we will discuss the three types of debt securities: held-to-maturity, trading and available for sale.

History of accounting standards has had several interactions of rules related to accounting for goodwill. Goodwill is a premium paid for a company over its assets and liabilities. There are situations, however, when a buyer pays less than what the assets and liabilities of the company are worth. This creates a bargain purchase.

Valuation of fixed assets has always been a contradictory issue for standards setters. Accounting for fixed assets at historical costs decreases the likelihood of manipulation, while accounting for fixed assets at fair values provides more relevant information to users of financial statements. In this article we will review US GAAP rules about initial measurement and subsequent accounting for fixed assets, and compare them with the IFRS requirements.

These days companies manufacture a lot of product varieties. Each product requires multiple parts to be created. Manufacturers can produce such parts themselves or they can buy them. Of course, the choice of producing parts or buying them includes various aspects and one of them is cost. In this article, we will discuss make or buy decisions.

The amount of intangible assets in financial statements within software, pharmaceutical, sport and other industries has grown significantly in recent years making capitalization and valuation of intangible assets a topical issue. The article below deals with recognition, measurement and valuation of intangible assets.

Companies pay taxes that are determined by specific country laws and regulations. However, taxable profits are rarely the same as financial accounting profits which gives rise to deferred taxes in financial statements. This article describes the basic rules of determining deferred tax assets and liabilities and their presentation in the cash flow statement.

Accounting for investments may be challenging and complex. In this article, we will provide an overview of methods of accounting for investments.

Aggressive corporate financial officers are always looking for sneaky ways to keep liabilities off the balance sheet. When the FASB issued interpretation FIN 46R, one such loophole was effectively cut off – the variable interest entity.

Most businesses use fixed assets which are typically depreciated. Such depreciation can be classified as direct or indirect expense. How can one distinguish between the two? In this article we will discuss this question and provide examples.

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.