In many business areas intellectual property developed by a company or individual is licensed to another party under royalty agreements. The article below describes what royalties are and provides general rules for accounting for royalty arrangements.

Trademarks may be important for businesses nowadays. Customers are often ready to pay more for the recognized quality of branded goods that in turn stimulates companies to invest more in acquisition and development of trademarks. This article discusses the initial recognition, measurement and accounting for trademarks.

Quite often rent agreements classified as operating leases include uneven rent payment terms (e.g., escalating rent payments or rent holidays). For example, a 5-year building rent agreement may specify that rents will go up 5% every year after the first year. Some companies assume that the rent expense should be recognized based on the rent payments. However, under US GAAP this most probably won’t be true. In this article, we review accounting for lease agreements with uneven rent payments.

Fixed asset donations are rare when one talks about for-profit companies, but such donations are more common when one talks about non-for-profit companies. Fixed asset donations can be inbound or outbound. How does a company account for such donations?

Leasehold improvements represent additions to a lease property. Accounting for such improvements normally does not present a significant issue except for their amortization. This article covers a common issue which relates to the amortization of leasehold improvements.

From time to time accounting records may present unusual account balances. For example, a customer may have a credit balance in accounts receivable or a vendor may have a debit balance in accounts payable. This article provides examples of such situations and directions on how to approach them from the accounting standpoint. Offsetting assets and liabilities is also discussed.

Notes receivable and how they are different from accounts receivable as well as an example of journal entries involving notes receivable.