Accounting Category: Journal entries

Accounting Articles

Many of the accounting principles on this website apply to any type of company. In this series of articles, we focus on the basics of accounting for partnerships, a business entity formed by two or more owners that is less structured than a corporation.

Company managers need to keep track of costs in order to make wise decisions about day-to-day operations. In this article, we discuss process costing, a method of allocating costs for manufacturers of many identical products.

The process of tracking production costs is critical for the information needs and reporting requirements of manufacturers. In this article, we’ll discuss a method of cost distribution called job costing. After describing the theory behind job costing, we’ll walk through an example - a manufacturer of drag race engines.

“Closing the books” is an important process in the life cycle of any company. It is necessary for both reporting and tax purposes and helps management assess the health and well-being of the business. In this article, we will look at why the process is necessary and discuss the role played by the Income Summary account at the end of a fiscal year.

Par value and no par value stocks exist and accounting for them may be different. In this article, we will review par value of stock, watered stock and sample journal entries to account for issuing stocks.

Numerous suppliers (e.g., in the automotive industry) work with their customers to design and develop products or molds, dies, and other tools to manufacture such products. These costs may be called preproduction costs related to long-term supply arrangements. Under these arrangements, customers sometimes reimburse suppliers for the incurred costs. In this article, we will discuss accounting for such costs.

External financing often represents a significant or important part of a company’s capital structure. Companies obtain such financing to fund working capital, acquire a business, etc. The process of obtaining a loan or issuing debt securities involves costs. In this article, we will look at accounting requirements for debt issuance costs under US GAAP and an example of accounting for such costs using the effective interest rate method and the straight-line method.

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.

If you ever worked in an accounting department, you are probably familiar with reversing entries. However, for non-accountants reversing entries represent an accounting term which may sound technical and confusing. In this article we will talk about reversing entries and why they are used.

Learn accounting for common stock issuance. Examples of common stock issued for cash and for non-cash consideration with journal entries are provided.

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Accounting categories represent a collection of accounting guides and answers related to one accounting area.