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Every term, defined once.

One sentence per term, taken from the Foundation page that owns it. No other page on this site defines these terms; they link here or to the owning page instead.

10 terms/Alphabetical/Reading path ->
F-02
Account numbering system
An account numbering system is the set of number ranges a chart of accounts uses so that an account's number tells you its type at a glance: a number that starts with 1 is an asset, 2 a liability, 3 equity, 4 revenue, and 5 or above an expense.
Account numbering ->
F-01
Account types
Account types are the five categories every account belongs to: assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses.
The five account types ->
F-05
Accrual accounting
Accrual accounting is the method that records revenue in the period it is earned and expenses in the period they are incurred, whether or not cash has moved yet.
Accrual vs. cash basis ->
F-07
Accrued liability
An accrued liability is an obligation a business has already incurred but has not yet paid or been billed for, so the amount is recorded from a calculation or an estimate rather than from an invoice.
Liabilities and accruals ->
F-04
Cost of goods sold
Cost of goods sold is the direct cost of the products or services a business actually sold in a period, as distinct from operating expense, which is the cost of running the business whether or not anything sold.
Cost of goods sold vs. operating expense ->
F-03
Debits and credits
Debits and credits are the two sides of every entry in double-entry bookkeeping: a debit is an amount recorded on the left side of an account, a credit is an amount recorded on the right side, and every transaction posts equal amounts to each side.
Debits and credits ->
F-09
Financial statement
A financial statement is a report built entirely from account balances: the income statement from revenue and expense accounts, the balance sheet from asset, liability, and equity accounts, and the statement of cash flows from the change in those balance sheet accounts over the period.
How accounts become statements ->
F-06
Fixed asset
A fixed asset is something a business buys to use for more than a year rather than to sell, such as a vehicle, a machine, a computer, or a building.
Fixed assets and depreciation ->
F-10
GAAP
GAAP is the common set of accounting standards that businesses in the United States follow when they prepare financial statements for people outside the company.
GAAP basics for a small business chart ->
F-08
Sub-account
A sub-account is an account nested under a parent account so that detail can be tracked without losing the parent's total.
Parent and sub-accounts ->