Accounting Terms You Need To Know For Business

Accounting terms are all over in the average business conversation. You don’t necessarily need to study accounting to talk-the-talk, but having a cheat sheet can help. In this article, I’ll be going over some of the most important words you should know.

Accounting is regarded as the language of business. Whether there’s a bad economy or a good economy, everyone also needs accountants. It’s a profession that many can turn to for job security, with the major tradeoff being very long hours and limited interaction with other people.

Having this list won’t make you an accountant or anything, but it can help you talk to the one sitting nearby with a little more confidence.

Sources used for creating this list: Gao.gov

The Big Accounting Terms – Financial Statements

These are some of your most important accounting terms to know. They make up most high-level conversations and a basic understanding each of them can help you follow along a lot better.

• General Ledger – 9,900 – The record containing the accounts needed to reflect the financial position of an entity. The debits should equal the credits if using double entry bookkeeping.

• Income Statement – 40,500 – Arguably the most important of all accounting terms, this one shows a business organization’s revenue, net income, and other important reporting information.

• Balance Sheet – 49,500 – Pretty much just as important as the income statement, the balance sheet lists all assets and liabilities of a business. Your assets should equal your liabilities + equity.

• Statement of Cash Flows – 14,800 – it does exactly what it says, gives you a statement of how all the cash in a business flows and from what sources.

Those were some of the big accounting terms, let’s take a look at a few that still might come up in conversation:

Some More

Abatement – 22,200

Accounting period – 390

Accounting system – 720

Accounts Payable – 27,100

Accounts Receivable – 27,100

Accrual basis – 2,400

Accrual accounting – 9,900

Accrued expenses – 5,400

Accrued revenue – 2,400

Accumulated depreciation – 8,100

Asset – 49,500

Balanced budget – 1,900

Benefit cost analysis – 590

Cost benefit analysis – 14,800

Budget deficit – 6,600

And More!

Budget Enforcement Act – 90

Budget execution – 90

Now, this should all be about the budgets, but there’s more! Budget preparation – 210, Budget process – 590, Budget receipts – 40, Budget Resolution – 590

Even more fun accounting terms:

Budget surplus – 2,400, Budget update – 40, Budget year – 50, budgetary accounting – 90

Buyback – 1,900

Byrd Rule – 170

Capital budget – 1,300, Capital Lease – 3,600, Cash accounting – 880, CBO – 12,100, Chained dollars – 210, Clearing accounts – 70, Collections – 14,800

Concurrent resolution – 1,000, Congressional budget – 320, Budget process – 590, Consolidated financial statement – 90, Constant dollars – 390

Consumer price index – 22,200, CPI – 60,500,

Contingent liability – 1,300, Current rate – 260

More Fun Accounting Terms

Current year – 590, cyclical unemployment – 12,100, structural unemployment – 12,100, seasonal unemployment – 2,400, frictional unemployment – 12,100, DTS (defense travel system?) – 378,000, federal debt – 2,400, debt service – 1,900, depreciation – 22,200

FASB – 18,100, Federal budget process – 590

Gordon Growth Model – 2,900, beginning inventory – 210, Conversion costs – 1,900

These are some neat accounting terms if I’ve ever seen any.

Quick ratio – 18,100, Marketable Securities – 4,400, current liabilities – 4,400

inventory turnover – 22,200,