How Accounting Works and Reporting Guidelines

Author: Miles Hutchinson

Every business must comply with basic accounting and reporting guidelines. The IRS requires it; your banker and creditors want to know what kind of credit risk you are; your investors want to know what kind of return they can expect from their investment; your customers want to know you have a viable business model.

Join CGMA and experienced businessman, Miles Hutchinson, as he walks you through the basic accounting rules and teach you the ins and outs of recording daily events such as asset purchases, depreciation, loans, sales, inventory, cost of goods sold, operating expenses, etc. and how these events roll up into the four financial statements.

Publication Date: June 2022

Designed For
Business Managers, Compliance Managers, Compliance Officers, Information Reporting Officers, Bank Managers, Risk Managers, and Human Resource Managers.

Topics Covered

• Who wants to know
• The rules and the rule makers
• The four Financial Statements
• The transaction recording process
• Ledgers and Journals
• Transition to the Trial Balance
• Transition to the Financial Statements
• Other important/Required Disclosures
• Why Profit does not equal Cash
• Practice entries

Learning Objectives

• Identify the basic accounting rules and how to record daily events
• Recognize the purpose and relationships between the four financial statements
• Differentiate debits and credits and how to make them work best for you
• Recognize how your daily events translate into accounting transactions
• Identify how transactions get summarized into a trial balance
• Describe how the trial balance translates into a set of financial statements
• Recognize the four financial statements for a for-profit entity
• Identify the equation for calculating ending retained earning
• Identify the collection of all account details in individual account records within the five categories of accounts
• Describe correct statements regarding the double entry rules
• Recognize an advantage of the accrual method of accounting

Level
Basic

Instructional Method
Self-Study

NASBA Field of Study
Accounting (2 hours)

Program Prerequisites
None

Advance Preparation
None