A structure that a business uses to collect, store, manage, process, retrieve, and report its financial data.

The rules a company follows in reporting revenues and expenses. The two primary methods of accounting are accrual accounting (generally used by companies) and cash accounting (generally used by individuals).

The rules and guidelines that companies and other bodies must follow when reporting financial data. These rules make it easier to examine financial data by standardizing the terms and methods that accountants must use.

The application of an audit procedure to less than 100% of the items within an account balance or class of transactions for the purpose of evaluating some characteristic of the balance or class.

Charts, graphs, and other similar types of visual representations of data.

Statements in which all the elements are expressed as percentages of the total. Such statements are often used for making performance comparisons between companies.

The financial statements of a group of entities that are presented as being those of a single economic entity. These statements are useful for reviewing the financial position and results of an entire group of commonly owned businesses.

The beliefs and ideas that a company has and the way in which they affect how it does business and how its employees behave.

Cash amount (or the cash equivalent) given up for an asset.

An indicator of how a cost will change in total when there is a change in some activity.

A balance sheet line item listed under the Assets section, which accounts for all company-owned assets that can be converted to cash within one year.

A company’s short-term financial obligations that are due within one year or within a normal operating cycle.

Stages and processes data goes through in an organization from beginning (collection) to end.

A discount for lack of control is the reduction in a company’s share value due to a shareholder’s lack of ability to exercise their control over the company.

n amount or percentage deducted from the value of an ownership interest to reflect the relative absence of marketability.

Steps a tax preparer must take when preparing a return or claim for a refund claiming the following: Earned income tax credit (EITC); Child tax credit (CTC), additional child tax credit (ACTC), or credit for other dependents (ODC); American opportunity tax credit (AOTC); Head of household (HOH) filing status.

Statistics which show how the country's economy is going to perform in the short or long term.

ESG stands for environmental, social and governance and refers to aspects of an organization that investors use to determine its level of ethical consciousness. Many investors review ESG criteria when deciding on their next investment prospects because they want to invest in opportunities that reflect their personal values. Choosing companies through ESG criteria can also be a risk assessment strategy, because customers may prefer to purchase from businesses with positive ESG metrics, making those companies more appealing to investors. Investors review the connections between sustainability, social responsibility and financial success during their assessments.

An ownership interest in a business, such as stockholders’ equity or owner’s equity.

Action taken by an outside party that impacts the governance of a business.

External Economic Factors are those not under the control of a business, but which influence its efficiency e.g. improved communications may give access to wider markets, but pollution may increase illness in the workforce.

The overall accuracy, completeness, and consistency of financial data.

Explanatory and supplemental notes that accompany a firm’s financial statements. The notes vary depending on the accounting framework used to construct the financial statements (such as GAAP or IFRS). Footnotes are an integral part of the financial statements and must be issued to users along with financial statements.

A financial picture that management believes it can attain as of a future date.

The application of scientific knowledge and methodology to legal problems and criminal investigations.

A system of accounting used by nonprofit entities to track the amount of cash assigned to different purposes and the usage of that cash.

Grouping of accounts that are used to sort and store information from a company’s business transactions.

A set of systematic guidelines used by auditors when conducting audits of companies' financial records.

Knowing how activity in the balance sheet, income statement, and retained earnings/equity statement affect cash flow.

Mechanisms, rules, and procedures implemented by a company to ensure the integrity of financial and accounting information, promote accountability, and prevent fraud.

Individuals or groups within an organization (employees, owners, shareholders, managers, and so on

The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings.

Obligations resulting from a previous event that are not due within one year of the date of the balance sheet (or not due within the company’s operating cycle if it is longer than one year). Long-term liabilities are also known as noncurrent liabilities.

Something that influences the structure, performance, behavior, and decision making of the whole, or aggregate, economy.

Study of the economics of a whole area, a whole industry, a whole group of the population or a whole country, in order to help in economic planning.

Something that influences the decisions of individuals and firms to allocate resources of production, exchange, and consumption.

The study of the economics of people or single companies.

The planning of the implementation of a computer network infrastructure.

Income that is not subject to taxes.

When an employee, manager, or executive of an organization deceives the organization itself.

A company's ability to generate income or profit.

One of the financial statements issued by a business, and describes the cash flows into and out of the organization.

Amount of income used to calculate the taxes owed by an individual or a company.

The use of legal methods to minimize the amount of income tax owed by an individual or a business.

Amount of money that taxpayers can subtract directly from the taxes they owe.

An item that can be subtracted from taxable income to lower the amount of taxes owed.

The use of illegal means to avoid paying taxes.

Determines the rate at which income is taxed. The five filing statuses are: single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, head of household, and qualifying widow(er) with dependent child.

Payment owed by an individual, a business, or other entity to a federal, state, or local tax authority.

Position used to measure current or deferred income tax assets and liabilities that an entity takes in a previously filed tax return or expects to take in a future tax return. A tax position can yield a permanent reduction or deferral of income taxes payable.

Form or forms filed with a tax authority that report income, expenses, and other pertinent tax information.

National framework of laws, regulations, decisions, practices, and negotiating positions that governments adopt to ensure that national companies have to regulate the exchange of goods and services with a specific country or bloc of countries.

A business event that has a monetary impact on the financial statements of a business. It is recorded in the business’s accounting records.

Tools used to summarize financial reporting data and evaluate the performance and financial position of a company.

Differences between budget to actual, actual to expected, year over year, and so on.