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Basics of Accounting and book keeping help

In an economy, each individual earns money and spends on his various needs like clothing, education, food, shelter, etc. and for investment. Not just individuals but the Government also has the same process of earning it’s revenues via taxpayers of the country and then spending the money on various developmental plans.

These two way transactions are called Economic activities. Individual transactions are generally for the personal benefits and the government transactions are for larger public benefits.

Amidst all these economic activities taking place every other second in our lives, everyone wants to keep a record of all the inflows (revenue/ income, loans) and the outflows (expenses, investments) and the profit or loss (surplus or deficit) occurring as a result of these inflows and outflows. Here’s where the process of 'accounting' comes into the picture.

Accounting process has been developed to serve the purpose of measurement of economic activities involving inflow & outflow of economic resources, which helps to develop useful information for decision making.

Even though accounting as a field of study has a universal application for any type of economic activity ranging from your birthday party to a National government's function, but to keep things in perspective, it is best identified with the recording of business transactions and other financial information about a business enterprise.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants(AICPA) defined accounting as, “Accounting is an art of recording, classifying, and summarizing in a significant manner and in monetary terms, transactions and events which are, in part at least, of a financial character, and interpreting the results there of.”

As per the definition, the process of accounting consists of-

1. Identifying the transactions which are of financial nature 
2. Recording those transactions in the books of account. The primary recording of transactions is done on the Journal or subsidiary books
3. The transactions are classified properly and then put into the subsidiary books. E.g. purchase transactions in the purchase book and sales transactions in the sales books.
4. The recorded transactions are then transferred in the secondary book i.e. Ledger where it the transactions are again classified into a broader categories of income, expenses, assets and liabilities
5. At last, the income and expenses are summarized into the Profile & Loss Account to find out the Net profit/loss incurred by the entity and assets and liabilities are summarized into the Balance Sheet

However, in the present situation the horizon of accounting is much broader and is not confined just to the above definition. The process of accounting doesn’t end with the interpreting the final results of the financial transactions but it has also to do with the fair and accurate communication of those accounting results to the users of the account, which ranges from the company’s own management and shareholders to its creditors and customers.

Hence, the widely accepted definition of accounting came from the American Accounting Association in 1966 which states, “The process of identifying, measuring and communicating economic information to permit informed judgements and decisions by the users of accounts.”

The Accounting Procedure

The accounting procedure has been broadly classified into the following heads-

1) Recording: Whenever a transaction takes place, it is supported by some evidence like invoice, sales bill, salary slip, etc. Based off these evidence the transactions are recorded in a book called 'Journal'. For small businesses, a single composite Journal book is sufficient to record the transactions, but in large businesses the size and magnitude of transactions is huge, so several subsidiary books are used to record transactions separately on the basis of their nature.

2) Classifying : This step involves putting all the transactions of the same nature related to a particular period at one place, to make the information easily usable. This is done in a book called as “Ledger”.

E.g. separate account may be prepared for Rent, advertising, purchase, salaries, miscellaneous expenses, etc.

3) Summarizing : This consists of preparation and presentation of the financial statements using the information from the ledger account. Generally, the following financial statements are prepared in most business enterprises-

1. Trial Balance
2. Profit and loss account
3. Balance Sheet
4. Cash flow statement

4) Analysing : This step involves establishing relationship between the P&L account items and the Balance Sheet items. E.g. analysing the percentage and method of depreciation charged on the fixed assets.

5) Interpreting: Further, the financial data is interpreted in a way that it is easy for the users to make appropriate judgements. 

 E.g. Financial ratios like Gross Profit Ratio, Earning per share, Solvency ratio, Liquidity ratio, Cost of good sold per unit, etc. are calculated for better decision making.

6) Communication : This is done through preparing and publishing accounting reports, graphs, charts, fund flow statement, etc. along with the company’s period end Final Accounts.

Users of Accounts

There are two types of users of accounts-

1) Internal users: 

1. Management – They have to take various managerial decisions for the functioning and growth of the organization. 
2. Employees – They are interested to know about the stability, continuity and growth of the enterprises.
3. Board of Directors - Board of Directors have to take dividend distribution decisions and other decisions like appointment or removal of key personnel’s which is directly linked to performance of the business in the past.

2) External users: 

1. Investors/Shareholders : They provide capital to the business. They are interested to know how their fund is performing and whether they should sell, buy or hold their investment in the entity.
2. Lenders/ Suppliers/ Creditors : They want to know if their money would be recovered or not. Basically, if the entity would pay the due within the prescribed time or not.
3. Customers : They are concerned with the stability and profitability of the enterprise along with it’s Goodwill in the market.
4. Government : The regulating authorities look out for the ethical and fair functioning of the business in the market, control prices and unfair competition and charges duties and taxes.
5. General public : The public at large is interested in the enterprises because every successful and profitable entity promotes to the local economy and employment of people.

Functions or Uses of Accounting

1. Measures the past performance of the business and presents it’s present profitability, liquidity and solvency condition
2. Forecasting the future performance on the basis of past data
3. Helps in decision making of the management as well as the investors
4. Helps management to trace loopholes in the functioning and take corrective measures to promote efficiency
5. Helps in tax collection by the government and also to regulate the business

Book-keeping

Book-keeping means recording the financial transactions related to the business operations pertaining to a particular period in an orderly manner.

The process of book-keeping doesn’t include preparation of the financial statements but it’s effectiveness is measured by the accuracy of the financial statements as it is the end product. 

A book-keeper's work is substantially clerical in nature. He is responsible for recording and classifying transactions in separate books for the whole entity or only a segment (a product or a function like sales). Now a days the job is fulfilled mostly through the use of machines. 

 Difference between Book-keeping and Accounting: 

Sub-fields of Accounting:

1. Financial Accounting 
2. Corporate Accounting
3. Management Accounting
4. Cost Accounting
5. Social Responsibility Accounting
6. Human Resource Accounting

We will further talk about the first four sub-fields in the car coming chapters.