Accounting Definitions
What is an accountant? Why they are the people that form and compile the formal records of accounts, whether they be from a large or small business. They keep track of the money, the coming in, the going out, the legal part of business dealings. While their jobs may be on the quiet side, we need them to keep things running smoothly and so here are just a few of the terms we should all know when it comes to accounting.
If an accountant is responsible for the accounts, an account then is a formal record that represents the resources of a company or business. This includes the transactions, the events and whatever it may be that results in changes to that resource.
We may all know what an acquisition is on other terms, like you acquired a vase from great Aunt Mildred, but on a professional scale, the term means that one company is taking a controlling interest in another company. They are acquiring it along with its assets.
Companies that are acquired by others then become affiliated companies. Being affiliated with each other means that they are related through common ownership or control of management.
Like with most careers, those who are accountants belong to a national professional membership organization that represents them. Accountants then belong to the AICPA which stands for American Institute of Chartered Public Accountants. This organization is responsible for codes of conduct and rules that govern the profession.
If you are someone that works in a brokerage house or bank and its your job to study companies and make buy and sell recommendations on the securities of such companies, you are called an analyst. Accountants may have to get information from such analysts and perhaps even give them access to such information depending on the scenario. But who better to know the ins and outs of a company and its assets than the accountant?
Many think that accountants are just paper pushers who sit in the back all day and pore over numbers. For some reason the profession has somehow got a bad rap, but in reality, accountants keep the day to day of the company running and are always there to analyze and decipher information for the good of the company. If anyone knows where the money is going, where it needs to go and who has control of it, it's the accountants.
