There is no doubt that the accounting sense for you as an investment manager makes you more capable of making decisions, and gives you a broader horizon to evaluate the performance of the project and determine the extent of its progress and success, or God forbid failure and regression. Additionally, it gives you the ability to identify and diagnose project problems at the level of the overall or partial performance, identifying its weaknesses and working to make decisions as of the cost and return of each decision. A manager that lacks accounting and financial senses, is like a captain that lost the compass directing him toward the accurate destination.
Basic accounting concepts:Dear investment manager, before entering into financial transactions, it is essential that you first know the basic concepts related to accounting, which include several aspects that will be presented to you in the following presentation:
The concept of accounting:
1- What is accounting:
Accounting is the process of recording the financial operations that occurred in a facility during a specific period, classifying those operations and organizing them into interrelated groups, summarizing and presenting this information to the benefiting parties, analyzing and interpreting the financial information and using them to rationalize the administrative decision-making process.
2- Definition of accounting:
Accounting is the process of identifying, measuring, and communicating economical information toward rationalizing personal judgment on matters, and making decisions based on the users of these information. In another simpler and profounder description, accounting is defined as a set of assumptions, principles and concepts that aim to convert economic performance results into a quantitative form, and then communicating the results to the beneficiaries through financial statements and reports.
3- Accounting functions:
The following figure shows you the most important accounting functions that provide financial information for the following purposes:
• Directing and allocating the project's financial and human resources.
• Controlling and managing project resources.
• Rationalizing the administrative decision-making process.
• Defining administrative objectives.
The objectives of the accounting function as an information system can be elaborated as follows:
• Determining the outcome of the project’s effort, from profit or loss.
• Determining the project's properties, commitments, and changes that may occur to them.
• Providing the necessary financial information to the beneficiaries outside the project, to help them make both investment & granting-loans decisions.
• Evaluating the degree of cash liquidity and economical resources available for the enterprise.
Who benefits from accounting tasks:
From the following view, you can interpret the beneficiary of accounting:
Fourth - Basic branches of the science of accounting:
The following figure shows you the most basic branches of accounting science: Basic accounting conventions.
Dear investment managers, you should know that the basic conventions in accounting are defined as all the economic resources owned by the project, which can be measured according to recognized accounting rules, and are divided into:
1- Assets:
• Fixed assets: These are properties that are acquired with the aim of assisting in work and production, and not with the aim of reselling them. They are expected to be used for a long time, such as buildings and furniture.
• Current assets: They are the cash, or other assets that are expected to be converted into cash, sold or used within the year, such as cash, accounts receivable, stock inventory and short-term investments.
• Intangible assets: They are properties that do not have a tangible physical entity, but which contribute to the project activity, such as goodwill, copyrights and patents.
2- Liabilities:
They are the obligations that the project has towards others, that can be measured according to generally accepted accounting principles and are divided into:
• Long-term liabilities: They are debts or obligations that the project owes to other parties, and are due in over a year’s time.
• Short-term liabilities: They are obligations and debts that the project owes to other parties and are due to be paid during the current year, such as creditors and installments due annually on long-term debts.
3- Equity (Owner’s equity):
They are values and commitment that can be attributed to owners toward the project. They occur when resources are invested by the owner or owners in the project, and can be calculated by deducting liabilities from assets.
4- Balance sheet:
It is a list that displays the financial condition of the facility on a specific date and includes a summary of all the assets, liabilities and ownerships of the business.
5- Income statement:
It is a list that shows the result of the project's activity, from profit or loss, by matching the revenues with the expenses associated with them during the year or the accounting cycle.
6- Revenue:
It represents all sort of income the project gained in exchange of selling goods and implementing services, in addition to the investment profits.
7- Expenses:
They are total costs the project bears in exchange for gaining a revenue, such as the cost of goods and services in operations.
8- Trial Balance:
It’s a list that contains all ledger accounts, the balance of its budget is an indication of the accuracy of these accounts’ credits, but it is not a definitive evidence that they hold no errors.
9- Chart of Accounts:
It is a list that includes the names of all the ledger accounts, and these accounts are usually arranged according to their sequence in the balance sheet and the income statement.
Local accounting standards have been prepared for each country in accordance with the international accounting work issued by “The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC)”, with the exception of some minor amendments that were made to them to match the local location of each country.
Source:
Entrepreneurship Magazine - Issue 1