Managers want to earn a profit. Investors search for companies whose stock prices will increase. Banks seek borrowers whoâll pay their debts. Accounting provides the information these people use for decision making. Accounting can be based on either the accrual basis or the cash basis.
Accrual accounting records the impact of a business transaction as it occurs. When the business performs a service, makes a sale, or incurs an expense, the accountant records the transaction even if the business receives or pays no cash. Cash-basis accounting records only cash transactionsâcash receipts and cash payments. Cash receipts are treated as revenues, and cash payments are handled as expenses.
Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) require accrual accounting. The business records revenues as the revenues are earned and expenses as the expenses are incurredânot necessarily when cash changes hands. The basic defect of cash-basis accounting is that the cash basis ignores important information that makes the financial statements incomplete.
Companies that use the cash basis of accounting do not follow GAAP. Their financial statements omit important information. All but the smallest businesses use the accrual basis of accounting.
Accrual accounting is more complexâand, in terms of the Conceptual Foundations of Accounting (Exhibit 1-3), is a more faithful representation of economic realityâthan cash-basis accounting.
To be sure, accrual accounting records cash transactions, such as the following:
â Collecting cash from customers
â Receiving cash from interest earned
â Paying salaries, rent, and other expenses
â Borrowing money
â Paying off loans
â Issuing stock
But accrual accounting also records noncash transactions, such as the following:
â Sales on account
â Purchases of inventory on account
â Accrual of expenses incurred but not yet paid
â Depreciation expense
â Usage of prepaid rent, insurance, and supplies
â Earning of revenue when cash was collected in advance
Accrual accounting is based on a framework of concepts and principles additional to those we discussed in Chapter 1.
When should you record (recognize) revenue? After it has been earnedâand not before.
In most cases, revenue is earned when the business has delivered a good to, or has performed a service for, a customer.
Revenue is recognized when the business transfers promised goods or services to a customer in an amount that reflects the cash (or fair market value of other consideration) that the entity expects to receive in exchange for those goods or services.
This text deals mostly with the retail industry, where businesses enter into relatively simple and straightforward contracts to purchase and sell largely finished goods and render services.
In other industries, such as computer software, long-term construction, motion pictures, natural resources, or real estate, contracts can be more complex, making the issue of how and when to recognize revenue more complicated.
Fortunately, in the retail industry, U.S. GAAP and IFRS have historically been consistent with respect to general principles of revenue recognition, so the issuance of the new standard has not substantially changed the rules by which revenue is recognized in the retail industry.
Exhibit 3-1 shows two situations that provide guidance on when to record revenue for Starbucks Corporation.
In Situation 1, no transaction has occurred, so no contract exists. Starbucks Corporation records nothing.
In Situation 2, a customer places an order for a latte. A transaction has occurred, producing a contract that both parties are obligated to fulfill.
Starbucks recognizes revenue when it delivers the product, satisfying its contractual obligation and entitling it to collect cash. The customer receives the product and pays, satisfying the customerâs contractual obligation.
The amount of revenue to record is the cash value of the goods or services transferred to the customer.
The expense recognition principle is the basis for recording expenses. Expenses are the costs of assets used up, and of liabilities created, in earning revenue. Expenses have no future benefit to the company. The expense recognition principle includes two steps:
Identify all the expenses incurred during the accounting period.
Measure the expenses and recognize them in the same period in which any related revenues are earned.
To recognize expenses along with related revenues means to subtract expenses from related revenues to compute net income or net loss.
Accounting adjustments fall into three basic categories: deferrals, depreciation, and accruals.
Deferrals. A deferral is an adjustment for payment of an item or receipt of cash in advance.
Starbucks purchases supplies for use in its operations. During the period, some supplies (assets) are used up and become expenses. At the end of the period, an adjustment is needed to decrease the Supplies account for the supplies used up. This is Supplies Expense. Prepaid Rent, Prepaid Insurance, and all other prepaid expenses require deferral adjustments.
There are also deferral adjustments for liabilities. Companies such as Starbucks may collect cash from a grocery-store chain in advance of earning the revenue. When Starbucks receives cash up front, Starbucks has a liability to provide coffee for the customer. This liability is called Unearned Sales Revenue. Then, when Starbucks delivers the goods to the customer, it earns Sales
Revenue. This earning process requires an adjustment at the end of the period. The adjustment decreases the liability and increases the revenue for the revenue earned.
Depreciation allocates the cost of a plant asset to expense over the assetâs useful life. Depreciation is the most common long-term deferral. Starbucks buys buildings and equipment.
As Starbucks uses the assets, it records depreciation for wear-and-tear and obsolescence.
The accounting adjustment records Depreciation Expense and decreases the assetâs book value over its life.
The process is identical to a deferral-type adjustment; the only difference is the type of asset involved.
An accrual is the opposite of a deferral. For an accrued expense, Starbucks records the expense before paying cash. For an accrued revenue, Starbucks records the revenue before collecting cash.
Salary Expense can create an accrual adjustment. As employees work for Starbucks Corporation, the companyâs salary expense accrues with the passage of time. At September 30, 2014, Starbucks owed employees some salaries to be paid after year-end. At September 30, Starbucks recorded Salary Expense and Salary Payable for the amount owed. Other examples of expense accruals include interest expense and income tax expense.
An accrued revenue is a revenue that the business has earned and will collect next year. At year-end, Starbucks must accrue the revenue. The adjustment debits a receivable and credits a revenue.
For example, accrual of interest revenue debits Interest Receivable and credits Interest Revenue.
A prepaid expense is an expense paid in advance. Therefore, prepaid expenses are assets because they provide a future benefit for the owner.
Plant assets are long-lived tangible assets, such as land, buildings, furniture, and equipment.
All plant assets except land decline in usefulness, and this decline is an expense.
Accountants spread the cost of each plant asset, except land, over its useful life.
Depreciation is the process of allocating cost to expense for a long-term plant asset.
Freddyâs records an asset when it purchases machinery and equipment. Then, as the asset is used, a portion of the assetâs cost is transferred to Depreciation Expense.
Freddyâs records an asset when it purchases machinery and equipment. Then, as the asset is used, a portion of the assetâs cost is transferred to Depreciation Expense. The machinery and equipment are being used to produce revenue. The cost of the machinery and equipment should be allocated (matched) against that revenue.
The Accumulated DepreciationâEquipment account (not Equipment) is credited to preserve the original cost of the asset in the Equipment account. Managers can then refer to the Equipment account if they ever need to know how much the asset cost.
The Accumulated Depreciation account shows the sum of all depreciation expense from using the asset. Therefore, the balance in the Accumulated Depreciation account increases over the assetâs life.
Accumulated Depreciation is a contra asset accountâan asset account with a normal credit balance. A contra account has two distinguishing characteristics:
1. It always has a companion account.
2. Its normal is opposite that of the companion account.
In this case, Accumulated DepreciationâEquipment is the contra account to Equipment, so it appears directly after Equipment on the balance sheet. A business carries an accumulated depreciation account for each depreciable asset, for example, Accumulated DepreciationâBuilding and Accumulated DepreciationâEquipment.
After posting, the plant asset accounts of Freddyâs Auto Service, Inc. are as followsâwith the adjustment highlighted:
The net amount of a plant asset (cost minus accumulated depreciation) is called that assetâs book value (of a plant asset), or carrying amount. Exhibit 3-4 shows how Freddyâs would report the book value of its land and equipment at June 30.
Answer:
$24,000 â $400 â $400 = $23,200.
Exhibit 3-5 shows how Starbucks Corporation reports property, plant, and equipment in its September 30, 2012 annual report.
Lines 3 to 9 list specific assets and their cost.
Line 10 shows the gross cost of all Starbucksâ plant assets.
Line 11 gives the amount of accumulated depreciation, and
line 12 shows the assetsâ book value ($2,659 million and $2,356 million in the current and prior periods, respectively).
Businesses may incur expenses before they pay cash. Consider an employeeâs salary. Starbucksâ expense and payable grow as the employee works, so the liability is said to accrue. Another example is interest expense on a note payable. Interest accrues as the clock ticks. The term accrued expense refers to a liability that arises from an expense that has not yet been paid.
Companies donât record accrued expenses daily or weekly. Instead, they wait until the end of the period and use an adjusting entry to update each expense (and related liability) for the financial statements.
Most companies pay their employees at set times. Suppose Freddyâs Auto Service, Inc. pays its employee a monthly salary of $1,800, half on the 15th and half on the last day of the month. The following calendar for June has the paydays circled.
Assume that if a payday falls on a Sunday, Freddyâs pays the employee on the following Monday.
During June, Freddyâs paid its employee the first half-month salary of $900 and made the following entry:
Because June 30, the second payday of the month, falls on a Sunday, the second half-month amount of $900 will be paid on Monday, July 1. At June 30, therefore, Freddyâs adjusts for additional salary expense and salary payable of $900:
Businesses often earn revenue before they receive the cash. A revenue that has been earned but not yet collected is called an accrued revenue.
Some businesses collect cash from customers before earning the revenue. This creates a liability called unearned revenue. Only when the job is completed does the business earn the revenue.
Unearned Service Revenue is a liability because Freddyâs is obligated to perform services for Home Depot.
Exhibit 3-6 diagrams the distinctive timing of prepaids and accruals.
Exhibit 3-6 diagrams the distinctive timing of prepaids and accruals.
Exhibit 3-7 summarizes the standard adjustments.
Like individual taxpayers, corporations are subject to income tax. They typically accrue income tax expense and the related income tax payable as the final adjusting entry of the period. Freddyâs Auto Service, Inc. accrues income tax expense.
Exhibit 3-8 summarizes the adjustments of Freddyâs Auto Service, Inc., at June 30âthe adjusting entries weâve examined over the past few pages.
â Panel A repeats the data for each adjustment.
â Panel B gives the adjusting entries.
â Panel C on the following page shows the accounts after posting the adjusting entries. The adjustments are keyed by letter.
Exhibit 3-8 summarizes the adjustments of Freddyâs Auto Service, Inc., at June 30âthe adjusting entries weâve examined over the past few pages.
â Panel A repeats the data for each adjustment.
â Panel B gives the adjusting entries.
â Panel C on the following page shows the accounts after posting the adjusting entries. The adjustments are keyed by letter.
After the adjustments are journalized and posted, a useful step in preparing the financial statements is to list the accounts, along with their adjusted balances, on an adjusted trial balance. This document lists all the accounts and their final balances in a single place.
Exhibit 3-9 shows the worksheet for preparing the adjusted trial balance of Freddyâs Auto Service, Inc.
Note how clearly this worksheet presents the data. The Account Title and the Trial Balance data come from the unadjusted trial balance. The two Adjustments columns summarize the adjusting entries. The Adjusted Trial Balance columns then give the final account balances. Each adjusted amount in Exhibit 3-9 is the unadjusted balance plus or minus the adjustments. For example, Accounts Receivable starts with a balance of $2,200. Add the $300 debit adjustment to get Accounts Receivableâs ending balance of $2,500.
The June financial statements of Freddyâs Auto Service, Inc. can be prepared from the adjusted trial balance.
â The income statement (Exhibit 3-10) lists the revenue and expense accounts.
â The statement of retained earnings (Exhibit 3-11) shows the changes in retained earnings.
â The balance sheet (Exhibit 3-12) reports assets, liabilities, and stockholdersâ equity.
The arrows in Exhibits 3-10, 3-11, and 3-12 (all on the following page) show the flow of data from one statement to the next.
The June financial statements of Freddyâs Auto Service, Inc. can be prepared from the adjusted trial balance.
â The income statement (Exhibit 3-10) lists the revenue and expense accounts.
â The statement of retained earnings (Exhibit 3-11) shows the changes in retained earnings.
â The balance sheet (Exhibit 3-12) reports assets, liabilities, and stockholdersâ equity.
The arrows in Exhibits 3-10, 3-11, and 3-12 show the flow of data from one statement to the next.
On the balance sheet, assets and liabilities are classified as current or long term to indicate their relative liquidity. Liquidity measures how quickly an item can be converted to cash.
Cash is the most liquid asset.
Accounts receivable are relatively liquid because cash collections usually follow quickly.
Inventory is less liquid than accounts receivable because the company must first sell the goods.
Equipment and buildings are even less liquid because these assets are held for use and not for sale.
A balance sheet lists assets and liabilities in the order of relative liquidity.
Current Assets. As we saw in Chapter 1, current assets are the most liquid assets. They will be converted to cash, sold, or consumed during the next 12 months or within the businessâs normal operating cycle if longer than a year. The operating cycle is the time span during which cash is paid for goods and services, and these goods and services are sold to bring in cash.
For most businesses, the operating cycle is a few months. Cash, Short-Term Investments, Accounts Receivable, Merchandise Inventory, and Prepaid Expenses are the typical current assets.
Long-term assets are all assets not classified as current assets. One category
of long-term assets is plant assets, often labeled Property, Plant, and Equipment. Land, Buildings, Furniture and Fixtures, and Equipment are plant assets. Of these, Freddyâs Auto Service, Inc. has only Land and Equipment. Long-Term Investments, Intangible Assets, and Other Assets (a catch-all category for assets that are not classified more precisely) are also long-term.
As we saw in Chapter 1, current liabilities are debts that must be paid within one year or within the entityâs operating cycle if longer than a year. Accounts Payable, Notes Payable due within one year, Salary Payable, Unearned Revenue, Interest Payable, and Income Tax Payable are current liabilities.
Bankers and other lenders are interested in the due dates of an entityâs liabilities. The sooner a liability must be paid, the more pressure it creates. Therefore, the balance sheet lists liabilities in the order in which they must be paid. Balance sheets usually report two liability classifications: current liabilities and long-term liabilities.
All liabilities that are not current are classified as long-term liabilities. Many notes payable are long term. Some notes payable are paid in installments, with the first installment due within one year, the second installment due the second year, and so on. The first installment is a current liability and the remainder is long term.
Balance Sheet Formats.
The report format lists the assets at the top, followed by the liabilities and stockholdersâ equity below. The report format is more popular, with approximately 60% of large companies using it.
The account format lists the assets on the left and the liabilities and stockholdersâ equity on the right in the same way that a T-account appears, with assets (debits) on the left and liabilities and equity (credits) on the right.
Either format is acceptable.
Income Statement Formats.
A single-step income statement (statement of earnings) lists all the revenues together under a heading such as Revenues, or Revenues and Gains. The expenses are listed together in a single category titled Expenses, or Expenses and Losses. There is only one step, the subtraction of the sum of Expenses and Losses from the sum of Revenues and Gains, in arriving at income before income tax expense.
A multi-step income statement reports a number of subtotals to highlight important relationships between revenues and expenses. Gross profit, various levels of operating income, income before taxes, and net income are highlighted for emphasis.
The comparative Consolidated Balance Sheets of Starbucks Corporation in Exhibit 3-14 illustrate the report format. The report format is more popular, with approximately 60% of large companies using it.
Exhibit 3-12 (p. 134) shows an account-format balance sheet for Freddyâs Auto Service, Inc.
Exhibit 3-10 presents the income statement for Freddyâs Auto Service in a single-step format.
Exhibit 3-15 shows Starbucks Corporationâs comparative Consolidated Statements of Earnings in multi-step format.
Net working capital is computational data that represents operating liquidity. Its computation is simple:
Net working capital = Total current assets - Total current liabilities
Generally, to be considered sufficiently liquid, entities should have a sufficient excess of current assets over current liabilities.
The amount of that excess is usually expressed in terms of the current ratio discussed below, and the amount considered âsufficientâ varies with the industry.
Another means of expressing operating liquidity through the relationship between current assets and current liabilities is the current ratio, which divides total current assets by total current liabilities.
Like net working capital, the current ratio measures the companyâs ability to pay current liabilities with current assets.
A company prefers a high current ratio, which means that the business has plenty of current assets to pay current liabilities. An increasing current ratio from period to period indicates improvement in financial position.
As a rule of thumb, a strong current ratio is 1.50, which indicates that the company has $1.50 in current assets for every $1.00 in current liabilities.
Most successful businesses operate with current ratios between 1.20 and 1.50.
A current ratio of less than 1.00 is considered low.
The issuance of stock improves the current ratio slightly.
Another measure of debt-paying ability is the debt ratio, which is the ratio of total liabilities to total assets.
The debt ratio indicates the proportion of a companyâs assets that is financed with debt. This ratio measures a businessâs ability to pay both current and long-term debts (total liabilities).
A low debt ratio is safer than a high debt ratio. Why? Because a company with few liabilities has low required debt payments. This company is unlikely to get into financial difficulty. By contrast, a business with a high debt ratio may have trouble paying its liabilities, especially when sales are low and cash is scarce.
The issuance of stock improves the debt ratio slightly.
Transaction âAâ was illustrated in full on slides 87 thru 89. Rather than illustrate the remaining transactions shown in the text they are listed here in the event the instructor would choose to talk through some additional examples.