Traditionally, accounting is defined as a process that collect, collate, analyse, interpret and communicate financial/ accounting information in a prescribed format that is easily understood by the intended users. In as much as this definition of accounting is correct, it makes accounting look like a mechanical process that does not interact much with the business […]
SCOPE OF FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS |QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE ASPECTS
By scope of financial statement analysis, we simply mean those vital issues that must be dealt with while carrying out financial statement analysis exercise. Financial statement analysis is a subset of the whole body of business analysis. Financial statements analysis is not all about ratio analysis as many would think. It goes beyond that and […]
WHAT ARE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS USED FOR AND HOW?
The question of what financial statements are used for is an important one as it raises awareness as to the importance accounting as a whole. Many debates went on in the past and are in fact still going on now amongst academics and professional accountants on the relevance of accounting numbers. This whole argument was […]
PURPOSES | BENEFITS OF ACCOUNTING AND BOOKKEEPING TO BANKERS | INVESTORS | UNIONS AND MANAGEMENT
The purposes and benefits of accounting keeps widening as the importance of accounting broadens. I am writing this article in response to a question sent to me by one of my readers in a previous article referred to above. This post will be tailored to meet the specific requirement of the question which I have […]
LEVERAGING ON GLOBAL STRATEGY THROUGH INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
International political economy is the melting point of both politics and economics as it concerns the states at the global level. In common parlance, international political economy is the interaction between: productions, buying, selling, laws, customs, and beliefs of different countries playing at the international scene to protect our foreign investments. One lesson that was […]
HOW ARE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS USED FOR VALUATION?
Financial statements have a vital role to play in the overall business valuation process. Two kinds of information at least are contained in the financial statement that every financial analyst must always strive to identify/ recognize and put them to maximum use. I would like to make a point clear here: valuation model is not […]
ACCOUNTANTS AND CUSTOMER CARE SERVICES |ROLES AND DUTIES
Customer care services is one skill that today’s accountant cannot do without as business operations continues to integrate. Gone are the days when only customers’ care advisors are seen as the only professionals that can make impact on the life of the customers. The dancing tone has changed and therefore calls for an immediate change […]
CHURCH FRAUDS | CAUSES AND HOW TO DETER IT
Church frauds as weird and unpleasant as it may sound has become part of the system in most church across the world today. People now actively seek opportunities and loopholes in churches to steal money and commit other economic crimes. Some eyebrows were raised when I first wrote on the importance of accounting in churches; […]
CAUSES OF SUBOPTIMAL PRACTICES AND LOST OF MOTIVATION IN MODERN COMPANIES
Suboptimal practices in companies are a situation whereby responsible managers fail to do the right thing just to take advantage of existing controls and procedures. Management and decision makers have to continually struggle with highly unpredictable human factors in the quest to provide lasting solution to incongruence actions that various mangers are vulnerable to take. […]
DIRECT FOREIGN INVESTMENTS | WHAT YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE AS AN ACCOUNTANT
Foreign investment decision is a tough and often complex investment decision that sharply differs from the traditional domestic decision on investing. The normal financial evaluation of discounted cash flows technique are not fully relied on in making foreign investment decision as we do in making domestic investment decision as well as financing decision. Best practices […]
BUSINESS ANALYSIS | TIPS ON BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND VALUATION FOR ACCOUNTANTS
What is Business Analysis? Business analysis is a methodological process of evaluating a company’s economic prospects and risk in the light of the entity’s strengths and weaknesses. It is an attempt to X-ray a business through the lens of a well informed finance professional. This exercise is done in order to come to a consensus […]
IMPLICATIONS OF USING EXPECTANCY INSTRUMENTAL VALENCE THEORY AS A REWARD SYSTEM FOR MIDDLE AND LOWER LEVEL MANAGERS
INTRODUCTION Middle level managers are the tactical managers acting as a link between the strategic and functional managers. Their roles in business processes and decision making cannot be overlooked; hence they need to be adequately motivated. One of the theories that attempt to come up with better system of motivating middle-level managers is the Expectancy […]
USES OF CONTRIBUTION ANALYSIS IN DECISION MAKING PROCESSES
The use of contribution analysis cannot be fully understood if the meaning of the term is not first explained. Hence, I would like to start with the definition of contribution analysis, and how it is calculated. Contribution analysis is defined as: the payment made by individual products towards recovering the fixed cost of a business, […]
BUDGETING: WHAT ARE THE FUNCTIONS OF BUDGETING?
Budgeting in its general sense is the act of quantifying objectives in financial terms. Budgeting assists managers in decision making process in an organization. It is the function of the management accountant to provide information needed in budgeting process. A management accountant must be happy with the functions of budgeting described here. This article will […]
INVESTMENT APPRAISAL / CAPITAL BUDGETING – NPV AND IRR
Net present value (NPV) of investment appraisal and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of capital budgeting are the two methods of using the discounted cash flow (DCF) to evaluate capital investment. This article is a continuation of two previous investment appraisal articles introduction to investment appraisal and investment appraisal- ROCE AND PAYBACK WHAT IS DISCOUNTED […]
INVESTMENT ACCOUNTANT | WHO IS AN INVESTMENT ACCOUNTANT?
We are set out in this article to provide an answer to the question; ‘who is an investment accountant?’ An investment accountant is a finance professional who specializes in and is saddled with the responsibility of; identifying, collecting, collating, analyzing, interpreting, and communicating financial information to the investment community. We also talked about what knowledge […]
IMPORTANCE OF ACCOUNTING IN SCHOOLS
The importance of accounting in schools cannot be over emphasized. Schools are the main hub of every modern economy and would be pulled down to nut if the importance of accounting is not recognized and practiced in schools. In this article are straight forward benefits that schools of any kind gets simply by having an […]
QUALIFIED ACCOUNTANT: WHO IS A QUALIFIED ACCOUNTANT?
Having an accounting academic qualification is not enough for you to be called a qualified accountant / certified accountant– even when you are called, you are not one! Someone with B.Sc in accounting or MACC (Masters of Accountancy) qualification cannot be said to be a qualified accountant. As a matter of fact, passing all the […]
MILITARY QUALITIES YOU MUST HAVE AS AN ACCOUNTANT
Military training prepares individuals to perfectly fit into any other career that they decide to finally switch into. To be a good accountant, I have come to discover that one must be in possession of those quality that military men posses. Those qualities of the military that every accountants need is the subject matter of […]
MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING – WHAT YOU MUST KNOW AS A MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTANT
Managerial accounting is an accounting system prepared by management accountants with the sole aim of assisting the management of a company make an informed internal economic decision. Management accounting as it is popularly known as is a branch of accounting that uses many decision making tools to filter information leaving only useful information for the […]
USERS OF AIS
AIS are an acronym used to represent that aspect of MIS (management information system) that deals with accounting informational flows. AIS stand for accounting information system. The main classes of people that use AIS (users of AIS) are the accountants and auditors that can act in various capacities. Below are the major users of accounting information […]