Amortization

Amortization is the periodic expensing of an intangible asset over the asset’s estimated useful life. Common intangible assets include copyrights, trademarks, and patents.  Like depreciation, […]

Accumulated depreciation refers to the aggregate amount of depreciation expense occurred since the fixed assets were placed on the company’s books.  Accumulated depreciation is a […]

Accelerated depreciation refers to methods of calculating an asset’s depreciation which recognize greater depreciation in the earlier years of an asset’s useful life.   Accelerated depreciation […]

A contra account is an account which reduces the balance of an account to which it is paired.   Contra accounts can exist for all of […]

A corporation is a business entity which has a separate legal identity from its owners. As a separate legal entity, a corporation has many of […]

Depreciation represents the periodic expensing of the cost of a tangible asset.   When a company purchases a fixed asset, the company capitalizes the cost of […]

The chart of accounts is a listing of all of the accounts a company uses in its accounting system.   There are five types of accounts: […]

Capital expenditures (“capex”) are investments made to acquire or enhance the value of long-term productive assets.   Capital expenditures are not expensed on the income statement. […]

Accounts receivable represent sales made to customers who have not yet paid for them. Accounts receivable are thus monies owed to the firm from customers.   […]

The statement of changes in equity is a financial statement which details the changes in the equity section of the balance sheet over a given […]