The Importance of Basic Accounting Knowledge in Business

After completing my first year of business classes at West Chester University, I realized how important accounting knowledge is for any business major. Regardless of the field of business that you choose to pursue, whether it be marketing, management, economics, or finance, you will need to be able to have at least a basic understanding of accounting. Every business has to deal with observing and understanding source documents, income statements, balance sheets, and statements of retained earnings in order to be successful in today's business world. Anyone interested in entrepreneurship who is looking to start their own business will have a definite advantage if they can understand financial statements of accounting. The truth is that accounting exists in our every day lives whether you realize it or not, so being educated in the field will do nothing but help you in a future business career.

The process of accounting will almost always begin with source documents. In the past, most of the source documents that CPA's (Certified Public Accountants), auditors, and other accountants would have to deal with were tangible paper documents such as receipts from a recent purchase at a store. The accountant would then have to transfer these source documents into a journal to start the accounting process. Today, most of the source documents are electronic. When a purchase or sale is made between any two businesses or consumers, it is filed into a computer on an electronic database. This method has made accountant's jobs far more simplistic, as they can they place the transaction directly into an electronic journal on Microsoft Excel.

The basic accounting equation that anyone who works in business should know, is that Assets= Liabilities + Equity. Assets include accounts such as cash, land, building, equipment, office supplies, inventories, and accounts receivable (money owed to you by a customer). The normal balance for these assets are a debit, which means if you are gaining any of the previous, you debit that amount of money towards that account. For example, if a sale is made in your store and a customer pays fifty dollars cash, then you would debit the cash account for fifty dollars. Liabilities include accounts payable (what you owe others on account), unearned revenue (you have been paid but haven't performed a service), salaries payable (salary money owed to your employees), taxes payable, and interest payable. The normal balance that increases these accounts is a credit, unless the account is a contra account in which the opposite normal balance applies. Equity accounts include dividends (money owed to your stockholders), revenues and expenses. The normal balance for owner's equity is a credit, but expenses made by your business are always treated as contra accounts. So for a transaction where a customer purchases something from your store on on account, you would debit accounts receivable and credit revenue. Each transaction is then recorded into a journal organized by month.

At the end of each month, the totals are added up from the journal and are placed into what are called "T-Accounts". These are T-shaped charts with the debits on the left side and credits on the right. It is used to more easily find the ending balance of each account at the end of the month. After the totals of each account are found, you can now make an income statement to determine your amount of money lost or made during the month. The amount of income can be found by subtracting the expenses from your revenues. This is one of the most important financial statements that accountants have to deal with. Your income statement helps you determine if you are making profits or if you are losing money and need to improve a sector of your business.

Once you have transferred all of your journal entries into T-accounts and have made an income statement, you are then prepared to make a balance sheet. This is the basic accounting equation in which you make sure that Assets = Liabilities + Owner's Equity. When you sum all of your asset accounts they should be equal to all of the liability and equity accounts as well. This is why anyone in any type of business should always have a basic understanding of the accounting process. With the knowledge of how money flows throughout a business, you can make wiser, more experienced decisions with your business, and protect yourself from losing money. It also allows you to take risks with your business and potentially gain a big return when it comes to the bottom line of your income statement. I'm pleased to say that I can now understand a company's financial statements and comprehend the transactions that go on in every day business. Any business student will be more successful in their future career if they learn the crucial basics of accounting.