Les standards du Web en entreprise : l’exemple de BNP Paribas Personal Finance


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Jérémie Patonnier

Keeping An Eye On Your Personal Finances

The majority of us are sticklers for finances at work, but often disregard our personal finance at home. For those who are not accountants, the process of keeping financial records and ensuring all financial items are squared away can be quite boring and often confusing. Instead of ignoring your personal finance until a problem arises, take the initiative today!

The most important aspect of your personal finance is undoubtedly your credit. Your credit score, often a mystical number of much confusion, is critical to your success in the financial realm. Without a respectable credit score, you will be unable to borrow money or obtain a home or vehicle loan. This number can literally hold you back from completing your goals and can severely limit your future.

The credit in your name has a direct bearing on the credit number. Thus people who do not use their credit cards properly and have huge bills running in their names lend a bad streak to their credit. A point to be noted is that it is not the amount you charge but it is the amount that is kept on credit that poses the threat of being harmful. It is important to keep a check on the monthly statement and you should endeavor to pay it in full each month.

In today’s society, identity theft is often a problem. If someone steals your identity, they can wreck your finances, ruin your credit, and tarnish your good name and reputation. In order to prevent identity theft, carefully monitor all your financial statements and safe guard your personal information.

The attitude of most people towards money is spending today and saving later, thus relegating saving for a later part of their life. But this habit catches them unawares in the later part of their life where they get jolted with the rude shocks of a fast approaching retirement date and a non-existent retirement fund. So do not wait for tomorrow, start saving today by putting some portions of your income in the retirement fund account.

One of the best ways to handle the finances is a budget. This is the best way to keep a tab on the finances and keeping the spending in control. When you create a budget you need to make two columns, one meant for the incomes and the second for expenditures. You need to mention all the items of expenditure in the expenses column such as rent or mortgage payment, car payment, insurance, utilities, and food. Whatever is left after deducting all this from the income is the monthly excess that of course can be used in different ways.

It’s a good idea to consult an accountant if you are not sure about setting your personal finance records straight. This person will help you correct any potential problems and ensure nothing goes wrong in the future.

The world of finance is fascinating. There’s no need to be scared of it. Just keep your finances straight and you will be able to build, or rebuild, your credit score.

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Contra Accounts – 8 Workhorses Of Bookkeeping And Accounting

While the general public and business people are familiar with the general accounts that appear in the financial statements, many owners, executives, and other non-accounting personnel often ignore the lesser known accounts that are called Contra Accounts.

Contra Accounts are accounts that are matched or paired to a related account and subtracted from it. These bookkeeping accounts are included in the company’s chart of accounts. Often they might just be called ledger accounts or GL accounts.

If we see in a balance sheet:

Equipment ………………………………….0,000

Less: Accumulated depreciation……….. 20,000….. 100,000

Accumulated depreciation is the ‘contra account,’ and ‘Equipment,’ the related account.

Balance sheet contra accounts:

Accumulated depreciation……………………… contra-asset

Accumulated depletion………………………….. contra-asset

Drawing…………………………………………….. contra-capital

Allowance for doubtful accounts………………. contra-asset

Discount on bonds payable…………………….contra-liability

Income statement contra accounts:

Sales returns and allowances…………………. contra-revenue

Sales discounts…………………………………… contra-revenue

Purchase returns and allowances…………….. contra-cost

Purchase discounts………………………………. contra-cost

All accounts have what is known as a ‘Normal Balance.’ The normal balance of an account corresponds to the side in which the account is increased. To fully understand this concept, let’s have a refresher of the rules of accounting:

Rule of Accounting 1, for assets:

Increases in assets are recorded by debits to the asset accounts. Decreases in assets are recorded by credits to the assets accounts.

Rule of Accounting 2, for liabilities:

Increases in liabilities are recorded by credits to the liability accounts. Decreases in liabilities are recorded by debits to the liability accounts.

Rule of Accounting 3, for owner’s equity:

Increases in owner’s equity are recorded by credits to the owner’s equity accounts. Decreases in owner’s equity are recorded by debits to the owner’s equity accounts.

According to the above rules, assets are increased by debits; liabilities and owner’s equity by credits. It follows then that the normal balance of all assets is debit, and for liabilities and owner’s equity accounts the normal balance is credit.

To illustrate: Cash is an asset account; therefore, its normal balance is debit. Now, if for some reason the cash account shows a credit balance, then credit would be ‘abnormal.’ The explanation could be that we have overdrawn the account. Or perhaps it is a mistake such as a misposting.

Now, in the case of the contra accounts, they will have a normal balance that is the opposite of their related account. If we focus on the above example where we show Equipment 0,000. We can now say that the normal balance of Accumulated depreciation is credit (the opposite of the related account Equipment).

We are now prepared to give a full definition:

A contra account is an account that is matched or paired to a related account and subtracted from it. Therefore, its normal balance is the opposite of the related account.

Android T-Mobile My Account 2.0 App Glitch


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Take a look. The percentage definitely does not match. 135/400 = 33.75% not
75% used.

Blog post: life.kalebdf.com/post/160523917/android-t-mobile-my-accou…

Accounting & balance sheet

I would like to start speaking about this topic with defining what accounting is. So accounting is keeping financial records, recording income & expenditure, valuing assets& liabilities, eleberation of budjets & so on. We can devide accounting into two large groups.

Accounting:

Financial accounting

preparing financial statements of various kinds

- financial statements

- tax reterns                                             -

is used for:

Managerial accounting

preparing financial information,

necessary for the company itself;

- controlling

- marketing & management

- pricing

- negotiations

- analyzing the flows of capital

But also there are a lot of other kinds of accounting, such as:

Cost accounting – working out the unit cost of products, including materials, labour & all othe expenses.

Tax accounting – calculating an individual’s or a company’s liability for tax.

“Creative accounting” (or “window dressing”) – using all available accounting procedures & tricks to disguise the true financial position of a company.

Also at the begining of the topic I would like to stress, that we shouldn’t muddle accounting with bookkeeping. Bookkeeping is just writing down (recording) all the details of transactions (debits & credits). Bookkeepers have to record every purchase and sale that a business makes, in the order that they take place, in journals. At a later date, these temporary records are entered in or posted to the relevant account book or ledger. At the end of an accounting period, all the relevant totals are transferred to the profit and loss account. Double-entry bookkeeping records the dual effect of every transaction – a value both receives and parted with. Payments made or debits are entered of the left-hand (debtors) side of an account, and payments received or credits on the right-hand side. Bookkeepers periodically do a trial balance to test whether both sides of an account book match.

So as you see it’s not the same as accounting, actually, I would define bookkeeping as a necessary part (one of the functions) of accounting. Because accountants do record cash flows, & the value of assets & liabilities, & they calculate profits & losses, & so on. But it’s not just writing down numbers. They are in the business of supplying people with information (e. g. shareholders). Even managers always need the help of accountants. They need financial statements & budgets, & cash-flow projection, & so on, to measure the success of what they’ve done, & to make decisions about allocating resources for future projects. They try to find a way to allocate all the overheads to different products. Also accountants try to make a company’s financial situation look as good as possible in the balance sheet (I’m talking about “creative accounting”) & reduce tax bill, despite of the fact, that it’s not legal. So it’s not a full list of everyday duties of any accountant.

One of the function of accounting is also valuing assets, which are things of value or earning power to a firm. Assets can include cash, receivables, bank deposits, and trade investments: investments in other companies. Such assets are called current assets. Assets including land, plant, buildings, and furniture, are called fixed assets. Assets such as plant and equipment that over time wear out or become outdated are said to depreciate. A charge must be made for this depreciation or amortization in calculating a business’s profitability: the assets are depreciated or amortized by an amount each year. Also there are intangible assets, which may include such things as patents owned by the company, and goodwill, the value of the company as a functioning business or going concern with a client base, experienced management, and other benefits that a start-up may not have.

All the money that a company will have to pay to someone else in the future, including taxes, debts, and interest and mortgage payments is calledliabilities. Long-term debts are long-term liabilities. The ratio of a firm’s debt to equity is its gearing or leverage; a firm with a high proportion of debt in relation to equity is highly geared or highly leveraged. Short-term debts and debts to suppliers are among its current liabilities.

& here I would also like to define two more concepts (they seem to be key definitions in topic accounting). I’m talking about debtors & creditors. So

-                     debtors (or account receivable) – are the sums of money owed by customers for goods or services purchased on credit

-                     creditors (or accounts payable) – the sums of money owed to suppliers for purchases made on credit

As it has been already mentioned there are different kinds of accounting, different functions of accountants, various possible ways of recording debits & credits, valuing assets & liabilities, calculating profits & losses, etc. But there are generally accepted “accounting principles” that any accountants must follow in order to present “a true & fair view” of a company’s finance. So here are some of them:

The matching principle – the revenues generated in an accounting period are identified with related costs whenever they were incurred. The objectivity principle – all data recorded should be verifiable & free from bias. The consistency principle – the same methods (of inventory valuation, depreciation, etc.) must be used from one period to the next. The full-disclosure principle – financial reporting must include all significant information. The principle of conservatism (or prudence) – where alternative accounting methods are possible, one understates rather than overstates profits. The separate-entity or accounting entity assumption – an enterprise is an accounting unit separate from its owners, creditors, etc. The continuity or going-concern assumption – the business will continue indefinitely into the future. The unit-of-measure assumption – all transactions & other items to be accounted for must be in a single, supposedly stable monetary unit. The time-period or accounting period assumption – financial data must be reported for particular (short) periods, which makes accrual & dererral necessary.

10.  The historical cost principle – the initial price paid for the asquisition of assets is the one that is recorded in accounts.

11.  The revenue or realization principle – revenue is realized at the moment when goods are sold (or change hands) or when services are rendered.

In accordance with the principle of double-entry bookkeeping, the basic accounting equation is Assets = Liabilities + Owners’ (Stockholders’) Equity. This can be rewritten as Assets – Liabilities = Owners’ Equity or Net Assets. This includes share capital (money received from the  issue of shares), share premium or paid-in surplus (any money realized by selling shares at above their nominal value), and the company’s reserves, including the year’s retained profits. Stockholders’ or shareholders’ equity or net assets are generally less than a company’s market capitalization, because net assets do not record items such as goodwill.

Also there are various standart ratio measures which are simple enough to calculate:

The liquidity ratio = liquid assets/current liabilities The current ratio = current assets/current liabilities Return on capital employed = net profit/capital employed Profit on sales = net profit/turnover Debtors ratio = debtors/sales Creditors ratio = creditors/purchases Debt/equity ratio = long-term loans/shareholders’ funds

These ratios are also often use in simulation or case studies, because they allow students to make an initial assesment of a company’s performance & situation.

Speaking about accounting we can’t but giving difinitions for the following words:

-                     turnover – the amount of business done by a company over a year

-                     depreciation – the reduction in value of a fixed asset during the years it is in use (charged against profits)

-                     inventory – the value of raw materials, work in progress, and finished products stored ready for sale

-                     overheads – the various expenses of operating a business that cannot be charged to any one product, process or department

Company law specifies that shareholders must be given certain financial information (as it was said at the very beginning). Companies generally include three financial statements in their annual reports:

The profit and loss account (or income statement) – shows revenue and expenditure. The balance sheet – shows a company’s financial situation on a particular date, generally the last day of the financial year. The third financial statement has various names, including the source and application of funds statements, and the statement of changes in financial position. This shows the flow of cash in and out of the business between balance sheet dates. Sources of funds include trading profits, depreciation provisions, sales of assets, borrowing, and the issuing of shares. Application of funds include purchases of fixed of financial assets, payment of dividends, repayment of loans, and – in a bad year – trading losses.

I would pay special attention to the balance sheet, because the biggest part of the accountant’s work is concerned with this document.

So the balance sheet is a document that shows the totals of money received and money paid out by a company and the difference between them. The balance sheet includes two parts:

assets liabilities and share capital.

Both parts should always be balanced.

The item current assets includes cash, marketable securities, accounts receivable and stock-in-trade. Thus these assets appear to be working assets. Current assets are the assets which a company can convert quickly into cash, usually stock and accounts receivable falling due within one year. Cash includes bills, petty cash fund and money on deposit.

Marketable securities are a short-term investment of surplus or temporary free assets. Normally these assets are allocated into commercial securities or federal bonds. As securities can be required at short notice they are to be easily realized and be subject to price fluctuations as little as possible. The balance sheet shows their nominal cost, their market value is given in brackets.

Account receivables are amounts owed to a business by suppliers of goods and services. Usually customers are allowed a 30, 60 or 90 days period of time within which they are to effect a payment. However. Some customers are not able to pay owing either to financial difficulties or contingency. Hence, the amount is to be reduced for the reserve allowance for bad debt.

Stock-in-trade includes raw materials to be used for production and semi-finished goods. The stock-in-trade value is defined either by its cost or cost market value. The preference is given to a lower one.

Capital assets include property, premises, plant and machinery, and equipment. They are not meant for sale but for the goods production, storage and transportation. This category comprises land, buildings, machinery, equipment, furniture and vehicles. Thus, net capital assets reflect the volume of investment made into property, plant and machinery, and equipment. Capital assets lose their value with age and use. The ral cost of capital assets may gradually lose their value as a result of obsolescence of machinery. New modern technologies make the old equipment obsolescent. Thus, depreciation is a gradual loss in the value of something, such as a vehicle, a machine or any asset that wears out with use and age. The land cannot be depreciated; its value stays unchanged year after year.

Prepayments and deferred charges include, for instance, insurance against fire prepayment or lease prepayments etc.

Deferred charges are similar to prepayments. For instance, a manufacturer allocates money into research work, positive results of which and profit will be seen many years later. So costs are to be discounted within the years to follow.

Intangibles like patents, goodwill and trademarks are not physical substances and are differently evaluated by various companies or may not be evaluated at all.

GET THE FULL VIDEO HERE: goldsilver.com Welcome to the 7th episode in our 10 part series.

NJ Accounting – A Way to Meet Accounting Need for New Jersey Business Market

Accounting or bookkeeping is a very important function in any firm. Running one’s own company is never been an easy job. People want to start their own business just because of the dream to earn good revenue from it and then expand its operations all over the world. So each and every business man will try hard to achieve his goals. In those cases, it is very important to use the funds properly and carefully. The expenses should be minimized as far as possible to make the business expanded. This responsibility lies on the shoulders of the accounting department of a firm. This department is given due importance just because, it has the magic stick that can convert a small business into a huge one and vice versa. Therefore, the right people should be recruited at least in this department of your organization. If you are outsourcing the accounting works, you should be careful enough to find out the right people to do the job for you. NJ accounting firms can do your jobs in the most professional way.

New Jersey is a hub of accounting service firms. These firms provide accounting and book keeping services to a lot of companies irrespective of their nature and size. Most of the people working in these firms are highly qualified professionals. The qualified CPAs available at these NJ accounting firms are well versed with the accounting services related with a new business. Taking the help of these people can make your business in a fast pace. The accounting services in New Jersey are as old as the human history. So when you start thinking of a helping hand from NJ accounting firms, it means that your business is going to be in safe hands.

NJ accounting firms provides the best accounting solutions in the world itself. Financial Statements & Reconciliation, Business Start-up, Planning & Budgeting, Financial Reporting Analysis, Tax Preparation Services, Accounts Payable & Receivable etc are the prominent services offered by these kinds of firms. These are the difficult tasks to do in an organizational set up. People involved in this work should be thorough in it. Outsourcing to a NJ accounting firms can make you relieve because, it is really cheaper compared to an in house accounting department.

NJ accounting firms do the work in a smooth and timely manner which prompts you to stick on to them. You can simply allocate time in looking after other departments of your company, if the accounting works are given to accounting firms. Thus NJ accounting is a great time saver also. It helps to plan the things as per the schedule also.

An accounting firm uses the most modern technology for communicating with their clients. The most modern software and the accounting packages provide an accurate financial management system for your company. They are experts in customizing the financial data for the unique requirement of yours. Thus NJ accounting firm can be the best option, if you have plans to outsource your accounting services.

Accounting Sense != Common Sense


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Follow the Magical Accounting Rules

To make sure that financial statements are easy to understand, there is a set of rules and practices that is established, which is known as the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). This has been developed to provide a basic guideline for the rules of accounting because I think it’s fair to say that it can get confusing at times. There are a lot of variations to the meaning so here is the best answer. It’s the generally accepted accounting rules and procedures that are necessary to define accounting practice.

Basically it’s a set of theories that accountants come to accept, and there are always controversies with some methods between accountants like any other field of study. Accounting is a discipline that is always growing and changing so it’s a good idea to keep up to date with all of the trends that are going on. Since the management prepares the financial statements of a company it is possible that a financial statement can be altered to give a company a particular boost. So, that’s why the companies that sell their ownership to the public needs to get their financial statements audited by a public certified accountant. A certified public accountant (CPA) are licensed through the sate for the same exact reason lawyers and doctors are, so they and protect the public by providing the highest quality of professional service possible. The reason why CPAs are used is because they have no connection with the company and are independent. They have zero financing ties with the company.

Some firms that employ a lot of certified public accountants include Deloitte & Touch, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. An accountant with no strings attached or is independent commonly performs an audit, which is evaluating a companies financial statements, product, accounting systems, and records. The main purpose of an audit is to make sure that the financial statements have been properly prepared according to the excepted accounting rules. Keep in mind; since accounting is not a precise science it has room for interpretation according to the GAPP. However, that doesn’t mean that the accountants report should contain substantial errors in the financial report, but more like that for the most report it is reliable for creditors to take a look at. An accountant can make a decision only when the financial statements conform to the guidelines of GAAP. In the past creditors, banks, and investors tend to favor an auditor when they are deciding to invest in a company or give loans, because of their independence. The individualistic audit is an extremely crucial factor in the growth of financial markets internationally.

Also, many organizations can directly or indirectly influence a GAAP. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is the most critical body for the development and issuing of rules on accounting practice. The website I previously listed is extremely critical and you can attend seminars online for no cost, and also stay up to date with the rules. This independent body issues the Statements of Financial Accounting Standards. Next, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is the official professional association for certified accountants. It’s the largest CPA organization that exists in America and heavily influence accounting practices through its senior committees. The Securities and Exchange Commission is the agency of the federal government that legally has the power to set and execute accounting practices for companies that sell security to the public, and it has a large impact on accounting practice. Next, the governmental accounting standard (GASB) is critical for accounting because its main job is to issue the standards for accounting to the local and state governments in the United States. However, a lot of these organizations are focused on the rules in regulations in the United States.

There are a lot of businesses and accountants internationally so that’s why the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) was formed. It was approved by more then 25 international agencies. The U.S laws that analyze the revenues for the cost of operating a business can also affect accounting practice. It’s no question that the major provider for income for the government comes from income tax. The income tax rules are heavily applies by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Sometimes these rules actually cause a conflict with the accepted rules of accounting. A lot of businesses use accounting practices because it’s a requirement by tax law. Also, companies can use the rules of tax law to their advantage financially. Accounting also has laws of conduct for profession, and one extremely important one is ethics. A nice website dealing with the issues of ethics is ethics.org.

It touches bases on questions that help determine if something is either right or wrong, and is based on moral decisions. Most people are faced with several ethical issues each day and, and some ethical activities could be on the range of illegal. If a business decides to use false or misleading advertising, or to bribe customers into giving them testimonials for a specific product, then they could be acting in an unethical manner. The ethics of a company could also be a result of the employees so that’s why it’s always a good idea to run a background check of who you are hiring, whether it’s online or offline.

Professional ethics is the guidelines that apply to the conduct of individuals of a certain profession. Similar to the ethical actions of a company, the ethical actions of an individual is a decision. As being a member of an organization, accountants have to take the responsibility not only to their customers and employers, but also to the general public to act in the greatest ethical way possible. Accountants are very good at following professional ethics because they are the second professional group as having the largest ethical standards, with clergy being the highest, no surprises about that one. It is important for individuals who decide to become an accountant to have the highest levels of professionalism as possible. To enforce that its prestigious members are following the rules, the AICPA along with each state have adopted some codes of professional conduct that certified public accountants have to follow.

Some simple rules are being responsible to the people that depend on the trust of accountants, such as creditors and investors. When working with people the accountant must act with integrity which means that they are honest, and the individuals gain from the visit with the accountant. The accountant must display objectivity which means that they are intellectually honest, and they must remain independent which means that they must avoid any relationship with the business or individual because it will damage the accountant’s principles.

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