Basic accounting for non-accountants / Abitang, Philip T. [ et al...].

This sixth edition is being updated after a period of public debate as to the manner in which a firm's financial affairs are reported. In the early 1990s, many well-known companies were putting the best face on their financial performance by the use of what is called creative accounting. From the mid-1990s the Accounting Standards Board introduced Financial Reporting Standards (FRSs), which have made great inroads into this practice. It will take some time before all contentious areas are covered, but we now have 21 new standards relating to the profit and loss account, the balance sheet, the cash flow statement, and a number of specific items disclosed therein. A new chapter has been included here on performance measures to embrace the topics of benchmarking and non-financial indicators. We therefore need to look at how firms cost products and services before progressing to the planning and control techniques of standard costing and budgetary control. Many decisions are based on an ad hoc analysis of costs to determine the best course of action and marginal costing is an appropriate technique here This covers the cost of capital for the particular capital structure adopted by a business; the management of working capital; and the procedures for capital investment appraisal. Also included in this third part of the book are chapters on business taxation and overseas transactions. Keywords: cost analysis, cost products, capital investment