- Accounting Standards
- Most companies follow certain standards for keeping their books. The key standard is defined as double-entry bookkeeping, always requiring at least two entries for each transaction. In a simplified way it can be defined as: 'whenever something goes in one place, it has to be added in another one'. For example, if a company pays salaries, the amount would be booked from the bank account in the assets section to the position 'salaries' in the expense section. More important though are valuation standards, which determine at what values are assigned to assets and liabilities in a company's books. The key principle agreed during the past 20-30 years was that they should be 'true and fair', representing the current reality of a company as well as possible.
- Asset
- Broadly speaking a physical or non-physical item that has a certain monetary value and is owned by an individual or a company. In accounting terms an element of the 'asset' portion of the balance sheet with an assigned value.
- Asset Backed Security
- A debt obligation that is directly tied to a pool of assets, such as real estate or cars. The issuer typically no longer carries any responsibility for the underlying loans' performance.
- Audit
- In companies, the periodic (typically annual) review of accounts, performed by external and independent audit firms. Big household names are Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte. In a broader context, the term 'audit' is used for any kind of thorough and systematic review.
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