General Accepted Accounting Principles

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The purpose of this paper is to provide research and discussion on the following terms: (a) General Accepted Accounting Principles, (b) Double Entry Accounting, (c) Historical Cost, (d) Accrual Basis vs. Cash Basis Accounting and € Current Assets and Liabilities vs. Non-Current Items. The second part will provide a review of the assigned annual reports and address the following questions: (1) Describe the general organization of each of the three sets of financial statements, (2) Which is more useful in your opinion for each of the three companies, Net Income or Cash from Operating Activities? (3) Make one prediction about each company from the company’s financial statements. (4) Reach one additional conclusion about each company from the additional information you find in the annual report. General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are a common set of accounting principles and standards that are generally accepted and universally practiced. GAAP are a combination of authoritative standards set by the Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB). The organization established broad reporting standards of general applicability as well as specific accounting rules. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is another ground which also sets standards. They are a governmental agency which requires companies to files financial reports that follow the rules of the GAAP. The SEC also mandates that specific guidelines will be used when situations have no principle. Double Entry Accounting is defined as a method that involves each transaction being recorded in at least two accounts, resulting in a debit to one or more accounts and a credit to one or more accounts. It provides a method to quickly check the accuracy because the sum of all accounts with debit balances should equal the sum of all credit accounts. This is one of the most commonly used methods by businesses

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