Sunday, October 16, 2011

What Does Full Disclosure Mean?

1. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) requirement that publicly-traded companies release and provide for the free exchange of all material facts that are relevant to their ongoing business operations.

2. The general need in business transactions for both parties to tell the whole truth about any material issue pertaining to the transaction.

Investopedia explains Full Disclosure
1. The SEC requires full disclosure from companies that wish to be publicly traded on the major U.S. exchanges. By enforcing this rule, the SEC attempts to instill confidence in investors that the financial marketplace is efficient and transparent so that individual investors can take part in it for material profit.

2. For example, in real estate transactions, there can often be a disclosure form that is signed by the seller. Signing this form can result in legal penalties if it is later discovered that the seller knowingly lied about or concealed significant facts.

What is segment reporting?

A type of financial reporting in which the firm discloses information by identifiable industry segments. For example, Union Pacific Corporation reports revenues, income, assets, depreciation, and capital expenditures for each of four segments: transportation, oil and gas, mining, and land. Segment reporting is required by the SEC in an attempt to provide stockholders and the public with better financial data. Also called line-of-business reporting. See also industry segment

Business Segment Reporting

What Does Business Segment Reporting Mean?
Giving separate accounts of a company's individual divisions, subsidiaries or other segments. In an annual report, the purpose of business segment reporting is to provide an accurate picture of a public company's performance to its shareholders. For upper management, business segment reporting is used to evaluate each segment's income, expenses, assets, liabilities and so on in order to assess profitability and riskiness.

Investopedia explains Business Segment Reporting

A bank, for example, might use business segment reporting to separately account for its banking, credit card and financial services segments. If the bank had operations in both North America and Latin America, it might report on those separately as well.

What Does Annual Report Mean?

1. An annual publication that public corporations must provide to shareholders to describe their operations and financial conditions. The front part of the report often contains an impressive combination of graphics, photos and an accompanying narrative, all of which chronicle the company's activities over the past year. The back part of the report contains detailed financial and operational information.

2. In the case of mutual funds, an annual report is a required document that is made available to fund shareholders on a fiscal year basis. It discloses certain aspects of a fund's operations and financial condition. In contrast to corporate annual reports, mutual fund annual reports are best described as "plain vanilla" in terms of their presentation.

Investopedia explains Annual Report
1. It was not until legislation was enacted after the stock market crash in 1929 that the annual report became a regular component of corporate financial reporting. Typically, an annual report will contain the following sections:

                                                  -Financial Highlights
                                                  -Letter to the Shareholders
                                                  -Narrative Text, Graphics and Photos
                                                  -Management's Discussion and Analysis
                                                  -Financial Statements
                                                  -Notes to Financial Statements
                                                  -Auditor's Report
                                                  -Summary Financial Data
                                                  -Corporate Information

2. A mutual fund annual report, along with a fund's prospectus and statement of additional information, is a source of multi-year fund data and performance, which is made available to fund shareholders as well as to prospective fund investors. Unfortunately, most of the information is quantitative rather than qualitative, which addresses the mandatory accounting disclosures required of mutual funds.

Full disclosure: Definition from Answers.com

Monday, October 10, 2011

Accounting Information System

Accounting Information System

Section (A), Uzzal Kumar Acharjee

www.asyed375.blogspot.com

Chapter-1: (Accounting Information Systems: An Overview)

– What is the meaning of system, data, and information?

– What is an accounting information system (AIS)?

– Why is the AIS an important topic to study?

– What is the role of the AIS in the value chain?

– How does the AIS provide information for decision making?

– What are the basic strategies and strategic positions an organization can pursue?

Chapter-2: (Overview of Business Processes):

– What are the basic business activities in which an organization engages?

• What decisions must be made to undertake these activities?

• What information is required to make those decisions?

– What role does the data processing cycle play in organizing business activities and providing information to users?

– What is the role of the information system and enterprise resource planning in modern organizations?

Chapter-3: (Systems Development and Documentation Techniques)

– What is the purpose of documentation?

– Why do accountants need to understand documentation?

– What documentation techniques are used in accounting systems?

– What are data flow diagrams and flowcharts?

• How are they alike and different?

• How are they prepared?

Chapter-6: (Relational Databases):

– How are databases different than file-based legacy systems?

– Why are databases important and what is their advantage?

– What is the difference between logical and physical views of a database?

– What are the fundamental concepts of database systems such as DBMS, schemas, the data dictionary, and DBMS languages?

– What is a relational database, and how does it organize data?

– How are tables structured to properly store data in a relational database?

Chapter-9: (Introduction to Systems Development and Systems Analysis)

– What are the phases in the systems development life cycle?

– Who are the individuals involved in systems development?

– What techniques are used to plan the development of a system?

– How do you determine whether a particular system is feasible?

– How do people respond to systems changes, and how can dysfunctional behavior be minimized?