An Introduction to Accounting

Accounting is a system meant for measuring business activities, processing of information into reports and making the findings available to decision-makers. The documents, which communicate these findings about the performance of an organisation in monetary terms, are called financial statements. Usually, accounting is understood as the Language of Business. However, a business may have a lot of aspects which may not be of financial nature. As such, a better way to understand accounting could be to call it The Language of Financial Decisions. The better the understanding of the language, the better is the management of financial aspects of living. Many aspects of our lives are based on accounting, personal financial planning, investments, income-tax, loans, etc. We have different roles to perform in life-the role of a student, of a family head, of a manager, of an investor, etc. The knowledge of accounting is an added advantage in performing different roles. However, we shall limit our scope of discussion to a business organisation and the various financial aspects of such an organisation.

In the present book “An Introduction to Accounting” an attempt is made to provide the knowledge of accounting from the beginning to preparation of final accounts and further application of accounting knowledge while accounting for various organisations such as Partnership Accounting, Company Accounting and understanding the relevance of Accounting Standards.