What is accounting?
Definition of Accounting Accounting is the recording of financial transactions along with storing, sorting, retrieving, summarizing, and presenting the results in various reports and analyses. Accounting is also a field of study and profession dedicated to carrying out those tasks. Examples of Financial Accounting One part of accounting focuses on presenting the financial information in the form of general-purpose financial statements ( balance sheet , income statement, etc.) that are distributed to people outside of the company. These external reports must be prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles often referred to as GAAP or US GAAP. Examples of Management Accounting Another part of accounting focuses on providing a company's management with the information needed to keep the business financially healthy. Although some of the information comes from recorded transactions, many of the analyses and reports include estimated and projected amounts