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Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non-financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "language of business", measures the results of an organization's economic activities and conveys this information to a variety of stakeholders, including investors, creditors, management, and regulators. Practitioners of accounting are known as accountants. The terms "accounting" and "financial reporting" are often used as synonyms.
An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certified Accountant or Certified Public Accountant, or Registered Public Accountant. Such professionals are granted certain responsibilities by statute, such as the ability to certify an organization's financial statements, and may be held liable for professional misconduct. Non-qualified accountants may be employed by a qualified accountant, or may work independently without statutory privileges and obligations.
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is the national professional organization of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) in the United States, with more than 428,000 members in 130 countries. Founded in 1887 as the American Association of Public Accountants (AAPA), the organization sets ethical standards and U.S. auditing standards. It also develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination. The AICPA maintains offices in New York City; Washington, DC; Durham, NC; and Ewing, NJ.
Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United States, the CPA is a license to provide accounting services to the public. It is awarded by each of the 50 states for practice in that state. Additionally, all states except Hawaii have passed mobility laws to allow CPAs from other states to practice in their state. State licensing requirements vary, but the minimum standard requirements include passing the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination, 150 semester units of college education, and one year of accounting-related experience.
Forensic accounting, forensic accountancy or financial forensics is the specialty practice area of accounting that investigates whether firms engage in financial reporting misconduct. Forensic accountants apply a range of skills and methods to determine whether there has been financial reporting misconduct.
In the United States, Statements on Auditing Standards provide guidance to external auditors on generally accepted auditing standards in regards to auditing a non-public company and issuing a report. They are promulgated by the Auditing Standards Board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), which holds all copyright on the Standards. They are commonly abbreviated as "SAS" followed by their respective number and title.
The Accounting Principles Board (APB) is the former authoritative body of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). It was created by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in 1959 and issued pronouncements on accounting principles until 1973, when it was replaced by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).
The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) is an association dedicated to serving the 56 state boards of accountancy. These are the boards that regulate the accountancy profession in the United States of America.
The Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination is the examination administered to people who wish to become U.S. Certified Public Accountants. The CPA Exam is used by the regulatory bodies of all fifty states plus the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.
In the United States, the Auditing Standards Board (ASB) is the senior technical committee designated by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to issue auditing, attestation, and quality control statements, standards and guidance to certified public accountants (CPAs) for non-public company audits. Created in October 1978, it is composed of 19 members representing various industries and sectors, including public accountants and private, educational, and governmental entities. It issues pronouncements in the form of statements, interpretations, and guidelines, which all CPAs must adhere to when performing audits and attestations.
The Trueblood Committee was a study group formed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in 1972 to develop the Objective of Financial Statements.
Robert Hiester Montgomery was an American accountant and educator. He also co-founded what is today the world's largest accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Statements on Auditing Procedure were issued by the Committee on Auditing Procedure of AICPA from 1939 to 1972. The Committee issued 54 SAPs before it became the Auditing Standards Executive Committee (AcSEC) and began issuing Statements on Auditing Standards.Statement on Auditing Standards No. 1 summarized and superseded the 54 SAPs.
AICPA Statements of Position (SOPs), available full-text at the links below from the University of Mississippi's Library Digital Collections with the permission of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), have been issued by the AICPA's Accounting Standards Division since 1974 and are meant to influence the development of accounting standards and to propose revisions to the AICPA's Audit and Accounting Guide (AAGs) series.
Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) is a professional management accounting designation issued beginning in January 2012. The Chartered Global Management Accountant's mission is to promote the science of management accounting on global stages.
Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements no. 18 is a Generally Accepted Auditing Standard produced and published by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Auditing Standards Board. Though it states that it could be applied to almost any subject matter, its focus is reporting on the quality of financial reporting. It pays particular attention to internal control, extending into the controls over information systems involved in financial reporting. It is intended for use by Certified Public Accountants performing attestation engagements, the preparation of a written opinion about a subject, and the client organizations preparing the reports that are the subject of the attestation engagement. It prescribes three levels of service: examination, review, and agreed-upon procedures. It also prescribes two types of reports: Type 1, which includes an assessment of internal control design, and Type 2, which additionally includes an assessment of the operating effectiveness of controls. Published April 2016, SSAE 18 and all previous standards it supersedes are represented in section AT-C of the AICPA Professional Standards, with most sections becoming effective on May 1, 2017.
Political campaign accounting is a specialty practice area of accounting that focuses on developing and implementing financial systems needed by political campaign organizations to conduct efficient campaign operations and to comply with complex financial reporting statutes. It differs from traditional management and financial consultancy in that it incorporates election law requirements and the unique requirements of political campaigns.
References
Bonner, Paul. 2007. A Treasure Trove of Accountancy’s Past. Journal of Accountancy , Vol. 207 (August): 58-60.
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
Kurtz, Royce D.; Herrera, David K. & Stephanie D. Moussalli. "Digitizing the Accounting Historians Journal: A short history", Accounting Historians Journal (Birmingham, AL: The Birmingham Printing and Publishing Company)) 33 (2): 157-168, ISSN 0148-4184.
Library of Congress. Dublin Core to MARC Crosswalk.
Martin, M.M. 2004. Adapting Reference for a Unique Group of Distance Learners: Serving the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Journal of Library and Information Services in Distance Learning, Vol. 1, No. 4: 59-66.