Nonprofit Accounting Interview Preparation Guide

Accounting helps communities in many ways. Accountants help the communities manage their money and they take care of their taxes yearly. They also manage their money, help set a budget for them and teach them to manage their money wisely.

It depends on the form in which the money comes in. If it was invested as equity (either Common or Preferred Stock), it shows up on the balance sheet as Paid in Capital. If it came in as debt (such as bridge loan, secured note, etc.) it shows up as debt that must be repaid by the company.

The one reduces the gross amount of another account to derive a net balance. Accumulated depreciation, which is a contra account to fixed assets to obtain book value, is an example of an offset account.

Bookkeepers are responsible for maintaining the "business checkbook", much like a personal checkbook. They record routine money transactions like customer payments into a "cash receipts journal" and checks to vendors into a "cash disbursement journal." They also process payroll. At month end they transfer or "post", the "journal" totals to the "general ledger" in preparation for financial statements prepared by the accountant.

Accountants are responsible for the design and management of the financial systems that bookkeepers use. They prepare monthly financial statements and tax returns at year-end. Accountants may also prepare budgets for management and loan proposals for bankers; and perform cost analysis for the company's products or services.

They are Collection, summarization, and reporting of financial information about various decision centers (responsibility centers) throughout an organization; called activity accounting or profitability accounting. It traces costs, revenues, or profits to the individual managers who are primarily responsible for making decisions about the costs, revenues, or profits in question and taking action about them. Responsibility accounting is appropriate where top management has delegated authority to make decisions. The idea behind responsibility accounting is that each manager's performance should be judged by how well he or she manages those items under his or her control.

Public accounting includes any accounting work that a company performs for another company. Examples would be audits, tax compliance, consulting, etc. The "Big 4" (KPMG, Deloitte & Touché, Price Waterhouse Coopers, and Ernst & Young) are the dominant firms that provide public accounting services.

Private accounting is accounting work that is done for your own company. Every company has some form of an internal accounting department and those employees would be considered private accountants.

Computerized accounting is quicker and easier than manual accounting and less subject to unintentional error.

Cash float is the time between when you authorize a bank to disperse funds from your bank account and when it actually leaves your account.

It is a new phase to development of accounting and its birth to increase the social awareness. In addition, it is the social effects of business decisions in addition to the economic effects.

Consistency is a concept used when applying accounting methods to a business, the business must continue to use that particular method. For an example if a company is charging depreciation using the straight-line method, they must stick with the straight-line method.