Financial accounting is focused on providing accounting reports and analysis to other areas of the business. Financial accountants are responsible for the creation and issuing of the company’s financial statements, providing accurate and timely information to management and ensuring that all regulatory reporting requirements are met. In financial accounting, the goal is to consistently provide the valuable, accurate and reliable information.
=> Financial accounting is focused on providing accounting reports and analysis to other areas of the business. Financial accountants are responsible for the creation and issuing of the company’s financial statements, providing accurate and timely information to management and ensuring that all regulatory reporting requirements are met. In financial accounting, the goal is to consistently provide the valuable, accurate and reliable information.
The issuing of the financial statements is the responsibility of the financial accounting department. These statements summarize the business’s activities for the year and are used by shareholders, banks, employee bargaining units, and the general public to evaluate the financial worth of the company. The statements are audited by independent accountants to validate the information and provide assurance to readers.
=> Financial accounting is the field of accountancy concerned with the preparation of financial statements for decision makers, such as stockholders, suppliers, banks, employees, government agencies, owners, and other stakeholders. Financial capital maintenance can be measured in either nominal monetary units or units of constant purchasing power. The fundamental need for financial accounting is to reduce principal-agent problem by measuring and monitoring agents’ performance and reporting the results to interested users.
Financial accountancy is used to prepare accounting information for people outside the organization or not involved in the day to day running of the company. Management accounting provides accounting information to help managers make decisions to manage the business.
In short, Financial Accounting is the process of summarizing financial data taken from an organization’s accounting records and publishing in the form of annual (or more frequent) reports for the benefit of people outside the organization.
=> Financial accounting is a specialized branch of accounting that keeps track of a company’s financial transactions. Using standardized guidelines, the transactions are recorded, summarized, and presented in a financial report or financial statement such as an income statement or a balance sheet.
Companies issue financial statements on a routine schedule. The statements are considered external because they are given to people outside of the company, with the primary recipients being owners/stockholders, as well as certain lenders. If a corporation’s stock is publicly traded, however, its financial statements (and other financial reportings) tend to be widely circulated, and information will likely reach secondary recipients such as competitors, customers, employees, labor organizations, and investment analysts.
It’s important to point out that the purpose of financial accounting is not to report the value of a company. Rather, its purpose is to provide enough information for others to assess the value of a company for themselves.
Because external financial statements are used by a variety of people in a variety of ways, financial accounting has common rules known as accounting standards and as generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). In the U.S., the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is the organization that develops the accounting standards and principles. Corporations whose stock is publicly traded must also comply with the reporting requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an agency of the U.S. government.
