Business terms

A
Account: A record that holds the results of financial transactions.
Accountant's Equation: The equation that is the basis of the Balance Sheet: Assets = Liabilities + Owners' Equity. (Also, the response to "What does 1 + 1 equal?": "What do you want it to equal?")
Accounting: A service that oversees, measures, and evaluates financial information for decision making purposes.
Accounts Payable: Amounts due from your business to your creditors. Generally these are short term liabilities (30-120 days), and are shown under the Current Liabilities section in the Balance Sheet. (What you owe to other folks.)
Accounts Receivable: Amounts due to your business from your customers. Generally these amounts are short term receivables (30-120 days), and are shown under Current Assets section in the Balance Sheet. (What other folks owe you.)
Accounts Receivable Turnover: A measure used to determine a company's average collection period for receivables. Usually computed by dividing net sales (or net credit sales) by average accounts receivable.
Accrual Basis Accounting: The practice of bookkeeping when income is recorded when earned and expenses are recorded when they are incurred. (Opposite of Cash Basis Accounting, the way you run your personal checkbook; personal finances are almost always cash basis. Believe it or not, Accrual Basis accounting turns out to be a truer way of showing the profitability of your business.)
Aging Schedule: (No relation to Grandma's next birthday.) A schedule showing the length of time an invoice has been outstanding or held. Aging schedules are normally created for Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable. For example, an aging schedule for accounts receivable can show how many days an invoice has been outstanding. Aging schedules can also be created for inventory.
Amortization: The gradual and periodic reduction of an amount over time. It can apply to either the periodic write-down of an asset (see depreciation) or a gradual extinguishment of a debt (payments reducing loan principal).
Annual Percentage Rate (APR): Also known as effective annual rate, is used to put investments with varying interest compounding periods (daily, monthly, semiannually) on a common basis. It is computed as follows:
APR = (1 + r/m)m - 1.0 where r = the stated, nominal, or quoted rate, and m = the number of compounding periods per year.

Annual Report: A report prepared by a business entity at the end of its calendar or fiscal year. It presents a company's financial position and operating results for use by interested parties, including potential investors, creditors, stockholders, and employees.
Arm's-Length Transaction: Business dealings between independent and rational parties who are looking out for their own interests.
ASCII: (pronounced, "ass-key") A standard computer code for the conversion of a character to a binary number (a combination of 1's and 0's) that is understood by almost all computers. Because it is a uniform code, it is used frequently in data transfer of all kinds.
Assets: Economic resources owned or controlled by a person or company.
Audit: The result of an independent accountant's review of the financial statements and their footnotes to ensure compliance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and to express an opinion on the fairness of the financial statements.
Audit Opinion: The official result of an audit. A CPA's "unqualified opinion" means that the financial statements he/she has audited present fairly the financial position and operating results of the company in conformity with GAAP (in other words, "you pass"). A "qualified opinion" occurs under a number of circumstances, for instance, if the financial statements do not follow GAAP and the client refuses to make the needed changes (this may be anything from "not bad" to "really bad", depending on the reason for the qualified opinion; a string of qualified opinions is generally "bad"). An "adverse opinion" happens when the financial statements are misleading and do not fairly represent a company's financial position (in other words, "you fail"; If you're running a company that just got an "adverse opinion", get ready to find new employment.) Keep in mind that, just because you passed an audit, it does not mean that your company is in good financial shape. It just means that your books are a fair representation of what you did.
B
Bad Debt: An uncollectible Account Receivable. (Usually accompanied by a visit from two goons named Guido and Bruno.)
Balance sheet: A balance sheet is an itemized statement which lists the total assets and the total liabilities of a given business to show its net worth at a given moment in time (like a snapshot).
Bank Reconciliation: Verification that your bank statement and your checkbook balance.
Bankruptcy: (Business Failure) This involves a discharge of the debtor's obligations through court order. The purpose of bankruptcy is to provide the debtor with a fresh start and to have an equitable distribution of the debtor's assets among the creditors. A major federal law concerning bankruptcy in the USA is the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978. Chapter 7 deals with corporate bankruptcy; Chapter 9 involves procedures for municipal bankruptcy; and Chapter 13 pertains to individual bankruptcy. Chapter 11 deals with reorganization (can be either voluntary or involuntary).
Board of Directors: Individuals elected by the stockholders to govern a corporation.
Bond: A contract between a borrower and a lender. The borrower promises to pay a specified rate of interest for each period the bond is outstanding and repay the principal at the maturity date.
Bookkeeping: The act of systematically recording the financial transactions affecting a business.
Book Value: The net amount (original value plus or minus any adjustments such as depreciation) shown in the accounts for an asset, liability, or owners' equity item.
Break-even point: The volume point of sales at which revenues and costs are equal; a combination of sales and costs that will yield a no profit/no loss operation.
Budget: A formal statement of management's expectations of sales, expenses, volume, and other financial transactions of an organization. A budget is a tool for planning and control. In the beginning it can act as a plan and in the end it can act as control to measure performance against so that future plans can be improved. (Also, a piece of paper that is quoted when one department wants another department's money, and is ignored when a department needs more money than is in the budget. See also: inter-department rivalry.)
Business: An organization created with the objective of making a profit from the sale of goods or services.
Business Failure: According to law, business failure can be either "technical insolvency" or "bankruptcy." In technical insolvency a business is unable to meet current obligations even if the total assets exceed total liabilities. In bankruptcy, liabilities exceed the market value of the assets and a negative net worth exists. (See accountant's equation).

C
Calendar Year: An entity's reporting year, covering 12 months and ending on December 31. (See: Fiscal year)
Capital: Property or money used and owned by a business and used to acquire future income or benefits. (No relation to Washington, D. C. -- Hmmm, on second thought, perhaps there IS a relation!)
Capital Account: An account where an owner's or partners' interest in the business is recorded. It is increased by owner investment and net income and decreased by withdrawals and net losses. (When was the last time Washington was held accountable for anything?)
Capital Gain or Loss: The difference between the market and book value at purchase or other acquisition realized at the sale or disposition of a capital asset. (Washington's gain is your loss.)
Capital Expense: A capital expenditure is one that will benefit one year or more. It can increase the quantity or quality of services to be gained from the asset. It is charged to an asset account. (See also: Boondoggle, junket, Senate Investigatory Trip to Maui)
Capital Lease: Although the lessee does not legally own rental property, the property is theoretically acquired and recorded as an asset with the related liability.
Capital Stock: The ownership shares of a corporation authorized by its articles of incorporation, including preferred and common stock.
Cash Basis: A bookkeeping method that recognizes revenue and expenses at the time of cash receipt or payment. (Opposite of Accrual Basis.) (This is the same as your personal checkbook.)
Cash Flow: Generally refers to the difference between cash receipts and disbursements over a specific period of time. (We don't have a cash flow problem -- it flows REALLY WELL!)
CD Drive (or CD-ROM drive or CD-RW drive): A Compact Disc drive, used to read data CDs (also called CD-ROMs). A CD can store up to 650 Megabytes (millions of characters). These days, new programs and data are often distributed on CD-ROM, so a CD-Drive is almost mandatory. A CD-RW drive is able to write to special CD media (either CD-Recordable or CD-ReWritable). CD-Recordable media can be written only once, but can be read as often as you wish. CD-ReWritable media can be written multiple times (a minimum of 1000 times). Both types of media are available from office supply stores as well as computer stores. CD-R media is currently costing about $1.25 - $2.50 each, while CD-RW costs about $10 - $20 each. CD-RW drives are used both to backup data from your computer and to make data copies for transport to other computers. Be careful with CD-RW media - very few older CD-ROM drives can read these discs.
Certified Public Accountant: A designation given to an accountant who has passed a uniform CPA examination and has met other certifying requirements. CPA certificates are issued and monitored by state boards of accountancy or similar agencies.
Chart of Accounts: A listing (usually in account number order) of all accounts used by a company.
Charter: Also known as Articles of Incorporation. A document issued by a state that gives legal status to a corporation and details its specific rights, including the authority to issue a certain maximum number of shares of stock.
Common Stock: A class of stock issued by a corporation. It is the most frequently issued type of stock. It carries with it a voting right, however is secondary in priority to preferred stock in dividend and liquidation rights.
Compounding Period: The period of time for which interest is computed.
Consignment: In a consignment, the consignor (owner of the goods) transfers goods to the consignee. The consignor retains legal title and includes the goods in his inventory. The consignee is acting as an agent in an attempt to sell the goods. Although the consignee is temporarily holding the goods, the inventory is not an asset on his books. If a sale occurs, the consignee deducts from the selling price his commission and related expenses, remitting the balance to the consignor.
Corporation: A type of business organization chartered by a state and given many of the legal rights as a separate entity. Ownership is represented by transferable shares of stock.
Cost of Good Sold: COGS; The amount determined by subtracting the value of the ending merchandise inventory from the sum of the beginning merchandise inventory and the net purchases for the fiscal period.
Credit: An entry on the right side of a ledger account.
Current Assets: Current assets are those assets of a company that are expected to be converted to cash, sold, or consumed during the normal operating cycle of the business (usually one year). Examples are cash, accounts receivable, short-term investments, US government bonds, inventories, and prepaid expenses.
Current Liabilities: Liabilities to be paid within one year of the balance sheet date.
Current Ratio: Also known as Working Capital Ratio. A measure of liquidity of business. Equal to current assets divided by current liabilities.

D
Debit: An entry on the left side of a ledger account.
Depreciation: The expense recognized in writing off the cost of a plant or machine over its useful life, giving consideration to wear and tear, obsolescence, and salvage value. Methods vary. Examples are straight line (SL), accelerated methods such as sum-of-the-years digits (SYD), and double-declining balance (DDB) methods. Primarily accelerated depreciation is chosen for a business' tax expense but straight line is chosen for its financial reporting purposes.
Dividend: That portion of a corporation's earnings that is paid to the stockholders.
Drawings: Distribution to the owner(s) of a sole proprietorship or partnership.
Drawings Account: The account used to show the withdrawals of earnings by the owner(s) of a sole proprietorship or partnership.

E
Entrepreneur: One who takes on the financial risk of the initiation, operation and management of a business.
Earnings per Share: The computation of a corporation's earnings based on the number of stock shares outstanding at a given point in time.
Embezzlement: The act of an employee stealing money or assets of the company.

F
Factor: To sell accounts receivable at a discount before they are due.
Fair Market Value: The price at which a willing seller will sell, and a willing buyer will buy, when neither is under compulsion to sell or buy and both have reasonable knowledge of relevant facts.
FASB: Financial Accounting Standards Board. The private organization responsible for establishing the standards for financial accounting and reporting in the United States.
FIFO: First In First Out type of inventory valuation. The first goods purchased are assumed to be the first goods sold. (Proof that the Giant in Jack And The Beanstalk was actually an accountant: Fee FIFO Fum!)
Fiscal Year: A business' reporting year, covering a 12-month month period. (Not necessarily ending on December 31.)
Fixed Assets: Permanent assets of a company required for the regular conduct of business which will not be converted into cash during the next year. Examples are land, building, furniture and fixtures.
Fixed Cost: Fixed costs are operating expenses that are incurred when providing necessities for doing business and have no relation to the volume of production and sales (as opposed to "variable costs"). Examples are rent, property taxes, and interest expense.
FOB: Free-On-Board Destination. The seller of merchandise bears the shipping costs and maintains ownership until the merchandise is delivered to the buyer.
Franchise: A business that has been licensed to sell the product of a manufacturer or to offer a particular service in a given area.

G
GAAP: Generally Accepting Accounting Principles. A priority listing made up of statements of accounting principles issued by the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) and FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board)
General Journal: (GJ) A book or original entry in a double-entry system. The journal lists transactions and indicated accounts to which they are posted. The general journal includes all transactions which aren't included in specialized journals used for cash receipts, cash disbursements, and other common transactions.
General Ledger: (GL) A book in which monetary transactions of a business are posted (in the form of debits and credits) from a journal. It is the final record from which financial statements are prepared. The general ledger accounts are often the control accounts which report totals of details included in subsidiary ledgers.
Goodwill: An intangible asset that exists when a business is valued at more than the fair market value of its net assets. Goodwill is usually due to reputation, good customer relations, etc.
Gross Profit: The amount by which the net sales exceed the cost of goods sold. (Also, profit made by a novelty store on plastic dog doodle.)
Gross Sales: Total recorded sales before deducting any sales discounts or sales returns and allowances. (Also, sales of plastic dog doodle made by a novelty store.)
H
Hardware: A computer and associated physical equipment (as opposed to "software").
Hard Disk (or Hard Drive): The "file cabinet" of the machine. This is the memory that your computer will use to store the results from the programs (and to store those programs). Hard Disk is currently specified in Gigabytes (billions of characters). Single disk drives are currently from 6 Gigabytes to 40 Gigabytes, and you can usually have more than one disk drive in your computer (but, if this is your first computer, stick with just one drive).

I
Internal Control: Policies and procedures designed to provide reasonable assurance that a company's objectives will be achieved. It consists of control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communications and monitoring. (That which you need to exercise to avoid kicking the idiot in front of you who desperately deserves it.)
Interest: The cost of the use of money.
Interest Rate: The cost of money expressed as an annual percentage.
Inventory: Goods held for sale or resale.
Inventory Turnover Ratio: A measure of the management of inventory computed by dividing cost of goods sold (COGS) by the average inventory for a period of time.
Invoice: An itemized list of goods shipped or services rendered with cost.

J
Journal: A book or original entry in a double-entry bookkeeping system. The journal lists all transactions and indicates the accounts to which they are posted.
Journal Entry: A recording of a transaction where debits equal credits.
Just-in-time Inventory: An inventory system that minimizes inventory costs. It arranges for suppliers to deliver small quantities of raw materials just before those units are needed in production. Storing, insuring, and handling raw materials are costs that add no value to the product, and so are minimized in a just in time system.

K
Kiting: Drawing a bank check on insufficient funds to take advantage of the lag time (time interval) required for collection. Certainly not ethical, and under some circumstances very illegal!

L
Laptop Computer: A computer designed specifically to operate without being plugged into a wall for power. These are commonly used by business people who are an the road a lot. Expect a laptop computer to cost 50% - 200% more than an equivalent desktop computer. See also Palmtop Computer.
Leases: Long-term non-cancelable commitments. In a lease, the lessee acquires the right to use property owned by the lessor. Even though no legal transfer of title occurs, many leases transfer substantially all the risks and ownership benefits.
LIFO: "Last In First Out" assumption of inventory valuation.
Limited Liability: The legal protection given to stockholders of a corporation. A stockholder's liability extends only to the total of his capital contribution.
Limited Partnership: A limited partnership is one in which one or more partners (but not all) have limited liability up to their investment to creditors in the event of the failure of the business. The general partner manages the business. Limited partners are not involved in daily activities.
Liquidation: The process of dissolving a business by selling the assets, paying the debts, and distributing the remaining equity to the owners.
Liquidity: The availability of cash or ability to obtain it quickly. Also used to determine debt repayment ability
Long-term Liabilities: These a liabilities in your business that are due in more than one year. For example mortgage payable.
Lower Cost or Market: LCM. A method of valuing assets at the lower of its original cost or current market value.

M
Memory: See RAM
Minimum Wage: The lowest compensation you are allowed to pay an employee for hourly work. It is defined by Federal and state laws. State laws may be more restrictive than Federal law, and certainly may differ.
Modem: A device used to connect your computer to other computers by using telephone lines. Modems are rated at their transfer rate (rated in Kilobytes per second (KBPS)). Current designs are 28.8 KBPS, 33.6 KBPS, and 56 KBPS. While faster may seem better, the higher speed is only available when a very good connection is made between your computer and the one you are calling. Most modems sold today are 56 KBPS, and automatically slow down for poor phone connections.
Modified Accrual: An accounting method that is a combination of cash and accrual basis. Recognition is given to revenue when it is available and measurable. Expenditures are usually reflected in the accounting period in which the liability is incurred.
Monitor: See Video Monitor.
Mouse: A small pod-shaped device used to move the "pointer" or cursor on your screen. A variation of this device is a "rollerball", which has a small ball inset on the top of the device; the user moves the cursor by moving the ball around, usually with one's thumb.
Mutual Agency: The right of all partners in a partnership to act as agents for the normal business operations of the partnership, with the authority to bind it to business agreements.

N
Net Assets: Owners Equity. The ownership interest in the assets of an entity. Total assets minus Total liabilities.
Net Income: The difference between your business' total revenues and its total expenses. This caption and amount is usually found at the bottom of a company Income Statement (also known as "The Bottom Line").
Net Operating Loss: A net operating loss results when business expenses exceed business income for the operating period.
Nonprofit Organization: An entity without a profit objective, oriented toward providing services efficiently and effectively.
O
Operating Lease: A simple rental agreement.
Operating Leverage: The extent to which fixed costs are part of a company's cost structure; the higher the proportion of fixed costs, the faster income increases or decreases with sales volumes.
Operating Performance Ratio: An overall measure of the efficiency of operations during a period computed by dividing net income by net sales.
Operating System (also OS): The environment your programs will use to accomplish their work. Currently, there are 3 popular operating systems: Windows, Macintosh, and Unix. Windows comes in two "flavors", NT and 95 (or its more recent incarnation, Windows 98). Unix has several variants, of which the most popular are currently Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris. Your computer must have an operating system.
Opportunity Cost: A basic term from the disciplines of economics and accounting. In these circles the acceptable definition of the word is, "The advantage forgone as the result of the acceptance of an alternative."
Outstanding Stock: Issued stock that is still being held by investors.
Owners' Equity. Net Assets. The ownership interest in the assets of an entity, equal total assets minus total liabilities.

P
Palmtop Computer: A computer designed to be exceptionally small and extremely stingy with power. Palmtops are usually very special purpose machines designed to be "accessories" to a more standard desktop computer. A common use for a palmtop is to be a salesman's reference (with latest information about the company's product line, customer information and so on) and allow limited information entry.
Partnership: A Partnership is an unincorporated business that has more than one owner.
Patent: An exclusive right granted for 17 years by the federal government to manufacture and sell an invention. Patents can cover all sorts of inventions, from physical devices to chemical processes, and even software algorithms. The only restrictions are that the invention be novel and not obvious to current practitioners of the art. Perpetual motion machines are specifically disallowed from getting a patent.
Petty Cash Fund: A small amount of cash kept on hand used for making miscellaneous payments.
Prepaid Expenses: Amounts paid in advance to a creditor or vendor for goods or services. Insurance premiums are a good example. Prepaid Expenses are a current asset because you paid for goods or services you have not yet received.
Present Value of $1: The value today of $1 to be received or paid at some future date given a specified interest rate. (Also, according to Dennis Miller, a bottle of water and 20 minutes of long distance call.)
Printer: A device for printing results from your computer on paper or other "hard" media. While there are many kinds of printers, most these days fall into two groups. Inkjet printers use a technique to "spray" the ink onto your paper. Practically all inkjet printers these days can print in color, and can print from 2 to 12 pages per minute. Laser printers use a combination of copier technology tied with a laser to essentially "copy" the image onto the paper. While color laser printers are available, they are expensive. Laser printers can print from 15 to 50 pages per minute. Some printers (usually laser printers) are capable of being tied directly to a network.
Processor: The "engine" of your computer. If you're getting a Mac, you generally don't get a choice - you'll get a PowerPC (these days identified with a letter/number pair, like G3). If you're buying a Windows machine, you can choose from Intel, AMD, Cyrix, or other processors. I've named the current top 3 vendors - Cyrix processors (MxII) are usually in "low-end" (inexpensive) machines, while Intel (Celeron, Pentium-II and Pentium-III) and AMD (K6-2, K6-III, and Athlon) cover the map. Unless you have a strong preference, allow your consultant to help you choose the processor.
Processor Speed: How fast the "engine" runs. While faster is usually better, keep in mind that you will pay more for faster processors. Speed is specified in Megahertz (millions of cycles per second), and current processors are running in the 300 to 600 Megahertz range. Unless you desperately need it, avoid the very fastest processors; they are expensive and sometimes unstable. Also avoid the very slowest processors, unless you know that your computer can be upgraded to a faster processor if you should so desire.
Profitability: A company's ability to generate revenues in excess of the costs incurred in producing those revenues.
Profit and Loss Statement: Also known as an Income Statement, or P & L. This statement shows your revenues and expenses for a specific period of time.
Proprietorship: A business owned by one person.
Prospectus: A prospectus is prepared by an entity that wishes to issue securities to investors. Included in the prospectus are financial statements, disclosures (e.g. lawsuit), business plans, overview of corporate operations, and information regarding officers. A "red herring" is a preliminary prospectus that has not been finalized.
Public Companies: Corporations whose stock is publicly traded.

Q
Qualified Opinion: An opinion issued when an auditor determines his audit has been limited in scope or the entity has not followed GAAP. (Has nothing to do with the qualifications of the auditor.)

R
RAM: (Random Access Memory) The "conscious memory" of the computer. This is the memory the computer uses while it is running any program. This is specified in Megabytes (millions of characters), and 32 Megabytes should be considered a minimum for any computer. High-end computers intended for serious engineering problems (mechanical design, custom integrated circuit design) or large database handlers may need thousands of megabytes (Gigabytes) to meet performance goals. RAM is also measured in speed, usually either in Megahertz or Nanoseconds; let your consultant choose the appropriate speed of RAM for your computer.
Reconciliation: A determination of the items necessary to bring the balances of two or more related accounts or statements into agreement. (Kinda like you and your SO.)
Recovery Period: (Usually about two weeks for the flu.) The time period designated by Congress for depreciating business assets. Can also be thought of as the "life" of an asset (but is usually shorter).
Retained Earnings: Profits of the business that have not been paid out to the owners as of the balance sheet date. The earnings have been "retained" for use in the business. Retained Earnings is an account in the equity section of the balance sheet.
Return: A key consideration in the investment decision. It is the reward for investing. The investor must compare the expected return for a given investment with the risk involved.
Return on Investment: ROI. A measure of operating performance and efficiency in using assets computed by dividing net income by average total assets.
Revenues: Increases in a company's resources from the sale of goods or services.

S
S-Corporations: Formerly known as Subchapter S Corporations. A corporation recognized as a regular corporation under state law but is granted special status for federal income tax purposes.
Salvage or Residual Value: Estimated value (or actual price) of an asset at the end of its useful life after disposal costs.
Shareholders or Stockholders: Individuals or organizations that own shares of stock of a corporation.
Solvency: A company's long-run ability to meet all financial obligations.
Sole Proprietorship: A business owned by one person. (A business owned by a fish?)
Sticky: A website that can keep a visitor on it by providing a lot of useful, interesting or entertaining content. It's usually measured in how much time the average viewer spends on the site in a month.

T
Tape Drive: A device to read and write data on magnetic tape. Currently there are several types of tape drives that can store from 10 Gigabytes (billions of characters) to 3.2 Terabytes (trillions of characters). Tape drives are commonly used to backup the hard disk and for transporting data to other computers.
Trade credit: Credit one firm grants to another firm for the purchase of goods or services.
Transactions: Exchange of goods or services between businesses or individuals. Can also be other events having an economic impact on a business.
Trial Balance: A listing of all account balances that provides a test of whether total debits equals total credits.

U
Unearned Revenue: Money received by a business before it is earned. It is a liability to your company until it is earned. (Money from a robbery?)
Useful Life: The life that an asset is expected to be useful to the company.

V
Value: The worth of something. Usually defined more precisely as to what particular value of the item being determined, such as "Fair Market Value."
Video Card: A device for the digital signals your computer "thinks" in to signals compatible with your monitor (see Video Monitor). Currently, bigger better faster video cards are dedicated to three dimensional (3D) pictures. If you are buying a computer for normal business use, buy the lowest end video card you can - the 3D stuff won't help you a bit. The exception to this might be if you are buying the computer for mechanical drawing or video processing (for TV, for example). In these cases, check the software you are going to buy to see if a particular video card can help. Quite often, a video card can be an inexpensive way to make vast improvements to certain programs' performance.
Video Monitor: A fancy name for the TV-like screen that you use to view your programs. The Apple iMac comes with the monitor built in. Most computers, though, require a separate monitor. Monitors are measured across the diagonal of the screen, and the most commons sizes are 13, 14, 15, 17, 19 and 21 inch monitors. As you might expect, the larger the screen, the more it costs. Avoid the 13 and 14 inch monitors unless you are extremely strapped for space. 15 inch monitors are common, but I find that I get headaches if I use one for too often. 17 inch monitors are a good size for most uses. 19 inch and 21 inch monitors are better for engineering use where lots of small details on the screen are important.
Video Processor: See Video Card.

W
Working Capital: Current Assets minus Current Liabilities. Some business owners like to think of assets being a use of working capital, and liabilities and capital contributions as being a source of working capital.

X
No entries

Y
Yield: The return on investment that an investor receives from dividends or interest expressed as a percentage of the current market price of the security (or if already owned, price paid)..

Z
Z-Score: A z-score is a total arrived at by combining several normal business ratios. The weight given each ratio produces a score which is said to indicate the health of a business. A z-score below 1.5 usually means that the company is close to bankruptcy.