Cash flow and Trial balance are two different yet connected terms that are familiar to everyone involved in the business. Discussions have been going around for a very long time to decide which is better or which one to trust. Take another look at both before moving on to conclusions based on the knowledge you already have. 

Cash Flow 

The simplest definition of cash flow is the movement of money into and out of business. A cash flow statement is a financial report that notes the sources of income and expense details of the company in each period. The income is categorized as Cash inflow while the expenses are generally called outflows. It is as important as any other financial statement. 

• Sales revenue 
• Interests from investments 
• Other investments 
• Royalties 
• Licensing agreements and more.  

A cash flow statement provides a detailed image of the company’s performance for the period. It also assists in; 

• Study of liquidity and solvency 
• Position of cash 
• Allocation of cash 
• Short and long-term planning 
• Efficient cash management 
• Comparative study 
• Analyzing cash flows from different activities separately.  

The cashflow report also consists of operating, Financing, and investing activities. Inflow and outflow are the subparts of operating activities.

Trial Balance 

Trial balance is a report that shows the balances of each general ledger account in the company. Also, it is to be noted that a trial balance is not a proper financial statement, but it aids as the base in preparing the same. The accounts shown on a trial balance include: 

• Assets 
• Liabilities 
• Equity 
• Revenues 
• Expenses 
• Gains
• Losses 

A trial balance is different from a general ledger. While the general ledger reflects all the transactions by the account, the trial balance shows only the account totals. Separate transactions are not mentioned in a trial balance. It is prepared only for internal use only.  

Uses of Trial Balance 

• Trial balance statement assists in identifying the balance of debit and credit entries in the general ledger.  
• Any possible errors can be identified and rectified.  
• Additionally, it also helps in making the necessary adjusting entries to the general ledger.  
• Trial balance is used as a basis for preparing financial statements.  

Cash Flow or Trial Balance? 

The Cash Flow statement is a record of the inflow and outflow of cash in the company. It aids in understanding and analyzing financial performance, which in turn assists in financial planning and influences making the right decisions. The trial balance is an overall record, and it is not even a proper financial statement.  

In conclusion, cash flow statements help companies better in finance-related matters.  

Accounting principles or standards are basically the rules and concepts a company should keep in mind while reporting financial statements and information.

IFRS is the set of accounting framework which serves as a basis to regulate and organize financial information. IFRS proposes guidelines and rules that ensure companies follow a standard accounting system. This helps your company to stay transparent and uniform in the financial statements.  This eventually makes it easier for investors to examine and take essential information from the company’s financial reports. Following these accounting principles also help to understand trend data and budgeting.

IFRS is a decree specified by the SCA, Securities and Commodities Authority, and the Central bank of the UAE. Likewise, the central bank of UAE advises that banks in the 7 states of UAE must follow IRS when maintaining financial reports.

GAAP is another accounting standard followed internationally, although UAE does not have its own GAAP. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP comprises of the important rules and guidelines to prepare financial reports and perform accounting tasks.

Accounting Principles In UAE

The standard accounting principle generally followed in UAE is the IFRS, International Financial Reporting Standards.

IFRS is the set of accounting framework which serves as a basis to regulate and organize financial information. IFRS proposes guidelines and rules that ensure companies follow a standard accounting system. This helps your company to stay transparent and uniform in the financial statements.  This eventually makes it easier for investors to examine and take essential information from the company’s financial reports. Following these accounting principles also help to understand trend data and budgeting.

IFRS is a decree specified by the SCA, Securities and Commodities Authority, and the Central bank of the UAE. Likewise, the central bank of UAE advises that banks in the 7 states of UAE must follow IRS when maintaining financial reports.

GAAP is another accounting standard followed internationally, although UAE does not have its own GAAP. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP comprises of the important rules and guidelines to prepare financial reports and perform accounting tasks.

If you are a startup and new to businesses, these legal matters might sound too complicated and overloaded for you. So, to ease off things, we can help you take care of your accounting matters in the simplest way.

Don’t you think it’s nice that you can take care of your business even if you are away? How would you like it to know how your business is doing well even when you are on a holiday? Well, real-time accounting gives you the power to access your financial data wherever you are.

Real-time accounting is the accessibility of your financial data anywhere, anytime. Today, at a time when you can access anything at the touch of your fingers, the significance of real-time data is higher than ever. Now,  let’s learn how real-time accounting can benefit your business.

1. Real-time profit and loss accounts

You are running a business to gain profit. If you don’t earn a profit after a certain amount of time, you run out of funds to grow your business further. Every business gauges its growth with a profit and loss statement, though calculating it only at a certain time can delay your accounting process. Knowing the real-time profit and loss status of your company can drastically improve your business in terms of decision-making, funding requirements, and more.

2. Taking Strategic decisions

What’s better than making planned and proactive decisions for your company. When you know how your business is performing in real-time, you are able to make strategic decisions that help your organization to be more proactive than reactive. It also increases the efficiency in the management of your business, thereby increasing profitability.

3. Meeting Compliances Immediately

For most companies, meeting compliances might be the least priority with everything else to manage on the go. But ignoring it can turn out to be a costly mistake, unfortunately. When you enable real-time accounting for your organization, you get your tax reports instantly and accurately. Filing the statutory tax returns accordingly allows you to stay out of unwanted fines or penalties

4. No Waiting Till Year-End 

With real-time accounting, all your accounting information is updated and available in hand. You do not have to get worried about missing bills at the end of the month or year. It also eliminates hours of sittings with your accountants and rather delivers your business finance status instantly.

5. Tracking Expenses Instantly 

You can take control of your business by tracking where your money is going and how much you are spending. As the saying goes, “the easiest way of becoming bankrupt is by not paying attention to your expenses”, you understand the importance of keeping track of your cash flow on a daily basis. It also enables you to stick to a budget rather than spending unnecessarily.

So, if your business is still running on traditional accounting methods, there are high chances that you will be missing out on these benefits. Switch your business to a smart real-time accounting system now and take your company to an all-time high.

Accounting automation takes the most manual elements of an accountant’s work and does them automatically. Also known sometimes as computerized accounting software, these systems do the numerical calculations and transaction tracking for you. 

Accountants have used different software in one form or another for decades. Before, software like Excel etc. were used to automate and enhance all sorts of tasks. But the new tools have taken this a step further. 

Most of the accounting system software now delivers advanced technology that takes your business to the next level. Learn some of the of benefits of automated accounting systems. 

Saves time 

The most tangible benefit of automating your accounting is the time you can save for doing productive things. All the manual works your organization used to do is now automated and gives you more time on your hands. Most businesses spend more time during the financial seasons and if you have all the financial data organized in hand, the job can be done in a jiffy. 

Data accuracy 

Accounting automation is the key to data accuracy. More the application is automated, more accurate your data is. It can be considered as simple as, less human intervention reduces human prone errors. Computerized accounting can generate numerous transactions in a few seconds with few or no errors.  

Higher efficiency 

Efficiency is the bottom line of every organization. A highly efficient environment gets things done faster than the normal required time. Automating your business increases the efficiency of your team by focusing on the important things and leaving out the rest.  

Security 

Accounting automation is a godsend for bookkeeping where the proof of work can be digitally secured. Automating your accounting platform can provide consistent security and monitoring, including vulnerability analysis and management. 

Real Time Data 

Real time data is inevitable today as every business is happening on the go. Real time systems help to achieve results instantly and respond immediately. Automated systems deliver real time information to the users to get faster insights and take proactive decisions. 

Data analytics is the process of analyzing the raw data in order to draw conclusions to make informed decisions. A set of data gives valuable information about the subject. It quantitatively and qualitatively informs you about what happened, why it happened, what should you do, when should you take the step and where should you apply and more, 

In a business system, getting accurate forecasting is indispensable to run successfully. Data analytics reveal trends and patterns that are crucial for taking the next big decision in the business.  

You might have already heard about an upsurge in the demand of data scientists nowadays. Although, accountants were already performing as data scientists by analyzing, calculating and predicting the financial outcomes. 

Data analytics in Accounting 

With big data driving the business world, accounting domain has started embracing technologies that help them extract valuable information from data sets. This incorporation of data analytics in bookkeeping has increased the efficiency, agility and demand for the accounting platforms. 

To get a clearer picture of the big data, let’s know about the 4 types of data analytics. 

Descriptive analysis 

Descriptive analysis defines the “what is” element of the data. It describes the information and classifies it accordingly. Though descriptive analysis is often misunderstood for data analytics itself, it is an important factor to identify the underlying problems. 

Diagnostic analytics 

In diagnostic analytics, your data is diagnosed deeply. Unlike descriptive analysis which describes the problem in a simple manner, the diagnostic analysis takes an in-depth analysis of the data. This intensive analysis helps to understand the underlying reasons behind certain issues or problems.  

Predictive analytics 

Predictive analysis is the process of predicting future outcomes based on historical data, machine learning, etc. With the help of advanced technologies, organizations are now able to reliably foresee insights.  

Prescriptive analytics

Prescriptive analytics urges you to take action along with predicting the future. This makes prescriptive analytics most significant among the types of data analytics. Rather than just monitoring the data, this method prescribes actionable insights which makes it more efficient.  

Importance of Data Analytics in Accounting Today 

Accounting has been from the ages a way of analyzing the data to make better decisions. You might have already heard about an upsurge in the demand for data scientists nowadays. It is the result of the rapid increase in the volume of data, the importance of big data in business, and more. 

Change of consumer behaviors, buying methods, internet usage, digital shift, etc. Although accountants were already performing as data scientists by analyzing, calculating, and predicting the financial outcomes, the age has come where they have to seek more specialized way of doing so. 

Adopting the mentioned types of data analytics to analyze your accounting data can certainly change the way you gather insights from the data. With tougher business scenarios, it’s high time that businesses start using accounting platforms that embrace advanced technologies like blockchain, AI, IoT, machine learning to make better business decisions and to perform easier & efficient accounting. 

Accounting terms are fairly confusing with their almost similar-sounding names and combinations. One among them is the accounts payables and accounts receivables. As literal as it sounds, it means an amount of money to be paid and received respectively. Although, a slight mistake can create an imbalance in the accounting equation. So, it is important to be aware of the difference between the two significant accounting factors, accounts payables and accounts receivables.  

Accounts Payable

Accounts payable is the amount of money a company need to pay on credit to its suppliers or creditors for the purchase of goods or services in a short period of time. It is shown as liability in the company’s balance sheet. Stock, services or utilities may be considered as Accounts payable. 

Accounts payable comes under current liabilities as it is not paid in advance to the creditors rather it is recorded as a credit. Accounts payable is an important element to manage company’s performance. If AP is high, it means that the company has been purchasing in credit excessively instead of payment as cash. If AP is low, then the company is paying more money upfront for the goods or service they use. The accounts payable balances the company’s cash inflow.  

Accounts Receivable

Accounts receivable is the amount of money owed to a company by its customers on credit in return for the goods or services received by them. The amount to be received is recorded in the company’s general ledger as current assets. The money is usually collected in a year or less from the debtor. As it is a current asset, the accounts receivables measure the company’s liquidity and ability to conduct short-term covenants with seamless cash flow. 

An accounting software is an application widely used by accountants and businessmen to organize and manage their finances in one place. Normally, accounting software comes with a myriad of features that are tailored to all business needs. It helps businesses to keep track of their accounts.  

Most of the software allows the user to create and send invoices, manage expenses, record transactions, reconcile bank, filing taxes, generate reports, and much more. Accounting software has an edge over traditional accounting process by delivering comprehensive data reports. These analysis reports are the key element to make important decisions and allow efficient forecasting. 

There are accounting platforms that offer free accounting services along with accountant consulting. They help to develop small businesses by enabling them to stay on top of their finances. Today, Many accounting platforms have adopted advanced technology like cloud computing, blockchain, and triple entry which ensure secure and reliable bookkeeping.  

What Does an Accounting System Do? 

Manages cash flow – from supplier expenses to customer income, an accounting system manages and streamlines every cash inflow and outflow. While older methods of accounting require hours of effort for manual entries, the automated accounting systems make faster entries and better organization. 

Generate finance reports – with all the input data in the system, accounting software generates efficient financial reports. It mostly comprises of profit and loss report, trial balance report etc with easily comprehensible data.  

While technology has disrupted most of the industries with its easy and effortless processing, accounting and financing industry is still reluctant to adopt futuristic innovations. Though with the advent of advanced technology happening around, we can foresee some real paradigm shifts that will revolutionize the face of accounting in the near future.  

Cloud Accounting 

As Cloud accounting is already in effect in the past few years, a significant amount of users have been conveniently adopting it. It has proved its efficiency and easy accessibility with time. Though most of the accounting platforms offer traditional on-premise services that possess confidential data storage systems, the flexilibity and real-time work flows of cloud systems is a godsend to accountants. With this they are able to save a great amount of time and effort.  

According to a study of Flexi, ‘Companies using cloud accounting has 5 times more clients than companies without it’. The great efficiency of cloud computing translates into higher business performance.  

Blockchain Technology enabled Accounting 

Blockchain has evolved into a disruptive technology leaving other record-keeping technologies in the dust. Initially designed for the mining of digital currency, blockchain technology was later applied to several other potential domains like banking, investment, voting, and more. And now, it’s bringing a paradigm shift in the face of accounting with its reliable features.    

According to Blythe Masters, “The blockchain is the financial challenge of our time. It is going to change the way that our financial world operates”. 

Simply put, blockchain and accounting is a perfect mix to bring effective financial operations. Now being in the incubation period, unleashing the full potential of blockchain can revamp the accounting management in the upcoming years. 

Triple entry accounting system is a new form of bookkeeping that emerged as an alternative to double-entry system. The triple entry system works by the logging of three entries during a transaction. The credit entry, debit entry, and an additional entry of receipt. The third entry assures credibility to the transaction thereby securing the financial operations. 

The advent of digital record keeping has necessitated proof of work due to its easy data tampering vulnerability. While double entry system allows the parties to record entries separately in the ledger, the triple entry system introduces a common ledger between the parties. This creates transparency in the transactions, vouch for reliability, and enhances trust between the participants. 

Let’s see how triple entry system secure your business by introducing a receipt. Before that look at the working of double entry system and it’s faulty nature. 

Working of Double Entry System 

Let us consider a payment transaction between Alice and Bob 

Bob gives a payment of $100 to Alice. Both of them record the entries in their separate ledgers as below. Bob records in his books the debited amount of $100 in Alice’s account. At the same time, Alice records the credited amount of $100 in Bob’s account to her books.

While returning the money, Alice debit Bob’s account as $100, and the closing balance becomes $0. Simultaneously, after receiving the money, Bob records the credit amount of $100 in Alice’s account. This makes the closing balance of Bob’s book $0 and the account is closed. 

This is an ideal scenario during a transaction in a double entry system. Though, the double entry system is more prone to errors, loopholes and fraudulent activities. Let’s look at the same scenario but with a common flaw that happens with double entry system. 

Error in Double Entry System 

Here, while giving the money, Bob records $100 correctly in his books while Alice misses a zero and enter it as $10. Now, during the repayment, Alice gives $10 and closes Bob’s Account. However, as Bob received only $10 instead of $100, Alice’s Account in Bob’s book will still show a remaining balance of $90.  

This is one of the common errors that happen in a double entry system. Here, a minor error or deliberate tampering of the record could result in a mishap in the ledgers. Records also can be fairly easily falsified under a double-entry system.

Discrepancies may be found eventually through painstaking auditing, but the process is difficult, time-consuming, and far from foolproof. This also leads to distrust between the parties and results in hostile relations. 

The reason of these errors is that the ledgers are recorded independently by the parties. Here arises the necessity of a common ledger through which any error or discrepancy can be found out and resolved easily. This is when we introduce a receipt between the parties. This element of receipt or proof of work converts the double entry system to the triple entry system.  

SimpleAccounts’ blockchain enabled triple entry system ensures secure and efficient business financing.

The finance domain consists of its own accounting terms and definitions that maybe incomprehensible to laymen. You often go baffled after sitting with your accountant or while going through your accounting software. Although, a business owner or CEO must definitely be aware of these terms and what it means to take more informed decisions. Having knowledge on these aspects help for effective communication on financial matters as well as to run a successful business. We have curated such 25 accounting terms and definitions that will be useful for you in the long run. 

1. Accounts Payable 

Accounts Payable are short-term dues owed by your firm to its creditors. It is the amount payable for the goods and services purchased on credit that needs to be paid in a short period of time.  Accounts payable comes under Liabilities. Stock, services, or utilities may be considered as Accounts payable. 

2. Accounts Receivable 

Account receivable is the amount owed to your company for the goods or services used on credit by the customers. Account receivable is charted as current asset in the balance sheet.  

3. Admin Expense 

Admin expenses or administrative expenses are expenses your company incurs which is not specifically bound to any function like production, manufacture or sales. As mentioned, these expenses are not related to any specific department or unit but to the whole organization. 

E.g.  Salary of the senior executives 

        General expenses – IT utility expenses 

4. Assets 

Assets are tangible and intangible resources your company owns that produce value in the future. Assets are generally reported on a company’s balance sheet. It is brought out to bring benefit to the operations of the organization. 

Example of assets  

Tangible Assets – cash, equipment, Land, Property, Tools, vehicles 

Intangible assets – stock, debtors, prepaid expenses, copyrights, patents, and trademarks, account receivables, bank accounts 

5. Balance Sheet

A balance sheet presents the company’s assets, liabilities, and shareholder’s equity. A balance sheet is one of the key reports to evaluate a business’ performance. The balance sheet gives the picture of what the company owns, owes, and investment amount. 

6. Bank Reconciliation 

Bank Reconciliation is a process that matches the cash balance in your company’s books of account with the corresponding cash balance in the bank account. Bank reconciliation should be conducted at regular intervals to ensure that your account records are accurate. It helps to detect fraud and cash distortion. 

7. Contact 

A contact in accounting is any person or company associated with your company you need to keep track of. The Contact can be a Supplier or Customer or both.  

8. Cost Of Goods Sold 

Costs of goods sold (COGS) refers to the amount which includes cost of materials and labor that incurred to produce the goods or service. It is the answer to, how much it costs to create a product. Cost of goods sold includes direct material and labor expenses that make up the production of an item. 

9. Current Liabilities 

Current liabilities represent the short-term obligations of a company to be paid to the creditors within a year. It is an account payable which requires full payment within the current accounting period.  

Current liabilities come under liabilities in the balance sheet. It is considered as the payment for revenue generated from functional activities of the company. 

10. Detailed General Ledger 

Detailed general ledger is the fundamental report of all your business activities. It contains all the debit and credit transactions performed by the company. It is the summary of your business transactions. 

11. Dividend 

Dividend is the distribution of portion of your company’s earnings to a particular division of the shareholders. It is typically determined by the board of directors of the company. Dividend can be given in the form of cash or stock. 

12. Equity 

Equity is the residual value of the owner’s interest in a company after all the debts are paid off. Equity is generally referred as shareholders’ equity for corporations and owner’s equity for sole proprietorship. 

How to calculate equity: 

Equity = Assets – Liabilities 

13. Expense 

An expense of a company or an individual is the cost incurred by the attempts to generate revenue. Expense is the money spent in the activities for making profit while running a business. 

14. Income Receipts 

An income receipt contains the details of the cash received by your company. It often acts as a proof slip to show that the money has been paid. The income receipts section under income contains a list of all the income receipts of your company as a reflection of the paid invoices. 

15. Invoice

An invoice is a document or bill issued by you to the customer notifying the payment of goods or services. Payment terms include the transaction list, payment amount and date, and due amount to be paid too.  Invoicing is important as it enables quick payment of the products provided by you.    

16. Journal 

Journal is a record of all the financial transactions of your business sorted by date. Also known as book of original entry, journal helps in further transfer or reconciliation of the data.  

An entry in Journal gets updated automatically when a transaction happens as well as a new journal can be added manually. 

17. Liabilities  

Liabilities are the financial responsibilities a company owes to its suppliers or contacts. It is the existing obligations of the company, based on past transactions, intended to meet in the future. Liabilities also referred to as ‘payables’ are found on a company’s balance sheet. On a balance sheet, Liabilities are categorized according to the due time of the obligation – Long term liabilities and current liabilities. 

Current liabilities: Current liabilities are financial obligations payable within a year. 

Other current liabilities: Other current liabilities are those current liabilities that are not listed into any specific category on the balance sheet. 

Other liabilities: Other liabilities are liabilities that a company must pay but that are too small to record separately on a balance sheet. 

Long term liabilities: Long term liabilities are those liabilities that are not due until at least a year later. 

18. Opening Balance 

Opening balance is the initial amount of money available in the beginning of an accounting period. It could be the amount that is brought forward from the end of a previous accounting session or as a new start. 

19. Other Current Liabilities 

Other current liabilities are those current liabilities that are not listed into any specific category on the balance sheet. 

20. Purchase Receipt 

A purchase receipt contains the details of the cash spent by your company. It serves as a basis to show that the money has been paid. The Purchase Receipts section under Expense consists of a list of all the payment receipts of your company as a reflection of the paid invoices. 

21. Product

Product is the goods or services involved with your company. Every business places reliance on products to produce revenue. This section functions to track goods and services provided and taken by your company. A list of all the products related to your business can be viewed here. 

22. Product Category  

A product category is a group of products providing similar benefits. Product category represents a type of product or service that help your organization to organize your products. Categorizing products according to similarity provides insights into marketing trends and customer experiences. 

23. Profit and Loss Report 

The profit and loss report or the income report details the total income and expenses of your business at a given point of time. It gives a financial overview of your company by measuring the profit by cutting the expenses from income. 

24. Trial Balance Report 

The trial balance report is a document that lists the closing balances of each general ledger account of the company. It helps to find the disparities in the sum total of your accounts and ensure that all your accounts are in balance. 

25. VAT

VAT is a type of tax levied on good and services at each stage of its sale, initiating from the production stage to the final consumer of the product.