Accounting Basics

The purpose of this blog was originally to help aspiring accountants study for the CPA Exam. This unavoidably involves advanced and heavily technical material, and may scare away beginner's looking for insight on basic concepts. In order to appeal to a wider audience, I'm going to include some posts on the basics of accounting and build on that. The general outline for the next few posts will explain:

1. the fundamental accounting equation
2. assets, liabilities and equity
3. income and expenses
4. debits and credits, double-entry bookkeeping
5. financial statements - the balance sheet
6. financial statements - the income statement
7. financial statements - statement of cash flows
8. financial statements - statement of retained earnings

This is the plan for now but may change as feedback comes in. I will provide explanations of my own as well as link to other resources I find helpful. Accounting, like the alphabet or the decimal number system, takes practice and repetition. Starting out, some concepts may be difficult to grasp, but with enough practice, you will work your way to countless "a-ha" moments. There is a learning curve, and with enough practice you can get over it. And it will be glorious.