Basic Principles of Accounting
1. Business Entity
A business is considered a separate entity from the owner(s) and should be treated separately. Any personal transactions of its owner should not be recorded in the business accounting book, vice versa. Unless the owner’s personal transaction involves adding and/or withdrawing resources from the business.
2. Going Concern
It assumes that an entity will continue to operate indefinitely. In this basis, assets are recorded based on their original cost and not on market value. Assets are assumed to be used for an indefinite period of time and not intended to be sold immediately
3. Monetary Unit
The business financial transactions recorded and reported should be in monetary unit, such as INR,US Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Euro, etc. Thus, any non-financial or non-monetary information that cannot be measured in a monetary unit are not recorded in the accounting books, but instead, a memorandum will be used.
4. Historical Cost
All business resources acquired should be valued and recorded based on the actual cash equivalent or original cost of acquisition, not the prevailing market value or future value. The exception to the rule is when the business is in the process of closure and liquidation.
5. Matching Concept
This principle requires that revenue recorded, in a given accounting period, should have an equivalent expense recorded, in order to show the true profit of the business.
6. Accounting Period
This principle entails a business to complete the whole accounting process of a business over a specific operating time period. It may be monthly, quarterly, or annually. For the annual accounting period, it may follow a Calendar or Fiscal Year.
7. Conservatism
This principle states that given two options in the valuation of business transactions, the amount recorded should be the lower rather than the higher value.
8. Consistency
This principle ensures consistency in the accounting procedures used by the business entity from one accounting period to the next. It allows fair comparison of financial information between two accounting periods.
9. Materiality
Ideally, business transactions that may affect the decision of a user of financial information are considered important or material, thus, must be reported properly. This principle allows errors or violations of accounting valuation involving an immaterial and small amounts of recorded business transactions.
10. Objectivity
This principle requires recorded business transactions should have some form of impartial supporting evidence or documentation. Also, it entails that bookkeeping and financial recording should be performed with independence, that’s free of bias and prejudice.
Golden Rules of Accounting :-
A] Real Accounts:-
- Debit what comes in.2) Credit what goes out.
B] Personal Accounts :-
- Debit the reciver.2) Credit the giver.
C] Nominal Accounts :-
- Debit all expenses & Losses.2)Credit all Incomes & Revenue. Recommended Articles
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