210 Fun Facts About Accounting

Which Franciscan friar published the first printed description of double-entry bookkeeping in 1494?

His Summa de arithmetica was written in Italian rather than Latin so merchants could read it, and he later taught mathematics to Leonardo da Vinci.

Which Renaissance artist illustrated Pacioli's Divina proportione (1509)?

The book explored the golden ratio, and the two worked together from about 1497 to 1506.

The oldest surviving complete double-entry system is the 1340 Messari accounts of which Italian city?

Fragments of the Farolfi ledger from Florence in 1299-1300 are older but incomplete.

Accounting records over 7,000 years old, in the form of clay tokens, have been found in which ancient region?

Temple economies used the tokens to track goods long before writing itself developed.

The word 'auditor' comes from the Latin audire, meaning what?

Early audits were literally heard: accounts were read aloud to the person checking them.

The words debit and credit come from the Latin debere and credere, meaning what?

Pacioli's book popularised both terms; by convention debits go on the left of a ledger and credits on the right.

The fundamental accounting equation states that assets equal liabilities plus what?

Every double-entry transaction keeps the two sides in balance, which is what makes a balance sheet balance.

Which financial statement alone shows a company's position at a single point in time?

It is also called the statement of financial position, and it is one of the four basic financial statements.

The cash flow statement is divided into operating, financing and which third category of activities?

FASB Statement 95 made the statement mandatory in 1987, and most companies prepare it by the indirect method starting from net income.

Which type of asset generally cannot be depreciated for tax purposes?

Land does not wear out; the equivalent spreading of cost for intangibles is called amortisation and for natural resources depletion.

The straight-line method divides an asset's cost, less its expected salvage value, by what?

The declining-balance method instead front-loads the charge by applying a fixed percentage to the remaining book value each year.

Which inventory costing method is allowed under US GAAP but explicitly prohibited under IFRS?

IFRS requires either first-in-first-out or weighted average cost.

The body that sets US GAAP for public companies, the FASB, is based in which Connecticut city?

It replaced the AICPA's Accounting Principles Board in 1973 and is led by seven full-time board members.

The International Accounting Standards Board, which issues IFRS, was established in what year?

It succeeded the International Accounting Standards Committee, and the EU made IFRS mandatory for listed companies from 2005.

The world's first professional body of accountants received its royal charter in 1854 in which country?

It was the first to use the title 'chartered accountant', and the letters CA remain an exclusive privilege of its members in the UK.

The first law creating the Certified Public Accountant credential was passed in 1896 in which US state?

Licensee number one, Frank Broaker, got his certificate on experience alone without sitting an exam.

Which organisation sets the Uniform CPA Examination in the United States?

The exam now has three core sections plus a discipline section, and states typically require 120 to 150 credit hours to sit it.

William Welch Deloitte, who opened his London office in 1845, is credited as the first independent auditor of a public company. Which company?

The firm that grew from that office is now the largest professional services network in the world by revenue.

The letters in KPMG stand for Klynveld, Peat, Marwick and which fourth surname?

The firm was born in 1987 when KMG and Peat Marwick joined in what was then the first mega-merger of big accounting firms.

PricewaterhouseCoopers was formed in July 1998 when Price Waterhouse merged with which firm?

That merger turned the Big Six into the Big Five; the collapse of Arthur Andersen made it the Big Four.

Which accounting firm collapsed after conviction for shredding Enron documents?

The conviction was later overturned, but by then almost every client had left.

Enron's December 2001 filing was then the largest US corporate bankruptcy. In which city was Enron based?

It listed $63.4 billion in assets, and executives had used mark-to-market accounting and hundreds of special purpose entities to hide debt.

Which Enron vice president warned Kenneth Lay in 2001 the company might 'implode in a wave of accounting scandals'?

CFO Andrew Fastow later pleaded guilty and served six years; Jeffrey Skilling's 24-year sentence was cut to 14.

WorldCom inflated its earnings by billions mainly through what accounting trick?

Internal auditor Cynthia Cooper found the entries in June 2002; the overstatement topped $11 billion and CEO Bernard Ebbers got 25 years.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 created which new body to oversee the auditors of public companies?

The Act was named for Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley, and George W. Bush called it the biggest business reform since FDR.

Which section of Sarbanes-Oxley requires management to report on internal controls over financial reporting?

Section 302 is the one that makes the CEO and CFO personally certify the accuracy of the financial statements.

Bernie Madoff's roughly $65 billion Ponzi scheme was 'audited' by what kind of outfit?

Analyst Harry Markopolos had told the SEC from 1999 that the returns were mathematically impossible; Madoff got 150 years in 2009.

Al Capone was finally sent to prison in 1931 for what offence?

He was convicted on five counts and given 11 years, ending up in Alcatraz; the strategy of pursuing gangsters through tax law came from Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt.

The office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue was created in 1862 under which president?

The bureau was only renamed the Internal Revenue Service in 1953, after a corruption scandal.

Before it moved to April 15 in the 1950s, the US individual tax filing deadline fell on which date?

The first Form 1040 appeared in 1913, the year the Sixteenth Amendment authorised a federal income tax, and only applied to incomes over $3,000.

The US federal government's fiscal year begins on the first day of which month?

It runs to September 30 under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974; Australia's starts on July 1 and Japan's on April 1.

The UK tax year for individuals starts on April 6, an oddity that dates back to what event?

The old new year fell on Lady Day, March 25; skipping eleven days pushed it to April 5, and a later leap-year adjustment nudged it to the 6th.

William the Conqueror's great survey of England for tax purposes, completed in 1086, is known as what?

It recorded some 268,984 heads of household and 13,418 places, and its name compares its finality to the Day of Judgement.

On which Greek island was the oldest known counting board, from around 300 BC, found?

The word 'calculate' comes from the Latin calculi, the pebbles moved on such boards.

The Japanese abacus, still taught in schools there, is called what?

The Chinese version is the suanpan; the word abacus itself may go back to a Hebrew word for dust.

The first spreadsheet program for personal computers, released for the Apple II in 1979, was called what?

Dan Bricklin thought of it watching a Harvard Business School professor redo a model on a blackboard; over a quarter of Apple IIs sold that year were bought to run it.

Which spreadsheet, launched for the IBM PC in 1983, wiped out VisiCalc's sales almost overnight?

The older program sold just 5,700 copies in December 1983, and Lotus bought its maker two years later and killed the product.

Which comedian worked as an accountant for United States Gypsum before his stand-up career took off?

His deadpan telephone routines made his 1960 debut album the first comedy record to top the Billboard chart.

Which best-selling legal thriller writer earned an accounting degree from Mississippi State in 1977 before law school?

His breakthrough, The Firm, spent 47 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and became a Tom Cruise film.

Which rock frontman was studying finance at the London School of Economics when he left in 1963 for music?

The band he left for went on to become one of the most commercially successful touring acts in history, so the maths worked out.

Bankers in which city used double-entry bookkeeping in the 11th century, per documents from a synagogue storeroom?

The Cairo Geniza records survive because Jewish custom forbade destroying papers bearing God's name.

Which Chinese dynasty invented a paper currency nicknamed 'flying cash'?

Centuries later the Mongols' accountants tallied the wealth of every conquered city and set aside 10 percent for the troops.

Until the late 20th century, how many big firms dominated the audit market before mergers left four?

The Big Eight shrank through mergers and the 2002 collapse of Arthur Andersen.

In 2011 the Big Four were reported to audit what share of FTSE 100 companies in the UK?

That concentration is why some have urged the UK's Competition & Markets Authority to consider breaking the four up.

Deloitte, the largest Big Four network, earned aggregate revenues of roughly how much in FY2024?

The network has about 470,000 employees in over 150 countries.

William Welch Deloitte opened his first office in 1845 on which London thoroughfare?

The firm later sat at No. 4 Lothbury from 1855 to 1905.

Deloitte's first overseas branch, opened in 1890, was located where?

Edward Adams and P.D. Griffiths ran the New York branch; Chicago and Buenos Aires followed.

Which two men formed the New York firm that merged with Deloitte in 1952?

Their 1896 firm gave the merged Deloitte Haskins & Sells half its name.

The 'Tohmatsu' in Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu comes from a firm founded in 1968 in which country?

Nobuzo Tohmatsu's firm joined the Touche Ross network in 1975.

Which strategy consultancy, founded by Michael Porter, did Deloitte buy out of bankruptcy in 2013?

The Harvard Business School professor's firm had filed for bankruptcy protection.

Deloitte was an official sponsor of which Summer Olympic Games?

The firm is also a fixture on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list.

What does the 'G' in KPMG stand for?

The name was chosen when KMG merged with Peat Marwick in 1987.

KPMG was formed in 1987 when Peat Marwick merged with which grouping?

KMG (Klynveld Main Goerdeler) was a European grouping formed in 1979.

How old was William Barclay Peat when he joined the London firm he would later head?

He joined Robert Fletcher & Co in 1870 and was running it by 1891.

Marwick Mitchell & Co., a KPMG ancestor, was founded in 1897 in which city?

James Marwick and Roger Mitchell were the founding partners.

Piet Klijnveld and Jaap Kraayenhof opened their accounting firm in 1917 in which city?

Klynveld Kraayenhof & Co. supplied the 'K' in KPMG.

From 1984, Peat Marwick was the first big corporate customer of which computer?

For a time it was the only large corporate customer of the machine.

KPMG Canada sponsored which skier, who won Canada's first Olympic gold on home soil in 2010?

He won the men's moguls at the Vancouver Games.

KPMG was criticised for auditing which three US regional banks that collapsed in 2023?

Silicon Valley Bank's failure was the largest since 2008.

EY's oldest ancestor firm, Harding & Pullein, was founded in England in what year?

Frederick Whinney joined that year and became a partner a decade later.

Ernst & Ernst was founded in 1903 by brothers Alwin and Theodore Ernst in which city?

Arthur Young & Co. was set up three years later in Chicago.

Arthur Young, whose Chicago firm became half of EY, was an accountant of what nationality?

He set up Arthur Young & Co. in 1906.

EY's 1989 founding merger combined Arthur Young & Co. with which firm?

The combined firm officially rebranded as EY in 2013.

EY's two-letter name became official in a rebranding campaign in which year?

The initialism was already in informal use before the campaign.

EY's Entrepreneur of the Year program began in 1986 as a single award in which city?

It now runs in all 50 states and more than 60 countries.

William Cooper's 1854 practice became Cooper Brothers when how many of his brothers joined?

He had opened at No. 13 George Street, London, seven years earlier.

Samuel Lowell Price took Edwin Waterhouse into partnership in 1865 at No. 13 on which London street?

A third partner, William Hopkins Holyland, soon left to work alone.

Which insolvency specialist did Coopers & Lybrand acquire in 1980 to expand in that field?

Cork Gully was a leading UK insolvency firm.

PricewaterhouseCoopers shortened its trading name to 'PwC' in which year?

The rebrand came 12 years after the 1998 Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand merger.

In 2017 PwC became the first Big Four firm to accept what as payment for advisory services?

The Hong Kong practice accepted the cryptocurrency in November 2017.

Arthur E. Andersen, founder of the ill-fated firm, was born in 1885 in which state?

He was orphaned at 16 and worked as a mail boy while studying at night.

At what age did Arthur Andersen become his state's youngest CPA?

He had just graduated from Northwestern after studying at night while working full-time.

Arthur Andersen's very first client in 1913 was a company in which industry?

Andersen had worked as controller at the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee.

What did Andersen staff call themselves, a nod to their deliberately uniform look?

The idea was to deliver the same service the same way in every location.

Andersen partner Carl Bass was removed from the Enron account after doing what?

He was taken off at Enron's request after years of objections.

On what date in 2002 was Arthur Andersen convicted of obstruction of justice?

The conviction concerned the shredding of Enron audit documents.

Andersen Consulting became Accenture in 2001. From what phrase was the name derived?

It was suggested by Kim Petersen, a Danish employee in the Oslo office.

How much did Andersen Consulting pay Arthur Andersen in the 2000 arbitration to break ties?

The split saved the consultancy from the Enron fallout two years later.

Andersen's consulting arm's 1950s GE project led to what landmark in US computing?

GE installed a UNIVAC I at Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky.

How old was Alexander Richardson Grant when he founded Alexander Grant & Co in Chicago in 1924?

He had been a senior accountant at Ernst & Ernst.

The accounting network BDO takes its initials from Binder, Dijker and which third founding firm?

Binder was British, Dijker Dutch and Otte German.

The BDO accounting network is headquartered in Zaventem, near which capital city?

BDO is the fifth-largest accounting network in the world.

Enron was formed in 1985 when Kenneth Lay merged Houston Natural Gas with which company?

Lay went on to build the executive team that hid billions in debt.

Which rival Houston company offered to buy Enron at a knock-down price before its 2001 collapse?

The deal fell apart and Enron filed for Chapter 11 on December 2, 2001.

Enron's stock peaked at about what price before falling below $1 in November 2001?

Shareholders' $40 billion lawsuit eventually recovered $7.2 billion.

Enron CFO Andrew Fastow named his LJM partnerships after whom?

He told the board he had made $45 million from LJM despite spending three hours a week on it.

How long was ex-Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling's original 2006 prison sentence?

He was also fined $45 million and ultimately served 12 years after appeals.

Kenneth Lay died in July 2006 while on holiday near which Colorado town?

His death three months before sentencing led to his conviction being vacated.

Which 2005 documentary about Enron shares its name with a 2003 book by McLean and Elkind?

Lucy Prebble's 2009 stage play Enron also featured Fastow as a lead character.

WorldCom's internal audit unit found how much in fraudulent balance sheet entries in 2002?

Later investigations put the total overstatement of assets at over $11 billion.

WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers, born in Edmonton, was nicknamed what for his boots and jeans?

He lived on a farm and loved driving a tractor.

Where was WorldCom's Bernard Ebbers born?

He was released in 2019 on health grounds after 13 years of a 25-year sentence.

Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski was convicted in 2005 over roughly how much in unauthorised bonuses?

He also bought $14.725 million of art with company money and served over six years.

HealthSouth, whose executives faked accounts from 1996 to 2003, was based in which city?

Founder Richard Scrushy had started the company as Amcare in 1984.

Adelphia's founders bought their first cable franchise in 1952 for how much?

The Rigas family later spent $2.3 billion of company money on personal luxuries.

Adelphia founder John Rigas received what prison sentence in the 2002 fraud case?

His son Timothy got 20 years; John was released in 2016 for health reasons.

Waste Management executives inflated results from 1992 to 1997 partly by capitalising what?

They also refused to write off costs from failed projects.

HP wrote off how much of Autonomy's value within a year of its $11.7bn 2011 purchase?

HP blamed 'serious accounting improprieties'; ex-CEO Mike Lynch blamed HP's management.

Parmalat collapsed in 2003 with about €14bn of debt in what remains which record?

Founder Calisto Tanzi had opened a small pasteurisation plant in Parma in 1961.

How old was Calisto Tanzi when he opened the pasteurisation plant that became Parmalat?

The college dropout built it into a multinational listed in Milan by 1990.

Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju confessed to falsifying accounts on 7 January of which year?

The Hyderabad property crash of 2008 exposed the missing money.

Wirecard filed for insolvency in June 2020 after revealing how much cash was 'missing'?

CEO Markus Braun was arrested; COO Jan Marsalek fled and is believed to be in Russia.

Which Big Four firm was Wirecard's long-time auditor?

Germany's regulator BaFin was also accused of failing to spot the fraud.

Wirecard's fugitive COO Jan Marsalek is suspected of spying for which country?

Interpol issued a red notice; investigators say he was recruited from at least 2010.

Which Japanese term describes the loss-hiding scheme at the heart of the 2011 Olympus scandal?

Olympus concealed more than 117.7 billion yen of investment losses dating to the late 1980s.

Michael Woodford, who exposed the Olympus fraud, was notable as the company's first what?

He was removed after just two weeks as CEO for questioning $1 billion in fees.

Lehman Brothers' 'Repo 105' manoeuvre classified short-term repurchase agreements as what?

The examiner's report said auditors Ernst & Young were aware of the classification.

Who was the bankruptcy examiner whose March 2010 report exposed Lehman's Repo 105?

Valukas was chairman of law firm Jenner & Block.

Bre-X's fraudulent gold find was at Busang, in which country?

Samples were 'salted' and roughly 40,000 investors lost everything.

The name of Bre-X's parent, Bresea, was derived from what?

David Walsh named it for his sons Brett and Sean.

Polly Peck's Asil Nadir fled in 1993 to which territory before returning to face trial in 2010?

He was jailed for 10 years in 2012 for theft totalling £29 million.

Barings Bank collapsed in 1995 after losses of roughly how much from Nick Leeson's trades?

The bank had been founded in 1762 and helped finance the Louisiana Purchase.

Nick Leeson served more than four years in which prison?

He was arrested in Frankfurt and extradited to Singapore in November 1995.

What two-word note did Nick Leeson leave before fleeing Singapore on 23 February 1995?

He fled via Malaysia and Thailand before his arrest in Germany.

Robert Maxwell was found to have embezzled hundreds of millions of pounds from what?

His body was found in the Atlantic in 1991 after he fell from his yacht Lady Ghislaine.

Which Big Four firm was Carillion's auditor when it collapsed in 2018?

The Wolverhampton-based contractor went into compulsory liquidation with nearly £7 billion of liabilities.

The BCCI bank, shut down in 1991, was founded in 1972 by a financier from which country?

Agha Hasan Abedi registered it in Luxembourg with head offices in Karachi and London.

Luckin Coffee admitted in 2020 to inflating 2019 sales by up to how much?

Short-seller Muddy Waters had published an anonymous 89-page report in January.

Which short-selling firm published the 89-page report alleging Luckin Coffee's fraud?

Founder Carson Block posted it anonymously on Twitter.

Charles Ponzi promised investors a 50% profit within how many days?

His scheme, based on postal reply coupons, cost investors about $20 million.

Ponzi may have been inspired by a Brooklyn bookkeeper known by what nickname?

William W. Miller ran his own scheme before Ponzi's.

Before his Ponzi scheme was exposed, Bernie Madoff had chaired which stock exchange?

His firm helped develop the technology behind the Nasdaq market.

Who told the FBI in December 2008 that Bernie Madoff had confessed to a Ponzi scheme?

They quoted him as calling it 'one big lie'.

What is the title of Harry Markopolos's 2010 book about trying to expose Madoff?

He had alerted the SEC in 2000, 2001 and 2005 without result.

Tax agent Frank J. Wilson's team examined roughly how many documents to convict Al Capone?

Their strategy was to prove Capone spent lavishly despite having no formal job.

Frank J. Wilson, the tax agent who helped jail Capone, later became chief of which agency?

He also worked on the Lindbergh kidnapping and Huey Long assassination cases.

Sarbanes-Oxley is named after Senator Paul Sarbanes and a Republican congressman from which state?

Michael Oxley co-sponsored the 2002 act, enacted on July 30.

How many sections (titles) does the Sarbanes-Oxley Act contain?

It was enacted July 30, 2002 in reaction to Enron and WorldCom.

The FASB replaced which AICPA body as US standard-setter on July 1, 1973?

A committee led by Touche Ross chairman Robert Trueblood recommended creating the FASB.

How many full-time board members lead the FASB?

Members serve five-year terms and may be reappointed once.

The AICPA was founded in 1887 under what original name?

It now has more than 428,000 members and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

In which North Carolina city is the AICPA headquartered?

It also develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination.

As of 2024, how many semester units did the US CPA licence typically require?

Candidates also needed to pass the Uniform CPA Exam and complete a year of experience; from 2025 many states began allowing 120 units plus extra experience.

Which is the only US state without a CPA mobility law allowing out-of-state CPAs to practise?

All other states have passed such laws.

Who became the world's first woman chartered accountant, recognised by the ICAEW in 1920?

The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 had opened the profession to women.

The ICAEW was established by Royal Charter in which year?

Its headquarters is Chartered Accountants' Hall in Moorgate, London.

In the UK, which body's members alone use the plain 'CA' designation?

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland was the world's first CA body.

The ACCA was founded in 1904 under what name?

It received its Royal Charter in 1974 and now has over 750,000 members and students.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India was established on 1 July of which year?

It operates under the Chartered Accountants Act passed by Parliament that year.

Canada's CPA designation united three former designations: CA, CGA and which?

CPA Canada is the national organisation representing the unified profession.

The Institute of Internal Auditors' first international chapter, formed in 1944, was where?

Its Certified Internal Auditor designation was introduced in 1974.

Which body is the largest and oldest management accounting body in the world?

The UK-based institute has over 229,000 members and students.

The GASB sets GAAP for which US entities?

Like the FASB, it is a private body overseen by the Financial Accounting Foundation.

The US Government Accountability Office is known by what nickname?

It is headed by the Comptroller General of the United States.

The UK's National Audit Office reports to which officer of the House of Commons?

The NAO also carries out value-for-money audits of public policy.

The existence of an Exchequer in England was first recorded in which year?

Twice a year, at Easter and Michaelmas, sheriffs were summoned to account for the king's revenue.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer heads which UK government department?

It is one of the four Great Offices of State.

HMRC was formed in 2005 by merging the Inland Revenue with which department?

Its logo is the Tudor Crown enclosed within a circle.

The US Bureau of Internal Revenue was renamed the Internal Revenue Service in which year?

The commissioner is appointed by the president to a five-year term.

The Sixteenth Amendment authorising a federal income tax was ratified in what year?

It effectively overruled the Supreme Court's 1895 Pollock decision.

Which Washington, D.C. holiday can push US Tax Day past April 15?

Since 1955, Tax Day has typically fallen on or just after April 15.

Who first proposed a value-added tax, in 1918, to replace Germany's turnover tax?

Germany's turnover tax was not actually replaced until 1968.

As of 2025, which is the only OECD member country without a value-added tax?

175 of the 193 UN member states levy a VAT.

Where did brothers Henry and Richard Bloch found H&R Block in 1955?

By 2018 it ran about 12,000 retail tax offices worldwide.

TurboTax was developed in 1984 by Michael Chipman of which company before Intuit bought it?

Intuit acquired it in 1993.

Intuit was founded in 1983 by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx in which California city?

Its Quicken personal-finance product came before QuickBooks.

QuickBooks was first introduced in what year?

It soon claimed up to 85 percent of the US small-business accounting software market.

Cloud accounting firm Xero was founded in 2006 in which city?

Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards originally called it Accounting 2.0.

What was Xero originally called when founded in 2006?

By 2021 it had three million subscribers.

British accounting-software firm Sage was founded in 1981 in which city?

Student Graham Wylie wrote the first version while on a summer job at an accountancy firm.

Indian accounting-software giant Tally Solutions is headquartered in which city?

It began in 1986 as Peutronics Financial Accountant after the founders' cotton business burned down.

Which Canadian city is home to invoicing software FreshBooks?

Mike McDerment, Levi Cooperman and Joe Sawada founded it in 2004.

Enterprise-software giant SAP is based in which German town?

Its name stands for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung.

Who co-created VisiCalc with Dan Bricklin?

Bricklin is often called 'the father of the spreadsheet'.

Microsoft's 1982 spreadsheet, a VisiCalc competitor released first for CP/M, was called what?

It was written in a p-code C compiler so it could be ported to many machines.

Microsoft Excel's built-in macro programming language is called what?

Excel has been in development since 1985.

Another name for the balance sheet is the statement of financial what?

It lists assets, liabilities and equity as of a specific date.

On an income statement, revenue is nicknamed what?

The statement covers a period, unlike the balance sheet's snapshot.

Which International Accounting Standard specifically deals with cash flow statements?

The statement is useful for judging a company's ability to pay its bills.

Goodwill can only be recognised on a company's books through what event?

It reflects the premium paid over the net value of the acquired firm's other assets.

Retained earnings are also known by what nickname?

A negative balance may be called accumulated losses or an accumulated deficit.

The IFRS accounting standards are issued by the IFRS Foundation and which board?

They replaced many national accounting standards to make statements comparable across borders.

The IASB succeeded which committee, which had been set up in 1973?

The IASB itself was founded on April 1, 2001.

The going-concern assumption presumes a business will keep operating for at least how long?

It is a basic assumption in preparing financial statements under the IFRS framework.

What is the accounting term for expensing an intangible asset over its useful life?

Depreciation is the corresponding concept for tangible assets.

Money a business owes its suppliers appears on the balance sheet as what?

It differs from notes payable, which are debts created by formal legal instruments.

Petty cash is most commonly accounted for using which method?

The fund is topped back up to a fixed amount against vouchers and receipts.

Fund accounting, which stresses accountability over profit, is used mainly by which entities?

Funds are reported as unrestricted, temporarily restricted or permanently restricted.

The matching principle says an expense should be reported in the same period as what?

It is a cornerstone of accrual accounting alongside revenue recognition.

Bad debt is occasionally known by what other name?

A high rate points to weak credit and collections management.

Off-balance-sheet financing is sometimes given what colourful nickname?

Total return swaps are one example of an off-balance-sheet item.

Break-even analysis was developed by Karl Bücher and which other economist?

At break-even, total cost equals total revenue.

COSO's 1992 Internal Control – Integrated Framework was re-released in which year?

It is widely used in the US to design and assess controls over financial reporting.

Fair value accounting has been part of US GAAP since which decade?

Its misuse is considered one of the causes of the Enron scandal.

Which fiscal-year abbreviation refers to the year running through 2023-2024?

Fiscal years are usually named for the calendar year in which they end.

Cotrugli's 1458 treatise, the earliest known double-entry manuscript, came from which republic?

Pacioli credited Cotrugli with originating the system when he published in 1494.

Pacioli's Summa de arithmetica was the first printed book to introduce which symbols?

It was also the first known book printed in Italy to contain algebra.

Luca Pacioli was born in which Tuscan town, giving him the nickname 'Luca di Borgo'?

He moved to Venice around 1464 to tutor a merchant's three sons.

Which ancient people invented a phonetic alphabet 'probably for bookkeeping purposes'?

An ancient Egyptian is recorded holding the title 'comptroller of the scribes'.

Babylonian bookkeeping records written on clay slabs date back to roughly which year?

Mesopotamian bookkeepers' clay-tablet records may go back 7,000 years.

Al-Khwarizmi's algebra treatise ended with a chapter on double-entry bookkeeping for what purpose?

His work circulated widely among Arabic, Jewish and European scholars.

Accountants entered conquered cities first so the Mongols could take what share of the wealth?

The take was allocated among the troops.

The Lebombo bone, a possible 44,000-year-old tally stick, carries how many notches?

The baboon fibula was found in Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains of Eswatini.

Canada's Institute of Chartered Accountants was incorporated in which year?

The CGA association followed in 1908 and the CMAs were incorporated in 1920.

In the 2016 film The Accountant, Ben Affleck plays an autistic CPA named what?

He launders the books of criminal organisations and fights using Pencak Silat.

The Accountant's meek accountant Leo Bloom in The Producers is a nod to a character in which novel?

Mel Brooks named him after James Joyce's Leopold Bloom.

Who was first invited to play Leo Bloom in The Producers, before Gene Wilder got the part?

He accepted but never contacted Brooks again.

Will Ferrell's Harold Crick in Stranger than Fiction works for which agency?

He begins hearing a novelist narrating his life while auditing a baker.

In A Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchit works for Scrooge in what role?

He wears his scarf at work because Scrooge won't let him add coal to the fire.

In Breaking Bad, Skyler White works as a bookkeeper for which Albuquerque firm?

Anna Gunn won two Emmys for the role.

Which Office accountant is introduced as senior accountant and head of the Party Planning Committee?

Angela Kinsey originally auditioned for the role of Pam.

Which actor plays Dunder Mifflin accountant Kevin Malone?

His UK counterpart is Keith Bishop, played by Ewen MacIntosh.

Which Office accountant returned in the 2025 spin-off series The Paper?

Oscar appeared in 176 of the original show's 188 episodes.

Which best-selling saxophonist majored in accounting at the University of Washington?

He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude while playing professionally.

Which UFC champion earned a business/accounting degree from Cal Poly in 1995?

'The Iceman' wrestled at Cal Poly before his fighting career.

Nike co-founder Phil Knight once taught accounting at which university?

He later gave hundreds of millions to Oregon and Stanford, his alma maters.

Which accounting firm gave Home Depot co-founder Blank his first job, in 1963?

He joined after graduating from Babson Institute in 1963.

Which Led Zeppelin singer briefly trained as a chartered accountant after grammar school?

He left home at 16 to sing with local blues bands.

Popular culture stereotypes accountants as humourless, introspective what?

Studies suggest the stereotype influences who is attracted to the profession.

In business, a comptroller's role is closest to which job?

In American government the comptroller is effectively a public body's CFO.