Statement of Cash Flows
A financial statement that provides detailed information about a company's cash inflows and outflows during a specific period. It is essential for assessing the liquidity, flexibility, and overall financial health of an organization.
Statement of Change in Financial Position
A Statement of Change in Financial Position is a financial report that provides detailed information about a company's sources and applications of funds over a specific period.
Statement of Changes in Equity (SOCE)
The Statement of Changes in Equity (SOCE) is a financial document that outlines the changes in shareholders' equity over a reporting period. It highlights changes due to transactions with owners, profits, losses, and other comprehensive income.
Statement of Changes in Financial Position
A Statement of Changes in Financial Position details the sources and uses of an entity's financial resources during a specific period. It is commonly referred to as a Cash-Flow Statement.
Statement of Comprehensive Income
The statement of comprehensive income, as defined by the IFRS and applicable FRS in the UK and Republic of Ireland, presents a complete picture of a company's financial performance beyond the traditional income statement.
Statement of Condition
A detailed report outlining the resources, liabilities, and capital accounts of a bank or financial institution as well as a summary of the status of assets, liabilities, and equity of a person or business organization.
Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts (SFAC)
The Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts (SFAC) is a series of reports issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to outline the foundational concepts underpinning financial accounting and reporting in the United States.
Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS)
The Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) was a formal set of authoritative rules and guidelines issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) that governed accounting practices in the United States until 2009.
Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS)
Statements detailing the financial accounting and reporting requirements established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), forming part of the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) in the USA.
Statement of Financial Position
In accounting, the Statement of Financial Position is an important financial statement that provides a snapshot of a company's financial health at a specific point in time. It is often referred to as a balance sheet and is critical for understanding the assets, liabilities, and equity of a business.
Statement of Income (Profit and Loss Statement)
A Statement of Income, also known as a Profit and Loss Statement, is a financial document that summarizes the revenues, costs, and expenses incurred during a specific period, often a fiscal quarter or year.
Statement of Income and Retained Earnings
A financial statement that combines the income statement and the statement of retained earnings, detailing a company's profit, dividends, and equity changes during a period, as outlined by the Financial Reporting Standard Applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102, Section 6).
Statement of Partners' Capital
The Statement of Partners' Capital, typically presented on the balance sheet, indicates the net worth of each partner's interest in a business partnership.
Statement of Principles
A significant document issued by the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) intended to establish a conceptual framework for UK accounting standards, comprising seven key chapters and serving as the cornerstone for the Financial Reporting Standard Applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Statement of Recognized Income and Expense (SORIE)
An older term for the statement of total recognized gains and losses, now commonly referred to as the statement of comprehensive income, which provides a comprehensive summary of all income and expenses recognized in a financial period.
Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP)
The Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) provides guidance on accounting standards and practices for specific industries and sectors.
Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP)
A non-mandatory statement dealing with accounting topics relevant to a particular industry or sector in the UK, issued by recognized bodies within those industries and approved by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC).
Statement of Standard Accounting Practice (SSAP)
Statements of Standard Accounting Practice (SSAPs) are formal standards for financial reporting and accounting, issued by recognized authorities to ensure consistency, transparency, and adherence to best practices across organizations.
Statement of Standard Accounting Practice (SSAP)
Statements of Standard Accounting Practice (SSAPs) are a series of accounting standards issued by the Accounting Standards Committee between 1971 and 1990. These standards were utilized to ensure consistency and reliability in financial reporting practices.
Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS)
Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) are issued by the Auditing Standards Board (ASB) of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to establish accepted U.S. auditing standards. Members of AICPA must explain any deviations from SAS principles in their audit reports.
Statement on Internal Auditing Standards (SIAS)
The Statements on Internal Auditing Standards (SIAS) are guidelines issued to enhance the competence and consistency of internal auditing within organizations.
Statement on Internal Auditing Standards (SIAS)
Statements on Internal Auditing Standards (SIAS) are guidelines and protocols issued by the Internal Responsibilities Committee of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) to ensure uniformity, integrity, and professionalism in the practice of internal auditing.
Static Analysis
An economic model that does not consider or allow for changes over time, and within which all variables are simultaneously solved. Economists use static analysis in supply and demand models for goods and services.
Static Budget
A static budget is a type of budget that remains unaltered even as the activity levels or revenue and expense volumes change throughout the budget period. It is commonly used for fixed costs and for assessing management performance.
Static Risk
Static risk refers to risks with a constant level of uncertainty regarding the outcome or payoff. This type of risk is not influenced by market fluctuations or evolving factors and typically remains unchanged over time.
Stationery
Stationery refers to writing materials and office supplies such as paper, envelopes, and templates used for correspondence.
Statistic
A statistic is a descriptive measure calculated from data sampled from a population, used to make inferences about the overall population. It serves as a fundamental element in the field of statistics, aiding in data analysis, hypothesis testing, and predictive modeling.
Statistical Inference
Statistical inference is the process of drawing conclusions about population properties based on a sample of the data. It involves using statistical methods to estimate population parameters, test hypotheses, and make predictions or generalizations.
Statistical Modeling
Statistical modeling refers to the process of applying statistical analysis to a set of data in order to identify patterns, understand relationships, and make predictions.
Statistical Process Control (SPC)
Statistical Process Control (SPC) is a method used to monitor, control, and improve the quality of production processes through the use of statistical charts. The primary goal is to ensure that products are produced correctly the first time, maintaining high-quality assurance standards.
Statistical Sampling
The use of random selection to determine the contents of a sample and of appropriate statistical techniques to evaluate the results obtained from this sample. Statistical sampling provides a measure of the sampling error, i.e., the margin of error that applies in drawing conclusions on the total population.
Statistical Software
Computer programs that perform functions helpful to accountants, particularly managerial accountants, by creating, changing, storing, and using mathematical models. Examples include SPSS/PC and Systat.
Statistically Significant
Statistically significant is a term used in hypothesis testing to determine whether a test statistic meets or exceeds a predetermined threshold, leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis.
Statistics
Statistics is the study of ways to analyze data. It consists of Descriptive Statistics and Statistical Inference.
Status
Status refers to the position, class, standing, or rank achieved within society. This can be influenced by various factors such as achievements, financial wealth, education, occupation, or social connections. It is an essential aspect within sociological and economic studies that affects social hierarchies and individual identity.
Status Symbol
A status symbol is a tangible mark or sign of an individual's social status within a society or organization. These symbols can include luxury goods like expensive cars, homes, and boats.
Statute
A statute is a written law created by a legislature under constitutional authority that governs conduct within its scope. Statutes prescribe conduct, define crimes, create subordinate government bodies, appropriate public monies, and promote the public welfare.
Statute of Frauds
The Statute of Frauds is a statutory requirement that mandates certain kinds of contracts to be in writing to be enforceable. Contracts such as answering a creditor for another's debt, contracts made in consideration of marriage, contracts for the sale of real estate, or contracts not to be performed within a year must be written and signed by the party to be bound.
Statute of Limitations
The statute of limitations is a law that sets the maximum time frame within which legal proceedings must be initiated after an alleged offense. After this period, the claim is no longer valid.
Statute of Limitations
A statute of limitations sets the maximum period during which parties must initiate legal proceedings to enforce their rights, after which their rights may be unenforceable. The specifics can vary depending on jurisdiction and context, such as those defined by the IRS for tax-related matters.
Statutory Accounts
Statutory accounts are mandatory financial statements that companies must prepare and file annually according to the legal requirements set by governing bodies, such as the Companies Act.
Statutory Audit
A statutory audit is an examination of a company’s financial statements and records, as mandated by regulatory bodies to ensure fairness and accuracy.
Statutory Audit Directive
The Statutory Audit Directive, adopted by the European Union in 2006, aims to strengthen public confidence in the auditing profession by increasing transparency, accountability, and compliance with stringent auditing standards.
Statutory Books
Statutory Books, as mandated by the Companies Act, ensure proper accounting records, enabling directors to accurately oversee the financial positioning and transactions of a company.
Statutory Demand
A statutory demand is a formal request issued by a creditor to a debtor demanding the repayment of an outstanding debt. It serves as evidence of a debtor's inability to pay if unmet, and can support a compulsory liquidation petition under the Insolvency Act 1986.
Statutory Foreclosure
Statutory Foreclosure, also known as non-judicial foreclosure, is a legal process by which a lender can foreclose on a property without court intervention, authorized by state statutes.
Statutory Merger
A statutory merger refers to the legal combination of two or more corporations in which only one corporation survives as a legal entity, with all others ceasing to exist.
Statutory Notice
Statutory Notice refers to a legally mandated period during which parties must be informed about a specific event or action that is scheduled to occur. This notice ensures that all relevant parties have adequate time to prepare or respond as required by law.
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
A mandated benefit where employers provide weekly payments to employees unable to work due to sickness for a specified period, originally subject to partial government reimbursement.
Statutory Total Income
Statutory total income refers to the aggregate amount of income that is subject to taxation according to the relevant laws and regulations. It encompasses total income from various sources such as salaries, business income, capital gains, and other categories defined by tax legislation.
Statutory Voting
Statutory voting, also known as the one-share, one-vote rule, is a voting procedure commonly used in corporate elections. Each shareholder has one vote per share for each nominee for the board of directors and cannot give multiple votes to a single nominee.
Staying Power
The ability of an investor to retain their investment during periods of declining value, ensuring that short-term market fluctuations do not force premature sales.
Steady-Growth Method
A subscription-based business modeling technique that estimates the cost and impact on profitability of building a rate base over time using various sources of business.
Stealth Tax
Stealth tax, also known as a hidden tax, is a tax whose incidence may not be immediately apparent to the taxpayer. These can be levied on goods at the wholesale level or through reduced tax allowances and adjusted thresholds.
Steamer, Steamship
A steamship, also known as a steamer, is a ship that obtains its power from steam engines. These vessels can come in various forms like tankers, freighters, and luxury liners, and are designed to haul cargo or passengers over water.
Steel Intensive
Steel intensive refers to products or production technologies that rely heavily on high amounts of steel content. These can include buildings, machinery, infrastructure, and vehicles.
Steel-Collar Worker
A steel-collar worker refers to the use of robots as employees on a production line, symbolizing the replacement of the traditional blue-collar worker by automated systems and machinery.
Steering (Real Estate)
Steering is an illegal practice in real estate where real estate agents or brokers guide prospective home buyers or renters towards or away from certain neighborhoods based on their race or ethnicity.
Step-Function Cost
A step-function cost refers to an item of expenditure where costs increase in a step-like pattern with rising activity levels. Unlike linear cost functions, step-function costs do not change continuously but incrementally at certain thresholds of activity.
Step-Up Lease
A step-up lease, also known as a graduated lease, is a type of lease agreement where the rental rate increases at specified intervals throughout the term of the lease.
Stepped Cost
An item of expenditure that increases in total as activity rises but in a stepped, rather than a linear, function.
Stepped Cost
A stepped cost, also known as a semi-fixed cost, is an expense that remains fixed over a certain level of activity or production but changes by a fixed amount when the activity level significantly increases or decreases beyond specific thresholds.
Stepped-Up Basis
The stepped-up basis is a method to adjust the valuation of property inherited from a decedent to its fair market value as of the date of the decedent's death.
Stereotyping
Stereotyping involves classifying people based on one unique characteristic without any prior knowledge, leading to the formation of prejudiced and damaging images.
Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA)
SONIA, an acronym for Sterling Overnight Index Average, is a reference rate computed as a weighted average of sterling overnight funding rates in the interbank market.
Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA)
Finance professionals often use the Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA) as the benchmark interest rate for loans and financial contracts denominated in pounds sterling. Discover its definition, application, and influence on global finance.
STET
STET is a proofreader's or editor's direction to the printer or typesetter indicating that material marked for correction should remain as it was before the correction. The term 'STET' is derived from Latin, meaning 'let it stand.' It is a crucial term in the publishing and editing industry.
Stevedore
A stevedore is a company or individual responsible for unloading and loading cargo from ships, ensuring smooth and efficient movement of goods at ports. The terms 'longshoreman' and 'docker' are often used interchangeably with stevedore.
Steward
The term 'steward' can refer to a union representative responsible for day-to-day issues in a unionized workplace or a male flight attendant providing services aboard an aircraft.
Stewardship Code
A code of best practice for institutional investors, such as pension funds, insurance companies, and investment trusts, which sets guidelines on how these entities should engage with their investee companies, notably in the exercise of voting rights.
Stewardship in Accounting
Stewardship is a traditional approach in accounting that emphasizes the duty of stewards or agents, such as company directors, to provide accurate and reliable financial information concerning resources they control but do not own, usually for the proprietors or shareholders.
Stickiness
Stickiness refers to the phenomenon where certain economic variables, such as prices and wages, remain fixed or adjust slowly in response to changes in market conditions. This often results in wages and prices being 'sticky downward.'
Stiff
Failure to pay for services rendered; for example, stiffing a waiter by not leaving a tip.
Stipend
A fixed regular sum paid as a salary or allowance for services rendered, often associated with internships, apprenticeships, fellowships, or academic roles.
Stipulated Facts
Stipulated facts are a set of facts that both parties in a legal or tax dispute agree upon ahead of time, which simplifies the dispute resolution by narrowing down the issues in contention.
Stipulation
A stipulation refers to a specific term or condition within a written contract, or any set of agreed-upon terms and conditions that establish duties, rights, and responsibilities of the parties involved.
Stochastic
A stochastic process or variable relies on probabilistic behavior and chance, commonly used in fields like statistics, finance, and engineering to model systems that are inherently random.
Stock
A stock represents ownership in a company and constitutes a claim on part of the company's assets and earnings. Stocks can come in diverse forms such as fixed-interest securities or ordinary shares.
Stock Budgets
Stock budgets are formulated under a budgetary control system to plan the levels of materials, work in progress, and finished goods, both in volumes and values, at specified times throughout a budget period.
Stock Buyback
A stock buyback, also known as a share repurchase, is a process where a company purchases its own shares from the marketplace, reducing the number of outstanding shares.
Stock Certificate
A stock certificate is a written instrument that provides evidence of shares owned in a corporation, signifying ownership in the company.
Stock Control
Stock control, also known as inventory control, refers to the processes and systems used to oversee the ordering, storage, and use of components that a company uses in the production of the items it sells, as well as the finished products themselves.
Stock Dividend
Stock dividends refer to the payment of a corporate dividend in the form of additional shares rather than cash. This form of dividend distribution allows shareholders to increase their holdings in the company without any immediate tax implications or outflows for the corporation.
Stock Exchange
A marketplace for the sale and purchase of securities, where prices are determined by the forces of supply and demand. Stock exchanges facilitate capital raising for public companies, governments, and other entities, while providing liquidity for investors.
Stock Exchange Automated Quotations System (SEAQ)
The Stock Exchange Automated Quotations (SEAQ) system is a computerized system used on the London Stock Exchange for recording the prices quoted by market makers. SEAQ is primarily used for the Alternative Investment Market since FTSE 250 shares are now traded through the Stock Exchange Trading System (SETS).
Stock Exchange Trading System (SETS)
An advanced electronic order book trading system utilized by the London Stock Exchange (LSE) to facilitate the matching and execution of orders for securities.
Stock Exchange Trading System (SETS)
The London Stock Exchange's order-driven electronic trading system that came into operation in 1997, replacing the previous quote-driven system. It facilitates automatic matching of buyers' and sellers' orders, price recording, and seamless transaction settlement.
Stock Index Future
Stock index futures are financial derivatives that blend traditional commodity futures trading characteristics with those of securities trading. They utilize composite stock indexes to enable investors to speculate on general market performance or to hedge long or short positions.
Stock Insurance Company
A Stock Insurance Company is a type of insurance company that is owned by stockholders. These stockholders receive earnings in the form of shareholder dividends. However, under state laws, the interests of policyholders take precedence over those of stockholders.
Stock Ledger
The accounting book in which the movements of inventories are recorded. The stock ledger records the receipts and issues of material as well as the balance in hand, in terms of both material quantities and values.
Stock Market
The stock market is a complex network of exchanges and investors engaged in buying, selling, and issuance of shares from publicly held companies, facilitating capital growth and wealth building.
Stock Option
A stock option is a financial instrument that gives the holder the right to buy or sell a company's stock at a predetermined price within a specified timeframe. It can be used both as an investment tool and as an employee incentive.
Stock Power
A power of attorney form used to transfer ownership of a registered security from the owner to another party. This document is essential in executing the transfer of securities efficiently and legally.
Stock Purchase Plan
A Stock Purchase Plan is an organized program allowing employees of a company to purchase shares of its stock, often at a discounted rate. This is typically considered an employee benefit, especially if the employer matches the employee's stock purchases. Such plans aim to align the interests of employees with those of shareholders, promoting a sense of ownership within the company.
Stock Reconciliation
Stock reconciliation is a crucial process in inventory management that ensures the actual stock count aligns with recorded inventory levels, thus maintaining accurate financial records and aiding in effective business operations.
Stock Record
The stock record is an essential element in an inventory control system, documenting the movements in items of stock. This record can encompass entries in the stock ledger, which tracks stock movements in both quantities and values, or on bin cards, which focus on quantities alone.
Stock Repurchase Plan
A stock repurchase plan, also known as a share buyback, is a program by which a corporation buys back its own shares from the open market. Typically deployed when shares are perceived as undervalued, this practice reduces the number of shares outstanding, thus raising earnings per share (EPS) and potentially increasing the market value of the remaining shares.

Accounting Terms Lexicon

Discover comprehensive accounting definitions and practical insights. Empowering students and professionals with clear and concise explanations for a better understanding of financial terms.