Loughran - Financial Accounting For Dummies

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Financial Accounting For Dummies

by Maire Loughran, CPA

Financial Accounting For Dummies

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Copyright 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2011924129

ISBN: 978-0-470-93065-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

Maire Loughran is a certified public accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Her professional experience includes four years of internal auditing for a publicly traded company in the aerospace industry, two years as an auditor in the not-for-profit sector, and even some experience as a U.S. federal agent! Her public accounting experience includes financial reporting and analysis, audits of private corporations, accounting for e-commerce, and forensic accounting.

Maire is a full adjunct professor who teaches graduate and undergraduate auditing, accounting, and taxation classes. Interested in many different business-related fields, she has written Auditing For Dummies (a Wiley publication), a training manual for a Microsoft product, and a guide to starting a home-based business, as well as the Arts and Crafts Business Guide for About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

Dedication

To my much-loved son Joey, who serves his country aboard the USS Harry S. Truman: I am prouder of you than mere words can ever describe. And to my late husband Jeff, so long gone from our lives but never absent from our hearts.

Authors Acknowledgments

To the Ursuline nuns and Jesuit priests who provided me with a stellar education, and to my parents, who selflessly footed the bill.

To my agent, Barb Doyen, for all her hard work and support.

And to the wonderful Joan Friedman, for all her fantastic advice, months of editing, and follow-through.

Publishers Acknowledgments

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Introduction

A ccounting is known as the language of business because it communicates financial and economic facts about a business to all sorts of interested parties both internal (employees of the company) and external (people not employed by the company in question). External users include investors, creditors, banks, and regulatory agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.