Dictionary of accounting

Từ điển Anh-Anh chuyên ngành kế toán

Dictionary of

Accounting

Fourth edition

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First published in Great Britain in 1992

by Peter Collin Publishing

Second edition published 2001Third edition published 2004This fourth edition published 2007

A & C Black Publishers Ltd

38 Soho Square, London W1D 3HB

© A & C Black Publishers Ltd 2007All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced

in any form or by any means without the permission of the publishers

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

eISBN-13: 978-1-4081-0228-2

Text Production and Proofreading

Heather Bateman, Stephen Curtis, Katy McAdam, Howard SargeantThis book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown in managed,sustainable forests It is natural, renewable and recyclable The logging andmanufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the

country of origin

Text typeset by A & C BlackPrinted in Spain by GraphyCems

This dictionary provides a basic vocabulary of terms used in accounting, from personal finance and investments to company accounts, balance sheets and stock valuations It is ideal for students of accounting and for anyone who needs to check the meaning of an accountancy term, from people working in businesses who may not be professional accountants to translators or those for whom English is an additional language.

Each headword is explained in clear, straightforward English and

examples are given to show how the word may be used in context There are also quotations from newspapers and specialist magazines Sample documents and financial statements are also provided.

Thanks are due to Hannah Gray and Sarah Williams for their invaluable help and advice during the production of this new edition.

The following symbols have been used to show the pronunciation of the mainwords in the dictionary.

Stress has been indicated by a main stress mark ( ) and a secondary stress mark() Note that these are only guides, as the stress of the word changes according toits position in the sentence

AAPA abbreviation Association of

Author-ised Public Accountants

abacus /bəkəs/ noun a counting device

consisting of parallel rods strung with beads,

still widely used for business and accounting

in China and Japan

abandonment

abandonment /ə|bndənmənt/ noun an

act of giving up voluntarily something that

you own, such as an option or the right to a

property 왍 abandonment of a claim giving

up a claim in a civil action

abatement

abatement /ə|beitmənt/ noun a

reduc-tion in a payment, e.g., if a company’s or

individual’s total assets are insufficient to

cover their debts or legacies

ABB

ABB abbreviation activity-based budgeting

abbreviated accounts

abbreviated accounts /ə|brivieitid ə|

kaυnts/ plural noun a shortened version of

a company’s annual accounts that a small or

medium sized company can file with the

Registrar of Companies, instead of a full

version

ABC

ABC abbreviation activity-based costing

ab initio

ab initio /b i|niʃiəυ/ phrase a Latin

phrase meaning ‘from the beginning’

ABM

ABM abbreviation activity-based

manage-ment

abnormal gain

abnormal gain /b|nɔm(ə)l ein/

noun any reduction in the volume of process

loss below that set by the normal loss

allow-ance Abnormal gains are generally costed

as though they were completed products

abnormal loss

abnormal loss /b|nɔm(ə)l lɒs/ noun

any losses which exceed the normal loss

allowance Abnormal losses are generally

costed as though they were completed

above par /ə|bv pɑ/ adjective referring

to a share with a market price higher than itsface value

above-the-line

above-the-line /ə|bv ðə lain/

adjec-tive, adverb 1. used to describe entries in acompany’s profit and loss accounts thatappear above the line which separatesentries showing the origin of the funds thathave contributed to the profit or loss fromthose that relate to its distribution Excep-tional and extraordinary items appear abovethe line 쑗 Exceptional items are noted

above the line in company accounts 쒁

below-the-line 2. relating to revenue items

in a government budgetabridged accounts

abridged accounts /ə| |kaυnts/

plural noun financial statements produced

by a company that fall outside the ments stipulated in the Companies Actabsorb

require-absorb /əb|zɔb/ verb 1. to take in a smallitem so that it forms part of a larger one 왍 a

business which has been absorbed by a competitor a small business which has been

made part of a larger one 2. to assign anoverhead to a particular cost centre in a com-pany’s production accounts so that its iden-tity becomes lost 쒁 absorption costing

absorbed overhead

absorbed overhead /əb|zɔbd

əυvəhed/ noun an overhead attached to

products or services by means of overhead

absorption rates

absorption

absorption /əb|zɔpʃən/ noun the ess of making a smaller business part of alarger one, so that the smaller company ineffect no longer exists

proc-absorption costing

absorption costing /əb|zɔpʃən

kɒstiŋ/ noun 1. a form of costing for aproduct that includes both the direct costs ofproduction and the indirect overhead costs

as well 2. an accounting practice in whichfixed and variable costs of production areabsorbed by different cost centres Provid-ing all the products or services can be sold at

absorption rate 2

a price that covers the allocated costs, this

method ensures that both fixed and variable

costs are recovered in full 쒁 marginal

cost-ing

absorption rate

absorption rate /əb|zɔpʃən reit/ noun

a rate at which overhead costs are absorbed

into each unit of production

abstract

abstract /bstrkt/ noun a short form of

a report or document 쑗 to make an abstract

of the company accounts

abusive tax shelter

abusive tax shelter /ə|bjusiv tks

ʃeltə/ noun a tax shelter used illegally in

order to avoid or reduce tax payments

Academy of Accounting Historians

Academy of Accounting Historians

/ə|kdəmi əv ə|kaυntiŋ hi|stɔriənz/

noun a US organisation, founded in 1973,

that promotes the study of the history of

accounting

ACAUS

ACAUS abbreviation Association of

Char-tered Accountants in the United States

ACCA

ACCA abbreviation Association of

Char-tered Certified Accountants

accelerate

accelerate /ək|seləreit/ verb to reduce

the amount of time before a maturity date

accelerated cost recovery system

accelerated cost recovery system

/k|selrəreitid kɒst ri|kvəri sistəm/

noun a system used in the United States for

calculating depreciation in a way that

reduces tax liability

accelerated depreciation

accelerated depreciation /ək|

seləreitid dipriʃi|eiʃ(ə)n/ noun a system

of depreciation which reduces the value of

assets at a high rate in the early years to

encourage companies, as a result of tax

advantages, to invest in new equipment

acceleration

acceleration /ək|selə|reiʃ(ə)n/ noun the

speeding up of debt repayment

acceleration clause

acceleration clause /ək|selə|reiʃ(ə)n

klɔz/ noun US a clause in a contract that

provides for immediate payment of the total

balance if there is a breach of contract

acceptance

acceptance /ək|septəns/ noun 1. the act

of signing a bill of exchange to show that

you agree to pay it 왍 to present a bill for

acceptance to present a bill for payment by

the person who has accepted it 2. a bill

which has been accepted 3. the act of

accept-ing an offer of new shares for which you

have applied

acceptance credit

acceptance credit /ək|septəns kredit/

noun an arrangement of credit from a bank,

where the bank accepts bills of exchange

drawn on the bank by the debtor: the bank

then discounts the bills and is responsible

for paying them when they mature The

debtor owes the bank for the bills but these

are covered by letters of credit

acceptance sampling

acceptance sampling /ək|septəns

sɑmpliŋ/ noun the process of testing asmall sample of a batch to see if the wholebatch is good enough to be acceptedaccepting house

accepting house /ək|septiŋ haυs/, acceptance house /ək|septəns haυs/

noun a firm, usually a merchant bank, whichaccepts bills of exchange at a discount, inreturn for immediate payment to the issuer,

in this case the Bank of EnglandAccepting Houses Committee

Accepting Houses Committee /ək|

septiŋ haυziz kə|miti/ noun the mainLondon merchant banks, which organise thelending of money with the Bank of England.They receive slightly better discount ratesfrom the Bank

acceptor

acceptor /ək|septə/ noun a person whoaccepts a bill of exchange by signing it, thusmaking a commitment to pay it by a speci-fied date

accident insurance

accident insurance /ksid(ə)nt in|

ʃυərəns/ noun insurance which will paythe insured person when an accident takesplace

accommodation

accommodation /ə|kɒmə|deiʃ(ə)n/

noun money lent for a short timeaccommodation bill

accommodation bill /ə|kɒmə|deiʃ(ə)n

bil/ noun a bill of exchange where the son signing (the ‘drawee’) is helping anothercompany (the ‘drawer’) to raise a loanaccount

per-account /ə|kaυnt/ noun 1. a record offinancial transactions over a period of time,such as money paid, received, borrowed orowed 쑗 Please send me your account or a

detailed or an itemised account. 2. a tured record of financial transactions thatmay be maintained as a list or in a more for-mal structured credit and debit basis 3 (in a

struc-shop) an arrangement in which a customeracquires goods and pays for them at a laterdate, usually the end of the month 쑗 to have

an account or a credit account with Harrods

쑗 Put it on my account or charge it to my

account 쑗 They are one of our largest

accounts. 4. a period during which sharesare traded for credit, and at the end of whichthe shares bought must be paid for (NOTE:

On the London Stock Exchange, there aretwenty-four accounts during the year, each

running usually for ten working days.) 5. acustomer who does a large amount of busi-ness with a firm and has an account with it 쑗

Smith Brothers is one of our largest accounts 쑗 Our sales people call on their

best accounts twice a month.

accountability

accountability /ə|kaυntə|biliti/ noun

the fact of being responsible to someone for

3 accounting concept

something, e.g the accountability of

direc-tors to the shareholders

accountable

accountable /ə|kaυntəb(ə)l/ adjective

referring to a person who has to explain

what has taken place or who is responsible

for something (NOTE: You are accountable

to someone for something.)

account analysis

account analysis /ə|kaυnt ə|nləsis/

noun analysis of a company’s accounts with

the aim of discerning how its activities affect

its costs

accountancy

accountancy /ə|kaυntənsi/ noun the

work of an accountant 쑗 They are studying

accountancy or They are accountancy

stu-dents.

accountancy bodies

accountancy bodies /ə|kaυntənsi

bɒdiz/ plural noun professional

institu-tions and associainstitu-tions for accountants

accountancy profession

accountancy profession /ə|kaυntənsi

prə|feʃ(ə)n/ noun the professional bodies

that establish entry standards, organise

pro-fessional examinations, and draw up ethical

and technical guidelines for accountants

accountant

accountant /ə|kaυntənt/ noun 1. a

per-son who keeps a company’s accounts or

deals with an individual person’s tax affairs

쑗 The chief accountant of a manufacturing

group 쑗 The accountant has shown that

there is a sharp variance in our labour costs.

2. a person who advises a company on its

finances 쑗 I send all my income tax queries

to my accountant. 3. a person who examines

accounts

Accountants’ International Study Group

Accountants’ International Study

Group /ə|kaυntənts intənʃ(ə)nəl

stdi rup/ noun a body of professional

accounting bodies from the United States,

Canada, and the United Kingdom that was

established in 1966 to research accounting

practices in the three member countries

After publishing 20 reports, it was

dis-banded in 1977 with the foundation of the

International Federation of Accountants

accountant’s liability

accountant’s liability /ə|kaυntənts

laiə|biliti/ noun the legal liability of an

accountant who commits fraud or is held to

be negligent

accountants’ opinion

accountants’ opinion /ə|kaυntənts ə|

pinjən/ noun a report of the audit of a

com-pany’s books, carried out by a certified

pub-lic accountant (NOTE: The US term is audit

opinion.)

accountants’ report

accountants’ report /ə|kaυntənts ri|

pɔt/ noun in the United Kingdom, a report

written by accountants that is required by the

London Stock Exchange to be included in

the prospectus of a company seeking a

list-ing on the Exchange

account code

account code /ə|kaυnt kəυd/ noun anumber assigned to a particular account in anumerical accounting system, e.g., a chart ofaccounts

account end

account end /ə|kaυnt end/ noun the end

of an accounting periodaccount executive

account executive /ə|kaυnt i|

zekjυtiv/ noun 1. an employee who looksafter customers or who is the link betweencustomers and the company 2. an employee

of an organisation such as a bank, publicrelations firm or advertising agency who isresponsible for looking after particular cli-ents and handling their business with theorganisation

account form

account form /ə|kaυnt fɔm/ noun a ance sheet laid out in horizontal form It isthe opposite of ‘report’ or ‘vertical’ form.accounting

bal-accounting /ə|kaυntiŋ/ noun 1. the work

of recording money paid, received, rowed, or owed 쑗 accounting methods 쑗

bor-accounting procedures 쑗 an accounting

machine 2. accountancy, the work of anaccountant as a course of study

‘…applicants will be professionally fied and have a degree in Commerce or

quali-Accounting’ [Australian Financial

Review]

Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand

Accounting and Finance tion of Australia and New Zealand /ə|

Associa-kaυntiŋ ən fainns ə|səυsieiʃ(ə)n əv ɒs|

treiliə ən nju zilənd/ noun an tion for accounting and finance academics,researchers and professionals working inAustralia and New Zealand Abbreviation

organisa-AFAANZ

accounting bases

accounting bases /ə|kaυntiŋ beisiz/

plural noun the possible ways in whichaccounting concepts may be applied tofinancial transactions, e.g the methods used

to depreciate assets, how intangible assets orwork in progress are dealt with

accounting change

accounting change /ə|kaυntiŋ

/ noun any of various changes thataffect a set of accounts, e.g a change in themethod of calculating the depreciation ofassets or a change in the size, structure ornature of the company

accounting concept

accounting concept /ə|kaυntiŋ

kɒnsept/ noun a general assumption onwhich accounts are prepared The main con-cepts are: that the business is a going con-cern, that revenue and costs are noted whenthey are incurred and not when cash isreceived or paid, that the present accountsare drawn up following the same principles

as the previous accounts, that the revenue or

accounting control 4

costs are only recorded if it is certain that

they will be incurred

accounting control

accounting control /ə|kaυntiŋ kən|

trəυl/ noun procedures designed to ensure

that source data for accounts are accurate

and proper, in order to prevent fraud

accounting conventions

accounting conventions /ə|kaυntiŋ

kən|venʃ(ə)nz/ plural noun the

fundamen-tal assumptions that govern the practice of

accounting, e.g., consistency and prudence

쒁 conceptual framework

accounting cycle

accounting cycle /ə|kaυntiŋ saik(ə)l/

noun the regular process of recording,

ana-lysing and reporting a company’s

transac-tions for a given period

accounting date

accounting date /ə|kaυntiŋ deit/ noun

the date on which an accounting period

ends, usually 31st December for annual

accounts but it can in fact be any date

Accounting Directives

Accounting Directives /ə|kaυntiŋ dai|

rektivz/ plural noun a set of EU directives

issued with the aim of regulating accounting

procedures in member states

accounting entity

accounting entity /ə|kaυntiŋ entəti/

noun the unit for which financial statements

and accounting records are prepared, e.g., a

limited company or a partnership 쒁

report-ing entity

accounting equation

accounting equation /ə|kaυntiŋ i|

/ noun the basic formula that

underpins double-entry bookkeeping It can

be expressed most simply as ‘assets +

expenses = liabilities + capital + revenue’

where the debit amounts to the left of the

equals sign must be equivalent to the credit

amounts to the right Also called balance

sheet equation

accounting error

accounting error /ə|kaυntiŋ erə/ noun

any accounting inaccuracy or

misrepresen-tation that is the result of error, not

inten-tional fraud

accounting event

accounting event /ə|kaυntiŋ i|vent/

noun a transaction recorded in a business’s

books of account

accounting fees

accounting fees /ə|kaυntiŋ fiz/ plural

noun fees paid to an accountant for

prepar-ing accounts, which are deductible against

tax

accounting information system

accounting information system /ə|

kaυntiŋ infə|meiʃ(ə)n sistəm/ noun a

system, usually computer-based, that

proc-esses information on a company’s

transac-tions for accounting purposes

accounting manual

accounting manual /ə|kaυntiŋ

mnjuəl/ noun a handbook or set of

instructions that set out all procedures and

responsibilities of those engaged in an

entity’s accounting systems

accounting period

accounting period /ə|kaυntiŋ piəriəd/

noun a period of time at the end of which thefirm’s accounts are made up

accounting policies

accounting policies /ə|kaυntiŋ

pɒlisiz/ plural noun the accounting basesused by a company when preparing its finan-cial statements

accounting practice

accounting practice /ə|kaυntiŋ

prktis/ noun the way in which ants and auditors implement accounting pol-icies

account-accounting principles

accounting principles /ə|kaυntiŋ

prinsip(ə)lz/ plural noun standards ofaccuracy and probity that apply to those car-rying out accounting procedures

Accounting Principles Board

Accounting Principles Board /ə|

kaυntiŋ prinsip(ə)lz bɔd/ noun the USbody which issued Opinions that formedmuch of US Generally Accepted Account-ing Principles up to 1973 when the FinancialAccounting Standards Board (FASB) tookover that role Abbreviation APB

accounting procedure

accounting procedure /ə|kaυntiŋ prə|

/ noun an accounting method oped by an individual or organisation to dealwith routine accounting tasks

devel-accounting profits

accounting profits /ə|kaυntiŋ prɒfits/

plural noun the difference between revenueand the costs of production

accounting rate of return

accounting rate of return /ə|kaυntiŋreit əv ri|tn/ noun a method of valuingshares in a company where the company’sestimated future profits are divided by therate of return required by investors Abbrevi-ation ARR

accounting records

accounting records /ə|kaυntiŋ

rekɔdz/ plural noun all documents inwhich accounting information is recorded,used during the preparation of financialstatements

accounting reference date

accounting reference date /ə|kaυntiŋ

ref(ə)rəns deit/ noun the last day of acompany’s accounting reference period.Abbreviation ARD

accounting reference period

accounting reference period /ə|

kaυntiŋ ref(ə)rəns piəriəd/ noun 1. theperiod for which a company makes up itsaccounts In most, but not all, cases, theperiod is 12 months. 2. the period for whichcorporation tax is calculated

accounting software

accounting software /ə|kaυntiŋ

sɒftweə/ noun computer programs used toenter and process accounts informationaccounting standard

accounting standard /ə|kaυntiŋ

stndəd/ noun an authoritative statement

of how particular types of transaction andother events should be reflected in financialstatements Compliance with accounting

5 accumulated profit

standards will normally be necessary for

financial statements to give a true and fair

view (NOTE: These principles are

recom-mended by the Accounting Standards

Board in the United Kingdom or by the

FASB in the United States.)

Accounting Standards Board

Accounting Standards Board /ə|

kaυntiŋ stndədz bɔd/ noun a

commit-tee set up by British accounting institutions

to monitor methods used in accounting

Abbreviation ASB

Accounting Standards Committee

Accounting Standards Committee

/ə|kaυntiŋ stndədz kə|miti/ noun a UK

accounting standards issuing body whose

functions were taken over by the ASB in

1990 Abbreviation ASC

accounting system

accounting system /ə|kaυntiŋ

sistəm/ noun the means used by an

organi-sation to produce its accounting information

accounting technician

accounting technician /ə|kaυntiŋ tek|

niʃ(ə)n/ noun a person who assists in the

preparation of accounts but who is not a

fully qualified accountant

accounting unit

accounting unit /ə|kaυntiŋ junit/

noun any unit which takes part in financial

transactions which are recorded in a set of

accounts It can be a department, a sole

trader, a Plc or some other unit

account payee

account payee /ə|kaυnt pei|i/ noun the

words printed on most UK cheques

indicat-ing that the cheque can only be paid into the

account of the person or business to whom

the cheque is written, or be cashed for a fee

at an agency offering a cheque cashing

serv-ice

accounts

accounts /ə|kaυnts/ plural noun detailed

records of a company’s financial affairs

accounts department

accounts department /ə|kaυnts di|

pɑtmənt/ noun a department in a

com-pany which deals with money paid,

received, borrowed, or owed

accounts manager

accounts manager /ə|kaυnts

/ noun the manager of an

accounts department

accounts payable

accounts payable /ə|kaυnts peiəb(ə)l/

plural noun money owed by a company

accounts receivable

accounts receivable /ə|kaυnts ri|

sivəb(ə)l/ plural noun money owed to a

company Abbreviation AR

accounts receivable turnover

accounts receivable turnover /ə|

kaυnts ri|sivəb(ə)l tnəυvə/ noun a

statistic showing on average how long

cus-tomers take to pay money they owe for

goods or services received

accrete

accrete /ə|krit/ verb 1 (of a fund) to have

interest added to it 2 (of assets) to grow as

a result of mergers, expansion or the

acqui-sition of other interests

accretion

accretion /ə|kriʃ(ə)n/ noun the process

of adding interest to a fund over a period oftime

accrual

accrual /ə|kruəl/ noun a gradual increase

by additionaccruals

accruals /ə|kruəlz/ plural noun same as

accrued liabilities

accruals basis

accruals basis /ə|kruəl beisis/, als concept /ə|kruəlz kɒnsept/ noun amethod of preparing accounts in which rev-enues and costs are both reported during theperiod to which they refer and not during theperiod when payments are received or madeaccrue

accru-accrue /ə|kru/ verb 1. to record a cial transaction in accounts when it takesplace, and not when payment is made orreceived 2. to increase and be due for pay-ment at a later date 쑗 Interest accrues from

finan-the beginning of finan-the month.

accrued dividend

accrued dividend /ə|krud dividend/

noun a dividend earned since the last dend was paid

divi-accrued expense

accrued expense /ə|krud ik|spens/

noun an expense that has been incurredwithin a given accounting period but not yetpaid

accrued income

accrued income /ə|krud inkm/ noun

revenue entered in accounts, although ment has not yet been received

pay-accrued interest

accrued interest /ə|krud intrəst/ noun

interest which has been earned by an est-bearing investment 쑗 Accrued interest is

inter-added quarterly.

accrued liabilities

accrued liabilities /ə|krud laiə|

bilitiz/ plural noun liabilities which arerecorded in an accounting period, althoughpayment has not yet been made This refers

to liabilities such as rent, electricity, etc.Also called accruals

accrued revenue

accrued revenue /ə|krud revənju/

noun same as accrued income

accumulate

accumulate /ə|kjumjυleit/ verb to grow

in quantity by being added to, or to get more

of something over a period of time 쑗 We

allow dividends to accumulate in the fund.

accumulated depreciation

accumulated depreciation /ə|

kjumjυleitid di|priʃi|eiʃ(ə)n/ noun thetotal amount by which an asset has beendepreciated since it was purchasedaccumulated earnings tax

accumulated earnings tax /ə|

kjumjυleitid niŋz tks/, lated profits tax /ə|kjumjυleitid prɒfits

accumu-tks/ noun US a tax on earnings above aspecified limit which are unjustifiablyretained in a business to avoid paying higherpersonal income tax

accumulated profit

accumulated profit /ə|kjumjυleitid

prɒfit/ noun a profit which is not paid as

accumulated reserves 6

dividend but is taken over into the accounts

of the following year

accumulated reserves

accumulated reserves /ə|

kjumjυleitid ri|zvz/ plural noun

reserves which a company has put aside over

a period of years

accumulation

accumulation /ə|kjumjυ|leiʃ(ə)n/

noun the process of growing larger by being

added to, or of getting more and more of

acid test /sid test/, acid test ratio

noun same as liquidity ratio

acquisition

acquisition /kwi|ziʃ(ə)n/ noun the

takeover of a company The results and cash

flows of the acquired company are brought

into the group accounts only from the date of

acquisition: the figures for the previous

period for the reporting entity should not be

adjusted The difference between the fair

value of the net identifiable assets acquired

and the fair value of the purchase

considera-tion is goodwill

acquisition accounting

acquisition accounting /kwi|

ziʃ(ə)n ə|kaυntiŋ/ noun a full

consolida-tion, where the assets of a subsidiary

com-pany which has been purchased are included

in the parent company’s balance sheet, and

the premium paid for the goodwill is written

off against the year’s earnings

across-the-board

across-the-board /ə|krɒs ðə bɔd/

adjective applying to everything or everyone

쑗 an across-the-board price increase or

wage increase

act

act /kt/ noun a law passed by parliament

which must be obeyed by the people

active

active /ktiv/ adjective involving many

transactions or activities 쑗 an active

demand for oil shares 쑗 an active day on the

Stock Exchange 쑗 Computer shares are very

active.

active account

active account /ktiv ə|kaυnt/ noun

an account, such as a bank account or

invest-ment account, which is used to deposit and

withdraw money frequently

active partner

active partner /ktiv pɑtnə/ noun a

partner who works in a company that is a

partnership

activity

activity /k|tiviti/ noun something which

is done, especially something which is

involved in creating a product or a service

‘…preliminary indications of the level of

business investment and activity during

the March quarter will provide a good

pic-ture of economic activity in the year’

[Aus-tralian Financial Review]

activity-based budgeting

activity-based budgeting /k|tiviti

/ noun the allocation ofresources to individual activities Activity-based budgeting involves determiningwhich activities incur costs within an organ-isation, establishing the relationshipsbetween them, and then deciding how much

of the total budget should be allocated toeach activity Abbreviation ABB

activity-based management

activity-based management /k|

/ noun a tem of management that uses activity-basedcost information for a variety of purposesincluding cost reduction, cost modelling andcustomer profitability analysis Abbrevia-tion ABM

sys-activity chart

activity chart /k|tiviti tʃɑt/ noun aplan showing work which has been done,made so that it can be compared to a previ-ous plan showing how much work should bedone

activity cost pool

activity cost pool /k|tiviti kɒst pul/

noun a grouping of all cost elements ated with an activity

associ-activity driver

activity driver /k|tiviti draivə/ a type

of cost driver which is used to quantify theactivities involved in creating a product orservice

activity driver analysis

activity driver analysis /k|tiviti

draivər ə|nləsis/ noun the identificationand evaluation of the activity drivers used totrace the cost of activities to cost objects Itmay also involve selecting activity driverswith potential to contribute to the cost man-agement function with particular reference

to cost reduction

act of God

act of God /kt əv ɒd/ noun thing you do not expect to happen and whichcannot be avoided, e.g a storm or a flood(NOTE: Acts of God are not usually covered

some-by insurance policies.)

actual

actual /ktʃuəl/ adjective real or correct

쑗 What is the actual cost of one unit? 쑗 The

actual figures for directors’ expenses are not shown to the shareholders.

actual cash value

actual cash value /ktʃuəl kʃ

vlju/ noun the amount of money, lessdepreciation, that it would cost to replacesomething damaged beyond repair with acomparable item

actual cost

actual cost /ktʃuəl kɒst/ noun the totalcost of producing or buying an item, which

7 adjustable

may include, e.g., its price plus the cost of

delivery or storage

actual price

actual price /ktʃuəl prais/ noun a

price for a commodity which is for

immedi-ate delivery

actuals

actuals /ktʃuəlz/ plural noun real

fig-ures 쑗 These figures are the actuals for last

year.

actuarial

actuarial /ktʃu|eəriəl/ adjective

calcu-lated by an actuary 쑗 The premiums are

worked out according to actuarial

calcula-tions.

actuarial tables

actuarial tables /ktʃueəriəl

teib(ə)lz/ plural noun lists showing how

long people are likely to live, used to

calcu-late life assurance premiums and annuities

actuary

actuary /ktʃuəri/ noun a person

employed by an insurance company or other

organisation to calculate the risk involved in

an insurance, and therefore the premiums

payable by people taking out insurance

add

add /d/ verb to put figures together to

make a total 쑗 If you add the interest to the

capital you will get quite a large sum 쑗

Interest is added monthly.

add up /d p/ phrasal verb to put several

figures together to make a total 쑗 He made

a mistake in adding up the column of

fig-ures.

add up to /d p tυ/ phrasal verb to make

a total of 쑗 The total expenditure adds up to

more than £1,000.

added value

added value /did vlju/ noun an

amount added to the value of a product or

service, equal to the difference between its

cost and the amount received when it is sold

Wages, taxes, etc are deducted from the

added value to give the profit 쒁 VAT

addend

addend /dend/ noun a number added to

the augend in an addition

addition

addition /ə|diʃ(ə)n/ noun 1. a thing or

per-son added 쑗 The management has stopped

all additions to the staff 쑗 We are exhibiting

several additions to our product line 쑗 The

marketing director is the latest addition to

the board. 2. an arithmetical operation

con-sisting of adding together two or more

num-bers to make a sum 쑗 You don’t need a

cal-culator to do simple addition.

additional

additional /ə|diʃ(ə)nəl/ adjective extra

which is added 쑗 additional costs 쑗 They

sent us a list of additional charges 쑗 Some

additional clauses were added to the

con-tract 쑗 Additional duty will have to be paid.

additional personal allowance

additional personal allowance /ə|

diʃ(ə)nəl ps(ə)n(ə)l ə|laυəns/ noun a

tax allowance which can be claimed by a

single person who has a child of school age

living with them, formerly called the gle-parent allowance’

‘sin-additional premium

additional premium /ə|diʃ(ə)nəl

primiəm/ noun a payment made to coverextra items in an existing insuranceadditional voluntary contributions

additional voluntary contributions

/ə|diʃ(ə)n(ə)l vɒlənt(ə)ri kɒntri|

bjuʃ(ə)nz/ plural noun extra paymentsmade voluntarily by an employee to a pen-sion scheme on top of the normal contribu-tions, up to a maximum of 15% of grossearnings Abbreviation AVCs

adequate disclosure

adequate disclosure /dikwət dis|

/ noun a comprehensive tion of statistics in financial statements, suchthat they can be used to inform investmentdecisions

presenta-adjudicate

adjudicate /ə| / verb to give ajudgment between two parties in law or todecide a legal problem 쑗 to adjudicate a

claim 쑗 to adjudicate in a dispute 왍 he was

adjudicated bankrupt he was declared

legally bankruptadjudication

adjudication /ə| |keiʃ(ə)n/ noun

the act of giving a judgment or of deciding alegal problem

adjudication of bankruptcy

adjudication of bankruptcy /ə|

/ noun alegal order making someone bankruptadjudication tribunal

adjudication tribunal /ə| |

keiʃ(ə)n trai|bjun(ə)l/ noun a groupwhich adjudicates in industrial disputesadjudicator

adjudicator /ə| / noun 1. aperson who gives a decision on a problem 쑗

an adjudicator in an industrial dispute 2.왍

the Adjudicator official who examines

complaints from individuals and businessesabout how the Inland Revenue handles theiraffairs, but does not deal with questions oftax liability

adjust

adjust /ə| / verb to change something

to fit new conditions 쑗 Prices are adjusted

for inflation.

‘…inflation-adjusted GNP moved up at a

1.3% annual rate’ [Fortune]

‘Saudi Arabia will no longer adjust its duction to match short-term supply with

pro-demand’ [Economist]

‘…on a seasonally-adjusted basis, output

of trucks, electric power, steel and paper

decreased’ [Business Week]

adjustable rate mortgage

adjustable rate mortgage /ə|

/ noun a gage where the interest rate changes accord-ing to the current market rates Abbreviation

mort-ARM

adjustable

adjustable rate preferred stock /ə|

fd stɒk/ noun

adjusted gross income 8

preference shares on which dividends are

paid in line with the interest rate on Treasury

bills Abbreviation ARPS

adjusted gross income

adjusted gross income /ə|

rəυs inkm/ noun US a person’s total

annual income less expenses, pension

con-tributions, capital losses, etc., used as a basis

to calculate federal income tax

Abbrevia-tion AGI

adjuster

adjuster /ə| / noun a person who

calculates losses for an insurance company

adjusting entry

adjusting entry /ə| / noun

an entry in accounts which is made to

cor-rect a mistake in the accounts

adjustment

adjustment /ə| / noun 1. an

entry in accounts which does not represent a

receipt or payment, but which is made to

make the accounts correct 2. a change in the

exchange rates, made to correct a balance of

payment deficit

administer

administer /əd|ministə/ verb to organise,

manage or direct the whole of an

organisa-tion or part of one 쑗 She administers a large

pension fund.

administered price

administered price /əd|ministəd

prais/ noun US a price fixed by a

manufac-turer which cannot be varied by a retailer

(NOTE: The UK term is resale price

mainte-nance.)

administration

administration /əd|mini|streiʃ(ə)n/

noun 1. the action of organising, controlling

or managing a company 2. an appointment

by a court of a person to manage the affairs

of a company

administration costs

administration costs /əd|mini|

streiʃ(ə)n kɒsts/, administration

expenses /əd|mini|streiʃ(ə)n ik|spensiz/

plural noun the costs of management, not

including production, marketing, or

ministrətiv ri|sivə/ noun a person

appointed by a court to administer the affairs

of a company

administrative receivership

administrative receivership /əd|

ministrətiv ri|sivəʃip/ noun the

appoint-ment of an administrative receiver by a

debenture holder

administrator

administrator /əd|ministreitə/ noun 1. a

person who directs the work of other

employees in a business 쑗 After several

years as a college teacher, she hopes to

become an administrator. 2. a person

appointed by a court to manage the affairs of

someone who dies without leaving a will

orem duty 쑗 ad valorem tax

ad valorem duty

ad valorem duty /d və|lɔrəm djuti/

noun the duty calculated on the sales value

of the goods

ad valorem tax

ad valorem tax /d və|lɔrem tks/

noun a tax calculated according to the value

of the goods taxedadvance

advance /əd|vɑns/ noun money paid as aloan or as a part of a payment to be madelater 쑗 She asked if she could have a cash

advance 쑗 We paid her an advance on

account 쑗 Can I have an advance of $100

against next month’s salary? 쐽 adjective

early, or taking place before something elsehappens 쑗 advance payment 쑗 Advance

holiday bookings are up on last year 쑗 You

must give seven days’ advance notice of withdrawals from the account.쐽 verb 1. topay an amount of money to someone as aloan or as a part of a payment to be madelater 쑗 The bank advanced him $100,000

against the security of his house. 2. to makesomething happen earlier 쑗 The date of the

shipping has been advanced to May 10th 쑗

The meeting with the German distributors has been advanced from 11.00 to 9.30.

advance payment guarantee

advance payment guarantee /əd|

vɑns peimənt rən|ti/, advance ment bond /əd|vɑns peimənt bɒnd/

pay-noun a guarantee that enables a buyer torecover an advance payment made under acontract or order if the supplier fails to fulfilits contractual obligations

adverse balance

adverse balance /dvs bləns/

noun the deficit on an account, especially anation’s balance of payments accountadverse opinion

adverse opinion /dvs ə|pinjən/

noun US an auditor’s report that a pany’s financial statement is not a fair repre-sentation of the company’s actual financialposition

com-adverse variance

adverse variance /dvs veəriəns/

noun variance which shows that the actualresult is worse than expected Also called

9 agreed

advisory

advisory /əd|vaiz(ə)ri/ adjective as an

adviser 쑗 She is acting in an advisory

capacity.

advisory funds

advisory funds /əd|vaiz(ə)ri fndz/

plural noun funds placed with a financial

institution to invest on behalf of a client, the

institution investing them at its own

discre-tion

AFAANZ

AFAANZ abbreviation Accounting and

Finance Association of Australia and New

Zealand

AFBD

AFBD abbreviation Association of Futures

Brokers and Dealers

affiliated

affiliated /ə|filieitid/ adjective connected

with or owned by another company 쑗 Smiths

Ltd is one of our affiliated companies.

affiliated enterprise

affiliated enterprise /ə|filieitid

entəpraiz/, affiliated company /ə|

filieitid kmp(ə)ni/ noun company

which is partly owned by another (though

less than 50%), and where the share-owning

company exerts some management control

or has a close trading relationship with the

associate 쑗 one of our affiliated companies

aftermarket

aftermarket /ɑftə|mɑkit/ noun a

mar-ket in new shares, which starts immediately

after trading in the shares begins

after tax

after tax /ɑftər tks/ adverb after tax

has been paid

after-tax profit

after-tax profit /ɑftə tks prɒfit/

noun a profit after tax has been deducted

age analysis of debtors

age analysis of debtors / |

nləsis əv detəz/ noun the amount owed

by debtors, classified by age of debt

aged debtors analysis

aged debtors analysis / |

nləsis/, ageing schedule /

ʃedjul/ noun a list which analyses a

com-pany’s debtors, showing the number of days

their payments are outstanding

agency

agency / / noun 1. an office or job

of representing another company in an area

쑗 They signed an agency agreement or an

agency contract. 2. an office or business

which arranges things for other companies

agency bank

agency bank / / noun a

bank which does not accept deposits, but

acts as an agent for another, usually foreign,

bank

agency bill

agency bill / / noun a bill of

exchange drawn on the local branch of a

for-eign bank

agency broker

agency broker / / noun

a dealer who acts as the agent for an investor,

buying and selling for a commission

agency worker

agency worker / / noun

a person who is employed by an agency to

work for another company He or she is

taxed as an employee of the agency, not ofthe company where he or she actuallyworks

agenda

agenda /ə| / noun a list of things to

be discussed at a meeting 쑗 The conference

agenda or the agenda of 쑗 After two hours

we were still discussing the first item on the agenda 쑗 We usually put finance at the top

of the agenda 쑗 The chair wants two items

removed from or taken off the agenda.

agent

agent / / noun 1. a person who resents a company or another person in anarea 쑗 to be the agent for BMW cars 쑗 to be

rep-the agent for IBM 2. a person in charge of anagency 쑗 The estate agent sent me a list of

properties for sale.

agent bank

agent bank / / noun a bankwhich uses the credit card system set up byanother bank

agent’s commission

agent’s commission / |

miʃ(ə)n/ noun money, often a percentage

of sales, paid to an agentage-related

age-related / |leitid/ adjective

connected with a person’s ageage-related allowance

age-related allowance / |leitid

ə|laυəns/ noun an extra tax allowancewhich a person over 65 may be entitled toaggregate

aggregate /riət/ adjective total, witheverything added together 쑗 aggregate out-

put

aggregate demand

aggregate demand /riət di|

mɑnd/ noun the total demand for goodsand services from all sectors of the economyincluding individuals, companies and thegovernment 쑗 Economists are studying the

recent fall in aggregate demand 쑗 As

incomes have risen, so has aggregate demand.

aggregate risk

aggregate risk /riət risk/ noun therisk which a bank runs in lending to a cus-tomer

aggregate supply

aggregate supply /riət sə|plai/

noun all goods and services on the market 쑗

Is aggregate supply meeting aggregate demand?

2. the difference between two values, such

as between the interest charged on loansmade by a bank and the interest paid by thebank on deposits, or the difference betweenthe values of two currencies

agreed price 10

amount each month 쑗 The agreed terms of

employment are laid down in the contract.

agreed price

agreed price /ə|rid prais/ noun a price

which has been accepted by both the buyer

and seller

AICPA

AICPA abbreviation American Institute of

Certified Public Accountants

AIM

AIM abbreviation Alternative Investment

Market

airmail transfer

airmail transfer /eəmeil trnsf/

noun an act of sending money from one

bank to another by airmail

alien corporation

alien corporation /eiliən kɔpə|

reiʃ(ə)n/ noun US a company which is

incorporated in a foreign country

A list

A list /ei list/ noun a list of members of a

company at the time it is wound up who may

be liable for the company’s unpaid debts

all-in price

all-in price /ɔl in prais/ noun a price

which covers all items in a purchase such as

goods, delivery, tax or insurance

all-in rate

all-in rate /ɔl in reit/ noun 1. a price

which covers all the costs connected with a

purchase, such as delivery, tax and

insur-ance, as well as the cost of the goods

them-selves 2. a wage which includes all extra

payments such as bonuses and merit pay

allocate

allocate /ləkeit/ verb 1. to divide

some-thing in various ways and share it out 쑗 How

are we going to allocate the available office

space? 2. to assign a whole item of cost, or

of revenue, to a single cost unit, centre,

account or time period

allocated costs

allocated costs /lə|keitd kɒsts/

plu-ral noun overhead costs which have been

allocated to a specific cost centre

allocation

allocation /lə|keiʃ(ə)n/ noun the

proc-ess of providing sums of money for

particu-lar purposes, or a sum provided for a

pur-pose 쑗 the allocation of funds to a project

allot

allot /ə|lɒt/ verb to share out

allotment

allotment /ə|lɒtmənt/ noun 1. the process

of sharing out something, especially money

between various departments, projects or

people 쑗 The allotment of funds to each

project is the responsibility of the finance

director. 2. the act of giving shares in a new

company to people who have applied for

them 쑗 share allotment 쑗 payment in full on

allotment

allow

allow /ə|laυ/ verb 1. to say that someone

can do something 쑗 Junior members of staff

are not allowed to use the chairman’s lift 쑗

The company allows all members of staff to

take six days’ holiday at Christmas. 2. to

give 쑗 to allow 5% discount to members of

staff 3. to agree to or accept legally 쑗 to

allow a claim or an appeal

allow for /ə|laυ fɔ/ phrasal verb to give adiscount for something, or to add an extrasum to cover something 쑗 to allow for mon-

ey paid in advance 쑗 Add on an extra 10%

to allow for postage and packing.

allowable

allowable /ə|laυəb(ə)l/ adjective legallyaccepted Opposite disallowable

allowable deductions

allowable deductions /ə|laυəb(ə)l di|

dkʃ(ə)ns/ plural noun deductions fromincome which are allowed by the InlandRevenue, and which reduce the tax payableallowable expenses

allowable expenses /ə|laυəb(ə)l ik|

spensiz/ plural noun business expenseswhich can be claimed against tax

allowable losses

allowable losses /ə|laυəb(ə)l lɒsiz/

plural noun losses, e.g on the sale of assets,which are allowed to be set off against gainsallowance

allowance /ə|laυəns/ noun 1. moneywhich is given for a special reason 쑗 a travel

allowance or a travelling allowance 2. a part

of an income which is not taxed 쑗

allow-ances against tax or tax allowallow-ances 쑗

per-sonal allowances (NOTE: The US term is

exemption) 3. money removed in the form

of a discount 쑗 an allowance for

deprecia-tion 쑗 an allowance for exchange loss

‘…the compensation plan includes base,incentive and car allowance totalling

$50,000+’ [Globe and Mail (Toronto)]

allowance for bad debt

allowance for bad debt /ə|laυəns fəbd det/ noun a provision made in a com-pany’s accounts for debts which may never

be paidallowances against tax

allowances against tax /ə|laυənsiz ə|

enst tks/ plural noun part of someone’sincome which is not taxed

all-risks policy

all-risks policy /ɔl risks pɒlisi/ noun

an insurance policy which covers risks ofany kind, with no exclusions

alternative cost

alternative cost /ɔl|tnətiv kɒst/

noun same as opportunity cost

Alternative Investment Market

Alternative Investment Market /ɔl|

lnətiv in|vestmənt mɑkit/ noun aLondon stock market, regulated by the Lon-don Stock Exchange, dealing in shares insmaller companies which are not listed onthe main London Stock Exchange Abbrevi-ation AIM (NOTE: The AIM is a way in which

smaller companies can sell shares to theinvesting public without going to theexpense of obtaining a full share listing.)

alternative minimum tax

alternative minimum tax /ɔl|lnətiv

miniməm tks/ noun US a way of lating US income tax that is intended toensure that wealthy individuals, corpora-tions, trusts, and estates pay at least some taxregardless of deductions, but that is increas-

calcu-11 Annual General Meeting

ingly targeting the middle class

Abbrevia-tion AMT

amalgamate

amalgamate /ə|mləmeit/ verb to join

together with another group 쑗 The

amalga-mated group includes six companies.

American Accounting Association

American Accounting Association

/ə|merikən ə|kaυntiŋ ə|səυsieiʃ(ə)n/

noun a US voluntary organisation for those

with an interest in accounting research and

best practice, which aims to promote

excel-lence in the creation, dissemination and

application of accounting knowledge and

skills Abbreviation AAA

American Depositary Receipt

American Depositary Receipt /ə|

merikən di|pɒzitri ri|sit/ noun a

docu-ment issued by an American bank to US

cit-izens, making them unregistered

sharehold-ers of companies in foreign countries The

document allows them to receive dividends

from their investments, and ADRs can

them-selves be bought or sold Abbreviation ADR

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

American Institute of Certified

Pub-lic Accountants /ə|merikən institjut

əv stifaid pblik ə|kaυntənts/ noun

the national association for certified public

accountants in the United States

Abbrevia-tion AICPA

amortisable

amortisable /mɔ|taizəb(ə)l/ adjective

being possible to amortise 쑗 The capital

cost is amortisable over a period of ten

years.

amortisation

amortisation /ə|mɔtai|zeiʃ(ə)n/ noun

an act of amortising 쑗 amortisation of a debt

amortisation period

amortisation period /ə|mɔtai|

zeiʃ(ə)n piəriəd/ noun the length of a

lease, used when depreciating the value of

the asset leased

amortise

amortise /ə|mɔtaiz/, amortize verb 1. to

repay a loan by regular payments, most of

which pay off the interest on the loan at first,

and then reduce the principal as the

repay-ment period progresses 쑗 The capital cost is

amortised over five years. 2. to depreciate or

to write down the capital value of an asset

over a period of time in a company’s

accounts

amount paid up

amount paid up /ə|maυnt peid p/

noun an amount paid for a new issue of

shares, either the total payment or the first

instalment, if the shares are offered with

instalment payments

amount realised

amount realised /ə|maυnt riəlaizd/

noun money received from the sale or

exchange of property

AMT

AMT abbreviation alternative minimum tax

analyse

analyse /nəlaiz/, analyze verb to

exam-ine someone or something in detail 쑗 to

analyse a statement of account 쑗 to analyse

the market potential

analysis

analysis /ə|nləsis/ noun a detailedexamination and report 쑗 a job analysis 쑗

market analysis 쑗 Her job is to produce a

regular sales analysis. (NOTE: The plural is

analytical review /nəlitik(ə)l ri|vju/

noun an examination of accounts from ferent periods for the purpose of identifyingratios, trends and changes in balancesangel

dif-angel / / noun an investor in a pany in its early stages, often looking forreturns over a longer period of time than aventure capitalist

com-annual

annual /njuəl/ adjective for one year 쑗

an annual statement of income 쑗 They have

six weeks’ annual leave 쑗 The company has

an annual growth of 5% 쑗 We get an annual

bonus.

‘…real wages have risen at an annual rate

of only 1% in the last two years’ [Sunday

Times]

‘…the remuneration package will include

an attractive salary, profit sharing and acompany car together with four weeks’

annual holiday’ [Times]

annual accounts

annual accounts /njuəl ə|kaυnts/

plural noun the accounts prepared at the end

of a financial year 쑗 The annual accounts

have been sent to the shareholders.

annual depreciation

annual depreciation /njuəl di|priʃi|

eiʃ(ə)n/ noun a reduction in the book value

of an asset at a particular rate per year 쒁

straight line depreciation

annual depreciation provision

annual depreciation provision

/njuəl di|priʃi|eiʃ(ə)n prə| /

noun an assessment of the cost of an asset’sdepreciation in a given accounting periodannual exemptions

annual exemptions /njuəl i|

zempʃ(ə)nz/ plural noun the amount ofincome which is exempt from tax For exam-ple, the first £8,500 in capital gains in anyone year is exempt from tax

Annual General Meeting

Annual General Meeting /njuəl

/ noun an annual ing of all shareholders of a company, whenthe company’s financial situation is pre-sented by and discussed with the directors,when the accounts for the past year areapproved and when dividends are declaredand audited Abbreviation AGM (NOTE: The

meet-US term is annual meeting or annual stockholders’ meeting.)

annual income 12

annual income

annual income /njuəl inkm/ noun

money received during a calendar year

annualised

annualised /njuəlaizd/, annualized

adjective shown on an annual basis

‘…he believes this may have caused the

economy to grow at an annualized rate of

almost 5 per cent in the final quarter of last

year’ [Investors Chronicle]

annualised percentage rate

annualised percentage rate

/njuəlaizd pə| / noun a

yearly percentage rate, calculated by

multi-plying the monthly rate by twelve

Abbrevi-ation APR (NOTE: The annualised

percent-age rate is not as accurate as the Annual

Percentage Rate (APR), which includes

fees and other charges.)

annually

annually /njuəli/ adverb each year 쑗

The figures are updated annually.

annual management charge

annual management charge /njuəl

/ noun a charge made

by the financial institution which is

manag-ing an account

annual meeting

annual meeting /njuəl mitiŋ/ noun

US same as Annual General Meeting

Annual Percentage Rate

Annual Percentage Rate /njuəl pə|

/ noun a rate of interest (such

as on a hire-purchase agreement) shown on

an annual compound basis, and including

fees and charges Abbreviation APR

annual report

annual report /njuəl ri|pɔt/ noun a

report of a company’s financial situation at

the end of a year, sent to all the shareholders

annual return

annual return /njuəl ri|tn/ noun an

official report which a registered company

has to make each year to the Registrar of

Companies

annuitant

annuitant /ə|njuitənt/ noun a person

who receives an annuity

annuity

annuity /ə|njuiti/ noun money paid each

year to a retired person, usually in return for

a lump-sum payment The value of the

annu-ity depends on how long the person lives, as

it usually cannot be passed on to another

person Annuities are fixed payments, and

lose their value with inflation, whereas a

pension can be index-linked 쑗 to buy or to

take out an annuity 쑗 She has a government

annuity or an annuity from the government.

annuity certain

annuity certain /ə|njuiti stən/ noun

an annuity that provides payments for a

spe-cific number of years, regardless of life or

death of the annuitant

annuity contract

annuity contract /ə|njuiti kɒntrkt/

noun a contract under which a person is paid

a fixed sum regularly for life

antedate

antedate /nti|deit/ verb to put an

ear-lier date on a document 쑗 The invoice was

antedated to January 1st.

anti-dumping duty

anti-dumping duty /nti dmpiŋ

djuti/ noun same as countervailing duty

APB

APB abbreviation 1. Accounting PrinciplesBoard 2. Auditing Practices BoardAppeals Commissioner

Appeals Commissioner noun a personappointed officially to supervise the collec-tion of taxes, including income tax, capitalgains tax and corporation tax, but not VATapplication

application /pli|keiʃ(ə)n/ noun 1. theact of asking for something, usually in writ-ing, or a document in which someone asksfor something, e.g a job 쑗 shares payable

on application 쑗 She sent off six

applica-tions for job or six job applicaapplica-tions. 2. effort

or diligence 쑗 She has shown great

applica-tion in her work on the project.

application of funds

application of funds /pli|keiʃ(ə)n əv

fndz/ noun details of the way in whichfunds have been spent during an accountingperiod

appraisal /ə|preiz(ə)l/ noun a calculation

of the value of someone or somethingappraise

appraise /ə|preiz/ verb to assess or to culate the value of something or someoneappreciate

cal-appreciate /ə|priʃieit/ verb (of currency,

shares, etc.) to increase in valueappreciation

appreciation /ə|priʃi|eiʃ(ə)n/ noun 1.

an increase in value Also called capital appreciation 2. the act of valuing some-thing highly 쑗 She was given a pay rise in

appreciation of her excellent work.

appropriation /ə|prəυpri|eiʃ(ə)n/ noun

the act of putting money aside for a specialpurpose 쑗 appropriation of funds to the

reserve

13 articles of incorporation

appropriation account

appropriation account /ə|prəυpri|

eiʃ(ə)n ə|kaυnt/ noun the part of a profit

and loss account which shows how the profit

has been dealt with, e.g., how much has been

given to the shareholders as dividends and

how much is being put into the reserves

approval

approval /ə|pruv(ə)l/ noun the act of

say-ing or thinksay-ing that somethsay-ing is good 쑗 to

submit a budget for approval

approve

approve /ə|pruv/ verb 1.왍 to approve of

something to think something is good 쑗

The chairman approves of the new company

letter heading 쑗 The sales staff do not

approve of interference from the accounts

division. 2. to agree to something officially

쑗 to approve the terms of a contract 쑗 The

proposal was approved by the board.

approved accounts

approved accounts /ə|pruvd ə|

kaυnts/ plural noun accounts that have

been formally accepted by a company’s

board of directors

approved scheme

approved scheme /ə|pruvd skim/

noun a pension scheme or share purchase

scheme which has been approved by the

Inland Revenue

approved securities

approved securities /ə|pruvd si|

kjυəritiz/ plural noun state bonds which

can be held by banks to form part of their

reserves (NOTE: The list of these bonds is

the ‘approved list’.)

approximate

approximate /ə|prɒksimət/ adjective not

exact, but almost correct 쑗 The sales

divi-sion has made an approximate forecast of

expenditure.

approximately

approximately /ə|prɒksimətli/ adverb

not quite exactly, but close to the figure

shown 쑗 Expenditure on marketing is

approximately 10% down on the previous

quarter.

approximation

approximation /ə|prɒksi|meiʃ(ə)n/

noun a rough calculation 쑗 Each

depart-ment has been asked to provide an

approxi-mation of expenditure for next year 쑗 The

final figure is only an approximation.

arbitrage /ɑbi| / noun the business

of making a profit from the difference in

value of various assets, e.g by selling

for-eign currencies or commodities on one

mar-ket and buying on another at almost the

same time to profit from different exchange

rates, or by buying currencies forward and

selling them forward at a later date, to

bene-fit from a difference in prices

arbitrage syndicate

arbitrage syndicate /

sindikət/ noun a group of people whotogether raise the capital to invest in arbi-trage deals

arbitration

arbitration /ɑbi|treiʃ(ə)n/ noun the tling of a dispute by an outside party agreed

set-on by both sides 쑗 to take a dispute to

arbi-tration or to go to arbiarbi-tration 쑗 arbitration

in an industrial dispute 쑗 The two sides

decided to submit the dispute to arbitration

or to refer the question to arbitration.

arbitrator

arbitrator /ɑbitreitə/ noun a person notconcerned with a dispute who is chosen byboth sides to try to settle it 쑗 an industrial

arbitrator 쑗 They refused to accept or they

rejected the arbitrator’s ruling.

arithmetic mean /riθmetik min/

noun a simple average calculated by ing the sum of two or more items by thenumber of items

approxi-year to heat 쑗 Her salary is around

$85,000. 2. with a premium or discountARPS

ARPS abbreviation adjustable rate ferred stock

arrears /ə|riəz/ plural noun money which

is owed, but which has not been paid at theright time 쑗 a salary with arrears effective

from January 1st 쑗 We are pressing the

com-pany to pay arrears of interest 쑗 You must

not allow the mortgage payments to fall into arrears.

articles of association /ɑtik(ə)lz əv

ə|səυsi|eiʃ(ə)n/ plural noun a documentwhich lays down the rules for a companyregarding such matters as the issue of shares,the conduct of meetings and the appoint-ment of directors 쑗 This procedure is not

allowed under the articles of association of the company. (NOTE: The US term is

bylaws)

articles of incorporation

articles of incorporation /ɑtik(ə)lz

əv inkɔpəreiʃ(ə)n/ plural noun US same

articles of partnership 14

as memorandum and articles of

associa-tion

articles of partnership

articles of partnership /ɑtik(ə)lz əv

pɑtnəʃip/ plural noun same as

A shares /ei ʃeəz/ plural noun ordinary

shares with limited voting rights or no

vot-ing rights at all

asked price

asked price /ɑskt prais/ noun a price at

which a commodity or stock is offered for

sale by a seller, also called ‘offer price’ in

the UK

asking price

asking price /ɑskiŋ prais/ noun a price

which the seller is hoping will be paid for

the item being sold 쑗 the asking price is

$24,000

as per

as per /z p/쏡 per

assess

assess /ə|ses/ verb to calculate the value

of something or someone 쑗 to assess

dam-ages at £1,000 쑗 to assess a property for the

purposes of insurance

assessed value

assessed value /ə|sest vlju/ noun a

value that is the result of calculation by

someone such as an auditor or investment

advisor

assessment

assessment /ə|sesmənt/ noun a

calcula-tion of value 쑗 a property assessment 쑗 a

tax assessment

asset

asset /set/ noun 1. something which

belongs to a company or person, and which

has a value 쑗 He has an excess of assets over

liabilities 쑗 Her assets are only $640 as

against liabilities of $24,000. 2.왍 valuation

of a company on an assets basis

calculat-ing the value of a company on the basis of

the value of its assets (as opposed to a

valu-ation on an earnings or dividend yield basis)

asset-backed securities

asset-backed securities /set bkt

si|kjυəritiz/ plural noun bonds secured

against specific assets

asset backing

asset backing /set bkiŋ/ noun a

support for a share price provided by the

value of the company’s assets

asset-rich company

asset-rich company /set ritʃ

kmp(ə)ni/ noun company with valuable

tangible assets, such as property, which

pro-vide firm backing for its shares

assets

assets /sets/ plural noun all items of

property that contribute to the value of an

organisation, including tangible items such

as cash, stock and real estate, as well as

intangible items such as goodwill

asset stripper

asset stripper /set stripə/ noun a son who buys a company to sell its assetsasset stripping

per-asset stripping /set stripiŋ/ noun thepractice of buying a company at a lowerprice than its asset value, and then selling itsassets

asset turnover

asset turnover /set tnəυvə/ noun ameasure of a company’s efficiency that isthe ratio of sales revenue to total assetsasset turnover ratio

asset turnover ratio /set tnəυvə

reiʃiəυ/ noun the number of times assetsare turned over by sales during the year, cal-culated as turnover divided by total assetsless current liabilities

asset value

asset value /set vlju/ noun thevalue of a company calculated by addingtogether all its assets

assign

assign /ə|sain/ verb 1. to give something

to someone by means of an official legaltransfer 쑗 to assign a right to someone 쑗 to

assign shares to someone 2. to give someone

a job of work to do and make him or herresponsible for doing it 쑗 She was assigned

the task of checking the sales figures.

assignment /ə|sainmənt/ noun the legaltransfer of a property or right 쑗 the assign-

ment of a patent or of a copyright 쑗 to sign

pro-associate company

associate company /ə|səυsiət

kmp(ə)ni/ noun a company which ispartly owned by another companyassociated company

associated company /ə|səυsieitid

kmp(ə)ni/ noun a company which ispartly owned by another company (thoughless than 50%), which exerts some manage-ment control over it or has a close tradingrelationship with it 쑗 Smith Ltd and its asso-

ciated company, Jones Brothers

associate director

associate director /ə|səυsiət dai|

rektə/ noun a director who attends boardmeetings, but has not been elected by theshareholders

Association of Accounting Technicians

Association of Accounting cians /ə|səυsieiʃ(ə)n əv ə|kaυntiŋ

Techni-tekniʃ(ə)nz/ noun an organisation which

15 auction

represents accounting technicians and

grants membership to people who have

passed its examinations Abbreviation AAT

Association of Authorised Public Accountants

Association of Authorised Public

Accountants /ə|səυsieiʃ(ə)n əv

ɔθəraizd pblik ə|kaυntənts/ noun an

organisation which represents accountants

who have been authorised by the

govern-ment to work as auditors It is a subsidiary of

the Association of Chartered Certified

Accountants Abbreviation AAPA

Association of Chartered Accountants in the United States

Association of Chartered

Account-ants in the United States /ə|

səυsieiʃ(ə)n əv tʃɑtəd ə|kaυntənts in

ði ju|naitid steits/ noun an organisation

representing Chartered Accountants from

Australia, Canada, England and Wales,

Ire-land, New ZeaIre-land, Scotland and South

Africa who are based in the United States

Abbreviation ACAUS

Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

Association of Chartered Certified

Accountants /ə|səυsieiʃ(ə)n əv

tʃɑtəd stifaid ə|kaυntənts/ noun an

organisation whose members are certified

accountants Abbreviation ACCA

Association of Corporate Treasurers

Association of Corporate

Treasur-ers /ə|səυsieiʃ(ə)n əv kɔp(ə)rət

/ noun an organisation which

groups company treasurers and awards

membership to those who have passed its

examinations

Association of Financial Advisers

Association of Financial Advisers /ə|

səυsieiʃ(ə)n əv fai|nnʃ(ə)l əd|vaizəz/

noun a trade association that represents the

interests of independent financial advisers

Association of Futures Brokers and Dealers

Association of Futures Brokers and

Dealers /ə|səυsieiʃ(ə)n əv fjutʃəz

brəυkəz ən diləz/ noun a self-regulating

organisation which oversees the activities of

dealers in futures and options Abbreviation

AFBD

assumable mortgage

assumable mortgage /ə|sjuməb(ə)l

/ noun US a mortgage which can

be passed to another person

assurance

assurance /ə|ʃυərəns/ noun a type of

insurance which pays compensation for an

event that is certain to happen at some time,

especially for the death of the insured

per-son Also called life assurance, life

insur-ance

assure

assure /ə|ʃυə/ verb to insure someone, or

someone’s life, so that the insurance

com-pany will pay compensation when that

per-son dies 쑗 He has paid the premiums to have

his wife’s life assured. (NOTE: Assure,

assurer and assurance are used in Britain

for insurance policies relating to something

which will certainly happen (such as death);

for other types of policy (i.e those againstsomething which may or may not happen,

such as an accident) use the terms insure, insurer and insurance In the US insure, insurer and insurance are used for both.)

assurer

assurer /ə|ʃυərə/, assuror noun aninsurer or a company which insuresAST

AST abbreviation Automated Screen ing

Trad-at call

at call /t kɔl/ adverb immediatelyavailable

ATM

ATM abbreviation automated teller machine

‘Swiss banks are issuing new cards whichwill allow cash withdrawals from ATMs

in Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, theNetherlands, Portugal and Germany’

[Banking Technology]

‘…the major supermarket operator is ning a new type of bank that would earn90% of its revenue from fees on automatedteller machine transactions With the banksetting up ATMs at 7,000 group outletsnationwide, it would have a branch net-work at least 20 times larger than any of

plan-the major banks’ [Nikkei Weekly]

attachment of earnings

attachment of earnings /ə|ttʃmənt

əv niŋz/ noun a process in which a courtuses its legal authority to obtain directlyfrom a person’s salary money that the personowes to the court

attachment of earnings order

attachment of earnings order /ə|

ttʃmənt əv niŋz ɔdə/ noun a courtorder to make an employer pay part of anemployee’s salary to the court to pay offdebts

attachment order

attachment order /ə|ttʃmənt ɔdə/

noun an order from a court to hold a debtor’sproperty to prevent it being sold until debtsare paid

attest

attest /ə|test/ noun a formal statement,e.g a statement by an auditor that a com-pany’s financial position is correctly stated

in the company’s accountsattributable profit

attributable profit /ə|tribjυtəb(ə)l

prɒfit/ noun a profit which can be shown tocome from a particular area of the com-pany’s operations

auction

auction /ɔkʃən/ noun 1. a method of ing goods where people who want to buycompete with each other by saying how

sell-auctioneer 16

much they will offer for something, and the

item is sold to the person who makes the

highest offer 쑗 Their furniture will be sold

in the auction rooms next week 쑗 They

announced a sale by auction of the

fire-dam-aged stock 쑗 The equipment was sold by

auction or at auction 왍 to put an item up

for auction to offer an item for sale at an

auction 2. a method of selling government

stock, where all stock on issue will be sold,

and the highest price offered will be

accepted, as opposed to tendering쐽 verb to

sell something at an auction 쑗 The factory

was closed and the machinery was

auc-tioned off.

auctioneer

auctioneer /ɔkʃə|niə/ noun the person

who conducts an auction

audit

audit /ɔdit/ noun the examination of the

books and accounts of a company 쑗 to carry

out the annual audit쐽 verb to examine the

books and accounts of a company 쑗 Messrs

Smith have been asked to audit the accounts.

쑗 The books have not yet been audited 왍 to

audit the stock to carry out a stock control,

in front of witnesses, so as to establish the

exact quantities and value of stock

Audit Commission

Audit Commission /ɔdit kə|miʃ(ə)n/

noun British government agency whose

duty is to audit the accounts of ministries

and other government departments (NOTE:

The US term is General Accounting

Office.)

audit committee

audit committee /ɔdit kə|miti/ noun a

committee of a company’s board of directors

that monitors finances, on which company

executives cannot sit

audit cycle

audit cycle /ɔdit saik(ə)l/ noun the

interval between audits

audited accounts

audited accounts /ɔditid ə|kaυnts/

plural noun a set of accounts that have been

thoroughly scrutinised, checked and

approved by a team of auditors

audit fee

audit fee /ɔdit fi/ noun a fee charged by

an auditor for auditing a company’s

accounts

auditing

auditing /ɔditiŋ/ noun the work of

examining the books and accounts of a

com-pany

Auditing Practices Board

Auditing Practices Board /ɔditiŋ

prktisiz bɔd/ noun a body responsible

for developing and issuing professional

auditing standards in the United Kingdom

and the Republic of Ireland The APB was

created in 1991 following an agreement

between the six members of the

Consulta-tive Committee of Accountancy Bodies

Abbreviation APB

auditing standards

auditing standards /ɔditiŋ

stndədz/ plural noun guidelines, lished by an authoritative body, that auditorsshould follow when examining financialstatements and other information

estab-audit opinion

audit opinion /ɔdit ə|pinjən/ noun US

a report of the audit of a company’s books,carried out by a certified public accountant(NOTE: The UK term is accountant’s opin- ion.)

auditor

auditor /ɔditə/ noun a person who auditsauditors’ fees

auditors’ fees /ɔditəz fiz/ plural noun

fees paid to a company’s auditors, which areapproved by the shareholders at an AGMauditors’ qualification

auditors’ qualification /ɔditəz

kwɒlifi|keiʃ(ə)n/ noun a form of words in

a report from the auditors of a company’saccounts, stating that in their opinion theaccounts are not a true reflection of the com-pany’s financial position Also called quali- fication of accounts

auditors’ report

auditors’ report /ɔditəz ri|pɔt/ noun

a report written by a company’s auditorsafter they have examined the accounts of thecompany Also called audit report (NOTE: Ifthe auditors are satisfied, the report certi-fies that, in their opinion, the accounts give

a ‘true and fair’ view of the company’s cial position.)

finan-audit programme

audit programme /ɔdit prəυrm/

noun a listing of all the steps to be takenwhen auditing a company’s accountsaudit regulation

audit regulation /ɔdit rejυleiʃ(ə)n/

noun the regulating of auditors by ment

audit trail

audit trail /ɔdit treil/ noun the recordsthat show all the stages of a transaction, e.g

a purchase, a sale or a customer complaint,

in the order in which they happened (NOTE:

An audit trail can be a useful tool for lem-solving and, in financial markets, may

prob-be used to ensure that the dealers havebeen fair and accurate in their proceed-ings.)

‘…provides real-time fax monitoring andaudit trail to safeguard information pri-vacy and accuracy’ [Forbes]

17 award

that has regulated auditing and assurance

matters in Australia since 2004

Australian Prudential Regulation Authority

Australian Prudential Regulation

Authority /ɒ|streiliən prυ|denʃ(ə)l

rejυ|leiʃ(ə)n ɔ|θɒrəti/ noun a federal

government body responsible for ensuring

that financial institutions are able to meet

their commitments Abbreviation APRA

AUT

AUT abbreviation authorised unit trust

authorise

authorise /ɔθəraiz/, authorize verb 1.

to give permission for something to be done

쑗 to authorise payment of £10,000 2. to give

someone the authority to do something 쑗 to

authorise someone to act on the company’s

behalf

authorised capital

authorised capital /ɔθəraizd

kpit(ə)l/ noun the amount of capital

which a company is allowed to have, as

stated in the memorandum of association

(NOTE: The US equivalent is authorized

stock.)

authorised share capital

authorised share capital /ɔθəraizd

ʃeə kpit(ə)l/ noun the amount of capital

that a company is authorised to issue in the

form of shares

authorised unit trust

authorised unit trust /ɔθəraizd

junit trst/ noun the official name for a

unit trust which has to be managed

accord-ing to EU directives Abbreviation AUT

Automated Clearing House

Automated Clearing House

/ɔtəmeitid kliəriŋ haυs/ noun US an

organisation set up by the federal authorities

to settle transactions carried out by

compu-ter, such as automatic mortgage payments

and trade payments between businesses

Abbreviation ACH

Automated Screen Trading

Automated Screen Trading

/ɔtəmeitid skrin treidiŋ/ noun a

sys-tem where securities are bought, sold and

matched automatically by computer

Abbre-viation AST

automated teller machine

automated teller machine

/ɔtəmeitid telə mə|ʃin/ noun US same

as cash dispenser

availability

availability /ə|veilə|biliti/ noun the fact

of being easy to obtainAVCs

AVCs abbreviation additional voluntarycontributions

average

average / / noun 1. a numbercalculated by adding several figures togetherand dividing by the number of figures added

쑗 the average for the last three months or

the last three months’ average 쑗 sales

aver-age or averaver-age of sales 2. the sharing of thecost of damage or loss of a ship between theinsurers and the owners쐽 adjective equal tothe average of a set of figures 쑗 the average

increase in salaries 쑗 The average cost per

unit is too high 쑗 The average sales per

rep-resentative are rising.쐽 verb to work out anaverage figure for something

‘…a share with an average rating mightyield 5 per cent and have a PER of about

10’ [Investors Chronicle]

‘…the average price per kilogram for thisseason to the end of April has been 300

cents’ [Australian Financial Review]

average out / / phrasal verb

to come to a figure as an average 쑗 It

aver-ages out at 10% per annum 쑗 Sales

in-creases have averaged out at 15%.

average cost of capital

average cost of capital /

əv kpit(ə)l/ noun an average figure forthe cost of borrowing or the capital raised byselling shares

average due date

average due date /

deit/ noun the average date when severaldifferent payments fall due

average income per capita

average income per capita

award

award /ə|wɔd/ noun something given by acourt, tribunal or other official body, espe-cially when settling a dispute or claim 쑗 an

award by an industrial tribunal 쑗 The

arbi-trator’s award was set aside on appeal 쑗

The latest pay award has been announced.

baby bonds /beibi bɒndz/ plural noun

US bonds in small denominations which the

small investor can afford to buy

back

back /bk/ adjective referring to the past 쑗

a back payment 쐽 verb to help someone,

especially financially 쑗 The bank is backing

us to the tune of $10,000 쑗 She is looking

for someone to back her project.

‘…the businesses we back range from

start-up ventures to established companies

in need of further capital for expansion’

[Times]

back out /bk aυt/ phrasal verb to stop

being part of a deal or an agreement 쑗 The

bank backed out of the contract 쑗 We had

to cancel the project when our German

part-ners backed out.

backdate

backdate /bk|deit/ verb to put an earlier

date on a document such as a cheque or an

invoice 쑗 Backdate your invoice to April 1st.

back duty

back duty /bk djuti/ noun a duty or

tax which is due but has not yet been paid

back-end loaded

back-end loaded /bk end ləυdid/

adjective referring to an insurance or

invest-ment scheme where commission is charged

when the investor withdraws his or her

money from the scheme Compare

front-end loaded

backer

backer /bkə/ noun a person or company

that backs someone 쑗 One of the company’s

backers has withdrawn.

backflush costing

backflush costing /bkflʃ kɒstiŋ/

noun a method of costing that links cost to

output produced

backing

backing /bkiŋ/ noun support, especially

financial support 쑗 She has the backing of

an Australian bank 쑗 The company will

succeed only if it has sufficient backing 쑗

She gave her backing to the proposal.

‘…the company has received the backing

of a number of oil companies who are

will-ing to pay for the results of the survey’

house is trying to cope with a backlog of orders 쑗 We’re finding it hard to cope with

the backlog of paperwork.

backlog depreciation

backlog depreciation /bklɒ di|

priʃieiʃ(ə)n/ noun depreciation which hasnot been provided in previous accountsbecause of an increase in the value of theasset during the current year due to inflationback payment

back payment /bk peimənt/ noun 1.

a payment which is due but has not yet beenpaid 2. the act of paying money which isowed

backup withholding

backup withholding /bkp wiθ|

həυldiŋ/ noun US a tax retained frominvestment income so that the IRS is sure ofgetting the tax due

backwardation

backwardation /bkwə|deiʃ(ə)n/ noun

1. a penalty paid by the seller when ing delivery of shares to the buyer 2. a situ-ation in which the cash price is higher thanthe forward price Opposite forwardation

postpon-backward integration

backward integration /bkwəd inti|

reiʃ(ə)n/ noun a process of expansion inwhich a business which deals with the laterstages in the production and sale of a prod-uct acquires a business that deals with anearlier stage in the same process, usually a

19 balance

supplier 쑗 Buying up rubber plantations is

part of the tyre company’s backward

inte-gration policy Also called vertical

integra-tion

backwards spreading

backwards spreading /bkwədz

sprediŋ/ noun the practice of dividing

income earned in a particular accounting

year into portions which are allocated to

sev-eral previous accounting periods

BACS

BACS /bks/ noun a company set up to

organise the payment of direct debits,

stand-ing orders, salary cheques and other

pay-ments generated by computers It operates

for all the British clearing banks and several

building societies; it forms part of APACS

Compare CHAPS

bad cheque

bad cheque /bd tʃek/ noun a cheque

which is returned to the drawer for any

rea-son

bad debt

bad debt /bd det/ noun a debt which

will not be paid, usually because the debtor

has gone out of business, and which has to

be written off in the accounts 쑗 The

com-pany has written off $30,000 in bad debts.

bad debt expense

bad debt expense /bd det ik|spens/

noun an estimate of uncollectible debts

which is charged to the profit and loss

account

bad debt provision

bad debt provision /bd det prə|

/ noun money put aside in accounts

to cover potential bad debts

bad debts recovered

bad debts recovered /bd dets ri|

kvəd/ plural noun money which was

for-merly classified as bad debts and therefore

written off, but that has since been recovered

either wholly or in part

badges of trade

badges of trade / /

plu-ral noun a collection of principles

estab-lished by case law to determine whether or

not a person is trading If so, he or she is

taxed under different rules from non-traders

bail out /beil aυt/ phrasal verb to rescue a

company which is in financial difficulties

‘…the government has decided to bail out

the bank which has suffered losses to the

extent that its capital has been wiped out’

[South China Morning Post]

bailment

bailment /beilmənt/ noun a transfer of

goods by someone (the ‘bailor’) to someone

(the ‘bailee’) who then holds them until they

have to be returned to the bailor (NOTE:

Putting jewels in a bank’s safe deposit box

is an example of bailment.)

balance

balance /bləns/ noun 1. the amount

which has to be put in one of the columns of

an account to make the total debits and

cred-its equal 왍 balance brought down or

for-ward the closing balance of the previous

period used as the opening balance of thecurrent period 왍 balance carried down or

forward the closing balance of the current

period 2. the rest of an amount owed 쑗 You

can pay £100 deposit and the balance within

60 days.쐽 verb 1. to be equal, i.e the assetsowned must always equal the total liabilitiesplus capital 2. to calculate the amountneeded to make the two sides of an accountequal 쑗 I have finished balancing the

accounts for March. 3. to plan a budget sothat expenditure and income are equal 쑗 The

president is planning for a balanced budget.

balance off /bləns ɒf/ verb to add upand enter the totals for both sides of an ac-count at the end of an accounting period inorder to determine the balance

is doing in its attempts to achieve its mainobjectives

balance of payments

balance of payments /bləns əv

peimənts/ noun a comparison betweentotal receipts and payments arising from acountry’s international trade in goods, serv-ices and financial transactions Abbreviation

BOP 왍 balance of payments capital

account items in a country’s balance of

pay-ments which refer to capital investpay-mentsmade in or by other countries 왍 balance of

payments current account record of

imports and exports of goods and servicesand the flows of money between countriesarising from investments 왍 long-term bal-

ance of payments record of movements of

capital relating to overseas investments andthe purchase of companies overseasbalance of payments deficit

balance of payments deficit /bləns

əv peimənts defisit/ noun a situation inwhich a country imports more than itexports

balance of payments surplus

balance of payments surplus

/bləns əv peimənts spləs/ noun a uation in which a country exports more than

sit-it importsbalance

balance of retained earnings

/bləns əv ri|teind niŋz/ noun tics that show fluctuations in the level ofincome retained for reinvestment during anaccounting period

statis-balance sheet 20

balance sheet

balance sheet /bləns ʃit/ noun a

statement of the financial position of a

com-pany at a particular time, such as the end of

the financial year or the end of a quarter,

showing the company’s assets and liabilities

쑗 Our accountant has prepared the balance

sheet for the first half-year 쑗 The company

balance sheet for the last financial year

shows a worse position than for the previous

year 쑗 The company balance sheet for 1984

shows a substantial loss.

COMMENT : The balance sheet shows the

state of a company’s finances at a certain

date The profit and loss account shows the

movements which have taken place since

the end of the previous accounting period A

balance sheet must balance, with the basic

equation that assets (i.e what the company

owns, including money owed to the

compa-ny) must equal liabilities (i.e what the

com-pany owes to its creditors) plus capital (i.e.

what it owes to its shareholders) A balance

sheet can be drawn up either in the

horizon-tal form, with (in the UK) liabilities and capihorizon-tal

on the left-hand side of the page (in the USA,

it is the reverse) or in the vertical form, with

assets at the top of the page, followed by

li-abilities, and capital at the bottom Most are

usually drawn up in the vertical format, as

opposed to the more old-fashioned

horizon-tal style.

balance sheet asset value

balance sheet asset value /bləns

ʃit set vlju/ noun the value of a

com-pany calculated by adding together all its

assets

balance sheet audit

balance sheet audit /bləns ʃit

ɔdit/ noun a limited audit of the items on a

company’s balance sheet in order to confirm

that it complies with the relevant standards

and requirements

balance sheet date

balance sheet date /bləns ʃit deit/

noun the date (usually the end of a financial

or accounting year) when a balance sheet is

drawn up

balance sheet equation

balance sheet equation /bləns ʃit i|

/ noun the basis upon which all

accounts are prepared, that assets =

liabili-ties + assets

balance sheet total

balance sheet total /bləns ʃit

təυt(ə)l/ noun in the United Kingdom, the

total of assets shown at the bottom of a

bal-ance sheet and used to classify a company

according to size

balancing item

balancing item /blənsiŋ aitəm/,

bal-ancing figure /blənsiŋ fiə/ noun an

item introduced into a balance sheet to make

the two sides balance

balloon

balloon /bə|lun/ noun a loan where the

last repayment is larger than the others

balloon mortgage

balloon mortgage /bə| /

noun a mortgage in which the final payment

(called a ‘balloon payment’) is larger thanthe others

BALO

BALO noun a French government tion that includes financial statements ofpublic companies Full form Bulletin des Annonces Légales Obligatoires

publica-bank

bank /bŋk/ noun a business which holdsmoney for its clients, lends money at inter-est, and trades generally in money 쑗 the

First National Bank 쑗 the Royal Bank of

Scotland 쑗 She put all her earnings into the

bank 쑗 I have had a letter from my bank

telling me my account is overdrawn.쐽 verb

to deposit money into a bank or to have anaccount with a bank 쑗 He banked the cheque

as soon as he received it 쑗 I bank at or with

Barclays.

bankable

bankable /bŋkəb(ə)l/ adjective able by a bank as security for a loanbankable paper

accept-bankable paper /bŋkəb(ə)l peipə/

noun a document which a bank will accept

as security for a loanbank account

bank account /bŋk ə|kaυnt/ noun anaccount which a customer has with a bank,where the customer can deposit and with-draw money 쑗 to open a bank account 쑗 to

close a bank account 쑗 How much money do

you have in your bank account? 쑗 If you let

the balance in your bank account fall below

$1,000, you have to pay bank charges.

bank advance

bank advance /bŋk əd|vɑns/ noun

same as bank loan쑗 She asked for a bank

advance to start her business.

bank base rate

bank base rate /bŋk beis reit/ noun

a basic rate of interest, on which the actualrate a bank charges on loans to its customers

is calculated Also called base rate

bank bill

bank bill /bŋk bil/ noun 1. a bill ofexchange by one bank telling another bank,usually in another country, to pay money tosomeone 2. same as banker’s bill 3 US

same as banknote

bank book

bank book /bŋk bυk/ noun a bookgiven by a bank or building society whichshows money which you deposit or with-draw from your savings account or buildingsociety account Also called passbook

bank borrowings

bank borrowings /bŋk bɒrəυiŋz/

plural noun money borrowed from banksbank card

bank card /bŋk kɑd/ noun a creditcard or debit card issued to a customer by abank for use instead of cash when buyinggoods or services (NOTE: There are interna-tionally recognised rules that govern the

21 bank reconciliation

authorisation of the use of bank cards and

the clearing and settlement of transactions

in which they are used.)

bank certificate

bank certificate /bŋk sə|tifikət/ noun

a document, often requested during an audit,

that is signed by a bank official and confirms

the balances due or from a company on a

kɒnfəmeiʃ(ə)n/ noun verification of a

company’s balances requested by an auditor

from a bank

bank credit

bank credit /bŋk kredit/ noun loans

or overdrafts from a bank to a customer

bank deposits

bank deposits /bŋk di|pɒzits/ plural

noun all money placed in banks by private or

corporate customers

bank draft

bank draft /bŋk drɑft/ noun an order

by one bank telling another bank, usually in

another country, to pay money to someone

banker

banker /bŋkə/ noun 1. a person who is

in an important position in a bank 2. a bank

쑗 the company’s banker is Barclays

banker’s acceptance

banker’s acceptance /bŋkəz ək|

septəns/ noun a bill of exchange

guaran-teed by a bank

Bankers’ Automated Clearing Services

Bankers’ Automated Clearing

Serv-ices /bŋkəz ɔtəmeitid kliəriŋ

svisiz/ plural noun full form of BACS

banker’s bill

banker’s bill /bŋkəz bil/ noun an order

by one bank telling another bank, usually in

another country, to pay money to someone

Also called bank bill

banker’s credit card

banker’s credit card /bŋkəz kredit

kɑd/ noun a credit card issued by a bank,

as opposed to cards issued by stores Typical

such cards are Visa, Egg or MasterCard

banker’s draft

banker’s draft /bŋkəz drɑft/ noun a

draft payable by a bank in cash on

presenta-tion Abbreviation B/D

banker’s lien

banker’s lien /bŋkəz lin/ noun the

right of a bank to hold some property of a

customer as security against payment of a

debt

banker’s order

banker’s order /bŋkəz ɔdə/ noun an

order written by a customer asking a bank to

make a regular payment 쑗 He pays his

sub-scription by banker’s order.

banker’s reference

banker’s reference /bŋkəz

ref(ə)rəns/ noun a written report issued by

a bank regarding a particular customer’s

creditworthiness

bank giro

bank giro / / noun a

method used by clearing banks to transfer

money rapidly from one account to another

bank holiday

bank holiday /bŋk hɒlidei/ noun aweekday which is a public holiday when thebanks are closed 쑗 New Year’s Day is a bank

holiday 쑗 Are we paid for bank holidays in

this job?

bank identification number

bank identification number /bŋk

aidentifi|keiʃ(ə)n nmbə/ noun an nationally organised six-digit number whichidentifies a bank for charge card purposes.Abbreviation BIN

banking account /bŋkiŋ ə|kaυnt/

noun US an account which a customer haswith a bank

banking covenants

banking covenants /bŋkiŋ

kvənənts/ plural noun a set of conditionsimposed by a bank when it lends an institu-tion a large amount of money

Banking Ombudsman

Banking Ombudsman /bŋkiŋ

ɒmbυdzmən/ noun an official whose duty

is to investigate complaints by members ofthe public against banks

banking products

banking products /bŋkiŋ prɒdkts/

plural noun goods and services produced bybanks for customers, e.g statements, directdebits

bank loan

bank loan /bŋk ləυn/ noun a loan made

by a bank to a customer, usually against thesecurity of a property or asset 쑗 She asked

for a bank loan to start her business Also

called bank advance

bank manager

the person in charge of a branch of a bank 쑗

They asked their bank manager for a loan.

bank mandate

bank mandate /bŋk mndeit/ noun awritten order to a bank, asking it to open anaccount and allow someone to sign cheques

on behalf of the account holder, and givingspecimen signatures and relevant informa-tion

banknote

banknote /bŋk nəυt/ noun 1. a piece ofprinted paper money 쑗 a counterfeit £20

banknote (NOTE: The US term is bill.) 2 US

a non-interest bearing note, issued by a eral Reserve Bank, which can be used ascash

Fed-Bank of England

Bank of England /bŋk əv iŋlənd/

noun the UK central bank, owned by thestate, which, together with the Treasury, reg-ulates the nation’s finances

bank reconciliation

bank reconciliation /bŋk rekənsili|

eiʃ(ə)n/ noun the act of making sure thatthe bank statements agree with the com-pany’s ledgers

bank reserves 22

bank reserves

bank reserves /bŋk ri|zvz/ plural

noun cash and securities held by a bank to

cover deposits

bank return

bank return /bŋk ri|tn/ noun a

regu-lar report from a bank on its financial

posi-tion

bankrupt

bankrupt /bŋkrpt/ noun, adjective (a

person) who has been declared by a court

not to be capable of paying his or her debts

and whose affairs are put into the hands of a

receiver 쑗 a bankrupt property developer 쑗

She was adjudicated or declared bankrupt.

쑗 He went bankrupt after two years in

busi-ness. 쐽 verb to make someone become

bankrupt 쑗 The recession bankrupted my

father.

bankruptcy

bankruptcy /bŋkrptsi/ noun the state

of being bankrupt 쑗 The recession has

caused thousands of bankruptcies. (NOTE:

The plural is bankruptcies.)

bankruptcy order

bankruptcy order /bŋkrptsi ɔdə/

noun same as declaration of bankruptcy

bankruptcy petition

bankruptcy petition /bŋkrptsi pə|

tiʃ(ə)n/ noun an application to a court

ask-ing for an order makask-ing someone bankrupt

bankruptcy proceedings

bankruptcy proceedings

/bŋkrptsi prə|sidiŋz/ plural noun a

court case to make someone bankrupt

bank statement

bank statement /bŋk steitmənt/

noun a written statement from a bank

show-ing the balance of an account at a specific

date

bank syndicate

bank syndicate /bŋk sindikət/ noun

a group of major international banks which

group together to underwrite a very large

loan

bank transfer

bank transfer /bŋk trnsf/ noun an

act of moving money from a bank account to

another account

bargain

bargain /bɑin/ noun an agreement on

the price of something 쑗 to strike a bargain

or to make a bargain쐽 verb to try to reach

agreement about something, especially a

price, usually with each person or group

involved putting forward suggestions or

offers which are discussed until a

compro-mise is arrived at 쑗 You will have to bargain

with the dealer if you want a discount 쑗

They spent two hours bargaining about or

over the price. (NOTE: You bargain with

someone over or about or for something.)

barter

barter /bɑtə/ noun a system in which

goods are exchanged for other goods and not

sold for money

‘…under the barter agreements, Nigeria

will export 175,000 barrels a day of crude

oil in exchange for trucks, food, planes and

chemicals’ [Wall Street Journal]

bartering

bartering /bɑtəriŋ/ noun the act ofexchanging goods for other goods and notfor money

don and branches in all the European tries 쑗 She has an office in Madrid which

coun-she uses as a base while travelling in ern Europe.쐽 verb왍 to base something on

South-something to calculate South-something using

something as your starting point or basicmaterial for the calculation 쑗 We based our

calculations on the forecast turnover 왍

based on calculating from 쑗 based on last

year’s figures 쑗 based on population

‘…other investments include a large stake

in the Chicago-based insurance company’

[Lloyd’s List]

base currency

base currency /beis krənsi/ noun acurrency against which exchange rates ofother currencies are quoted

base period

base period /beis piəriəd/ noun US 1.

a period against which comparisons aremade 2. the time that an employee mustwork before becoming eligible for stateunemployment insurance benefits 쑗

Because she had not worked for the base period, she had to rely on the support of her family when she lost her job 쑗 The new gov-

ernment shortened the base period, in order

to increase social service spending.

base rate

base rate /beis reit/ noun same as bank base rate

base-weighted index

base-weighted index /beis weitid

indeks/ noun an index which is weightedaccording to the base year

base year

base year /beis jiə/ noun the first year of

an index, against which changes occurring

in later years are measuredbasic

basic /beisik/ adjective normalbasic balance

basic balance /beisik bləns/ noun

the balance of current account and term capital accounts in a country’s balance

long-of paymentsbasic commodities

basic commodities /beisik kə|

mɒditiz/ plural noun ordinary farm duce, produced in large quantities, e.g corn,rice or sugar

pro-23 below-the-line

basic discount

basic discount /beisik diskaυnt/ noun

a normal discount without extra percentages

쑗 Our basic discount is 20%, but we offer

5% extra for rapid settlement.

basic earnings per share

basic earnings per share /beisik

niŋz pə ʃeə/ noun a figure that shows an

investor how much of a company’s profit

belongs to each share

basic pay

basic pay /beisik pei/ noun a normal

salary without extra payments Also called

basic salary, basic wage

basic product

basic product /beisik prɒdkt/ noun

the main product made from a raw material

basic rate tax

basic rate tax /beisik reit tks/ noun

the lowest rate of income tax

basic salary

basic salary /beisik sləri/, basic

wage noun same as basic pay

basis

basis /beisis/ noun 1. a point or number

from which calculations are made 쑗 We

forecast the turnover on the basis of a 6%

price increase. (NOTE: The plural is bases.)

2. the general terms of agreement or general

principles on which something is decided or

done 쑗 This document should form the basis

for an agreement 쑗 We have three people

working on a freelance basis. (NOTE: The

plural is bases.)왍 on a short-term or

long-term basis for a short or long period 쑗 He

has been appointed on a short-term basis.

basis of accounting

basis of accounting /beisis əv ə|

kaυntiŋ/ noun any of various methods of

recognising income and expenditure in the

preparation of accounts

basis of apportionment

basis of apportionment /beisis əv ə|

pɔʃənmənt/ noun a way in which

com-mon overhead costs are shared acom-mong

vari-ous cost centres

basis of assessment

basis of assessment /beisis əv ə|

sesmənt/ noun a method of deciding in

which year financial transactions should be

assessed for taxation

basis period

basis period /beisis piəriəd/ noun the

period during which transactions occur,

used for the purpose of deciding in which

they should be assessed for taxation

basis point

basis point /beisis pɔint/ noun one

hun-dredth of a percentage point (0.01%), the

basic unit used in measuring market

move-ments or interest rates

basis swap

basis swap /beisis swɒp/ noun the

exchange of two financial instruments, each

with a variable interest calculated on a

dif-ferent rate

basket of currencies

basket of currencies /bɑskit əv

krənsiz/ noun same as currency basket

batch

batch /btʃ/ noun 1. a group of items

which are made at one time 쑗 This batch of

shoes has the serial number 25–02. 2. a

group of documents which are processed atthe same time 쑗 Today’s batch of invoices is

ready to be mailed 쑗 The factory is working

on yesterday’s batch of orders 쑗 The

accountant signed a batch of cheques 쑗 We

deal with the orders in batches of fifty at a time.쐽 verb to put items together in groups

쑗 to batch invoices or cheques

batch-level activities /btʃ lev(ə)l

k|tivitiz/ plural noun business activitiesthat vary as output varies

bear /beə/ verb 1. to give interest 쑗

govern-ment bonds which bear 5% interest 2. tohave something, especially to have some-thing written on it 쑗 an envelope which

bears a London postmark 쑗 a letter bearing

yesterday’s date 쑗 The cheque bears the

sig-nature of the company secretary 쑗 The

share certificate bears his name. 3. to paycosts 쑗 The costs of the exhibition will be

borne by the company 쑗 The company bore

the legal costs of both parties. (NOTE: ing – bore – has borne)

beginning inventory

beginning inventory /bi|iniŋ

invənt(ə)ri/ noun US same as opening stock

behavioural accounting

behavioural accounting /bi|heivjərəl

ə|kaυntiŋ/ noun an approach to the study ofaccounting that emphasises the psychologi-cal and social aspects of the profession inaddition to the more technical areasbelow-the-line

below-the-line /bi|ləυ ðə lain/

adjec-tive, adverb used to describe entries in acompany’s profit and loss account that showhow the profit is distributed, or where thefunds to finance the loss originate 쒁 above- the-line 1

below-the-line

below-the-line expenditure /bi|ləυ ðəlain ik|spenditʃə/ noun 1. payments which

do not arise from a company’s usual ties, e.g redundancy payments 2. extraordi-nary items which are shown in the profit andloss account below net profit after taxation,

activi-as opposed to exceptional items which areincluded in the figure for profit before taxa-tion

benchmark 24

benchmark

benchmark /bentʃmɑk/ noun a point or

level which is important, and can be used as

a reference when making evaluations or

assessments

benchmark accounting policy

benchmark accounting policy

/bentʃmɑk ə|kaυntiŋ pɒlisi/ noun one

of a choice of two possible policies within

an International Accounting Standard The

other policy is marked as an ‘allowed

alter-native’, although there is no indication of

preference

benchmarking

benchmarking /bentʃmɑkiŋ/ noun the

practice of measuring the performance of a

company against the performance of other

companies in the same sector

Benchmark-ing is also used widely in the information

technology sector to measure the

perform-ance of computer-based information

sys-tems

beneficial interest

beneficial interest /benifiʃ(ə)l

intrəst/ noun a situation where someone is

allowed to occupy or receive rent from a

house without owning it

beneficial occupier

beneficial occupier /benifiʃ(ə)l

ɒkjυpaiə/ noun a person who occupies a

property but does not own it fully

beneficiary

beneficiary /beni|fiʃəri/ noun a person

who gains money from something 쑗 the

beneficiaries of a will

benefit

benefit /benifit/ verb 1. to make better or

to improve 쑗 A fall in inflation benefits the

exchange rate. 2.왍 to benefit from or by

something to be improved by something, to

gain more money because of something 쑗

Exports have benefited from the fall in the

exchange rate 쑗 The employees have

bene-fited from the profit-sharing scheme.

‘…the retail sector will also benefit from

the expected influx of tourists’ [Australian

Financial Review]

benefit-cost analysis

benefit-cost analysis /benifit kɒst ə|

nlisis/ noun same as cost-benefit

analy-sis

benefit in kind

benefit in kind /benifit in kaind/ noun

a benefit other than money received by an

employee as part of his or her total

compen-sation package, e.g a company car or private

health insurance Such benefits are usually

subject to tax

Benford’s Law

Benford’s Law /benfədz lɔ/ noun a law

discovered by Dr Benford in 1938, which

shows that in sets of random numbers, it is

more likely that the set will begin with the

number 1 than with any other number

BEP

BEP abbreviation break-even point

bequeath

bequeath /bi|kwið/ verb to leave

prop-erty, money, etc (but not freehold land) to

someone in a will

bequest

bequest /bi|kwest/ noun something such

as property or money (but not freeholdland), given to someone in a will 쑗 He made

several bequests to his staff.

best practice

best practice /best prktis/ noun themost effective and efficient way to do some-thing or to achieve a particular aim (NOTE: Inbusiness, best practice is often determined

by benchmarking, that is by comparing themethod one organisation uses to carry out

a task with the methods used by other ilar organisations and determining whichmethod is most efficient and effective.)

sim-‘For the past 25 years, managers have beentaught that the best practice for valuingassets…is to use a discounted-cash-flow(DCF) methodology.’[Harvard Business Review]

bid

bid /bid/ noun 1. an offer to buy something

at a specific price 쒁 takeover bid왍 to make

a bid for something to offer to buy

some-thing 쑗 We made a bid for the house 쑗 The

company made a bid for its rival 왍 to make

a cash bid to offer to pay cash for something

왍 to put in or enter a bid for something to

offer to buy something, usually in writing 2.

an offer to sell something or do a piece ofwork at a specific price 쑗 She made the low-

est bid for the job.쐽 verb to offer to buy 왍

to bid for something (at an auction) to offer

to buy something 왍 he bid £1,000 for the

jewels he offered to pay £1,000 for the

jew-elsbidder

bidder /bidə/ noun a person who makes abid, usually at an auction 쑗 Several bidders

made offers for the house.

bidding

bidding /bidiŋ/ noun the act of makingoffers to buy, usually at an auction 왍 the

bidding started at £1,000 the first and

low-est bid was £1,000 왍 the bidding stopped

at £250,000 the last bid, i.e the successful

bid, was for £250,000 왍 the auctioneer

started the bidding at £100 the auctioneer

suggested that the first bid should be £100bid market

bid market /bid mɑkit/ noun a marketwhere there are more bids to buy than offers

to sell Opposite offered market

bid-offer price

bid-offer price /bid ɒfə prais/ noun aprice charged by unit trusts to buyers andsellers of units, based on the bid-offer spreadbid-offer spread

bid-offer spread /bid ɒfə spred/ noun

the difference between buying and sellingprices (i.e between the bid and offer prices)

25 blind trust

bid price

bid price /bid prais/ noun a price at

which investors sell shares or units in a unit

trust (NOTE: The opposite, i.e the buying

price, is called the offer price; the

differ-ence between the two is the spread.)

bid rate

bid rate /bid reit/ noun a rate of interest

offered on deposits

big business

big business /bi biznis/ noun very

large commercial firms

Big Four

Big Four /bi fɔ/ noun 1. the four large

British commercial banks: Barclays,

Lloyd-sTSB, HSB and Natwest, now joined by

sev-eral former building societies that have

become banks 2. the four largest

interna-tional accounting companies:

Pricewater-houseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu,

Ernst & Young and KPMG 3. the four

larg-est Japanese securities houses: Daiwa,

Nikko, Nomura and Yamaichi

bilateral clearing

bilateral clearing /bai|lt(ə)rəl

kliəriŋ/ noun the system of annual

settle-ments of accounts between some countries,

where accounts are settled by the central

banks

bilateral credit

bilateral credit /bai|lt(ə)rəl kredit/

noun credit allowed by banks to other banks

in a clearing system, to cover the period

while cheques are being cleared

bill

bill /bil/ noun 1. a written list of charges to

be paid 쑗 The bill is made out to Smith Ltd

쑗 The sales assistant wrote out the bill 쑗

Does the bill include VAT? 2. a list of

charges in a restaurant 쑗 Can I have the bill

please? 쑗 The bill comes to £20 including

service 쑗 Does the bill include service?

Same as check 3. a written paper promising

to pay money 4 US same as banknote쑗 a

$5 bill 5. a draft of a new law which will be

discussed in Parliament쐽 verb to present a

bill to someone so that it can be paid 쑗 The

plumbers billed us for the repairs.

bill broker

bill broker /bil brəυkə/ noun a discount

house, a firm which buys and sells bills of

exchange for a fee

billing

billing /biliŋ/ noun the work of writing

invoices or bills

billion

billion /biljən/ noun one thousand million

(NOTE: In the US, it has always meant one

thousand million, but in UK English it

for-merly meant one million million, and it is still

sometimes used with this meaning With

figures it is usually written bn: $5bn say

‘five billion dollars’.)

‘…gross wool receipts for the selling

sea-son to end June 30 appear likely to top $2

billion’ [Australian Financial Review]

‘…at its last traded price the bank was

cap-italized at around $1.05 billion’ [South

China Morning Post]

bill of exchange

bill of exchange /bil əv iks| /

noun a document, signed by the personauthorising it, which tells another person or

a financial institution to pay money ditionally to a named person on a specificdate (NOTE: Bills of exchange are usuallyused for payments in foreign currency.)

uncon-bill of lading

bill of lading /bil əv leidiŋ/ noun a ument listing goods that have been shipped,sent by the transporter to the seller andentered in the seller’s accounts as moneyowed but not yet paid, and therefore as anasset

doc-bill of materials

bill of materials /bil əv mə|tiəriəlz/

noun a document setting out the materialsand parts required to make a productbill of sale

bill of sale /bil əv seil/ noun a documentwhich the seller gives to the buyer to showthat the sale has taken place

bills payable

bills payable /bilz peiəb(ə)l/ plural

noun bills, especially bills of exchange,which a company will have to pay to itscreditors Abbreviation B/P

bills receivable

bills receivable /bilz ri|sivəb(ə)l/

plu-ral noun bills, especially bills of exchange,which are due to be paid by a company’sdebtors Abbreviation B/R

term is cover note.)

black economy

black economy /blk i|kɒnəmi/ noun

goods and services which are paid for incash, and therefore not declared for tax.Also called hidden economy, parallel economy, shadow economy

black market

black market /blk mɑkit/ noun thebuying and selling of goods or currency in away which is not allowed by law 쑗 There is

a flourishing black market in spare parts for cars.

blank cheque

blank cheque /blŋk tʃek/ noun acheque with the amount of money and thepayee left blank, but signed by the drawerblanket lien

blanket lien /blŋkit lin/ noun US alien on a person’s property, including per-sonal effects

blind entry

blind entry /blaind entri/ noun a keeping entry that simply records a debit orcredit but not other essential informationblind trust

book-blind trust /blaind trst/ noun a trust set

up to run a person’s affairs without thedetails of any transaction being known to the

blocked account 26

person concerned (NOTE: Blind trusts are set

up by politicians to avoid potential conflicts

of interest.)

blocked account

blocked account /blɒkt ə|kaυnt/ noun

a bank account which cannot be used,

usu-ally because a government has forbidden its

use

blocked currency

blocked currency /blɒkt krənsi/

noun a currency which cannot be taken out

of a country because of government

exchange controls

blocked funds

blocked funds /blɒkt fndz/ plural

noun money that cannot be transferred from

one place to another, usually because of

exchange controls imposed by the

govern-ment of the country in which the funds are

held

block trading

block trading /blɒk treidiŋ/ noun

trad-ing in very large numbers of shares

Blue Book

Blue Book /blu bυk/ noun an annual

publication of national statistics of personal

incomes and spending patterns

blue chip

blue chip /blu tʃip/ noun a very safe

investment, a risk-free share in a good

com-pany

Blue list

Blue list /blu list/ noun US a daily list of

municipal bonds and their ratings, issued by

Standard & Poor’s

blue sky laws

blue sky laws /blu skai lɔz/ plural

noun US state laws to protect investors

against fraudulent traders in securities

board

board /bɔd/ noun 1. same as board of

directors쑗 He sits on the board as a

repre-sentative of the bank 쑗 Two directors were

removed from the board at the AGM. 2. a

group of people who run an organisation,

trust or society 3. 왍 on board on a ship,

plane or train쐽 verb to go on to a ship, plane

or train 쑗 Customs officials boarded the ship

in the harbour.

‘CEOs, with their wealth of practical

expe-rience, are in great demand and can pick

and choose the boards they want to serve

on’ [Duns Business Month]

Board for Actuarial Standards

Board for Actuarial Standards /bɔd

fər ktʃu|eəriəl stndədz/ noun a UK

authority with responsibility for overseeing

the actuarial profession and setting actuarial

standards

board meeting

board meeting /bɔd mitiŋ/ noun a

meeting of the directors of a company

Board of Customs and Excise

Board of Customs and Excise /bɔd

əv kstəmz ənd eksaiz/ noun the ruling

body of the Customs and Excise

board of directors

board of directors /bɔd əv dai|

rektəz/ noun 1. a group of directors elected

by the shareholders to run a company 쑗 The

bank has two representatives on the board of

directors 2 US a group of people elected bythe shareholders to draw up company policyand to appoint the president and other exec-utive officers who are responsible for man-aging the company

‘…a proxy is the written authorization aninvestor sends to a stockholder meetingconveying his vote on a corporate resolu-tion or the election of a company’s board

2.왍 goods (held) in bond goods held by

customs until duty has been paid 왍 entry of

goods under bond bringing goods into a

country in bond 왍 to take goods out of

bond to pay duty on goods so that they can

be released by customs 3. a form of ance fund which is linked to a unit trust, butwhere there is no yield because the income

insur-is automatically added to the fundbond discount

bond discount /bɒnd diskaυnt/ noun

the difference between the face value of abond and the lower price at which it is issuedbonded

bonded /bɒndid/ adjective held in bondbonded warehouse

bonded warehouse /bɒndid

weəhaυs/ noun a warehouse where goodsare stored until excise duty has been paidbond fund

bond fund /bɒnd fnd/ noun a unit trust

in which investments are made in the form

of bondsbondholder

bondholder /bɒnd|həυldə/ noun a son who holds government bonds

per-bond indenture

bond indenture /bɒnd in|dentʃə/ noun

a document that details the terms of a bondbondised

bondised /bɒndaizd/, bondized

adjec-tive referring to an insurance fund linked to

a unit trustbond market

bond market /bɒnd mɑkit/ noun amarket in which government or municipalbonds are traded

bond premium

bond premium /bɒnd primiəm/ noun

the difference between the face value of abond and a higher price at which it is issuedbond-washing

bond-washing /bɒnd wɒʃiŋ/ noun theact of selling securities cum dividend andbuying them back later ex dividend, or sell-ing US Treasury bonds with the interest cou-pon, and buying them back ex coupon, so as

to reduce taxbond yield

bond yield /bɒnd jild/ noun incomeproduced by a bond, shown as a percentage

of its purchase price

27 borrowings

bonus

bonus /bəυnəs/ noun an extra payment in

addition to a normal payment

bonus issue

bonus issue /bəυnəs iʃu/ noun a scrip

issue or capitalisation issue, in which a

com-pany transfers money from reserves to share

capital and issues free extra shares to the

shareholders The value of the company

remains the same, and the total market value

of shareholders’ shares remains the same,

the market price being adjusted to account

for the new shares Also called share split

(NOTE: The US term is stock split.)

bonus share

bonus share /bəυnəs ʃeə/ noun an extra

share given to an existing shareholder

book

book /bυk/ noun 1. a set of sheets of paper

attached together 왍 a company’s books the

financial records of a company 2. a

state-ment of a dealer’s exposure to the market,

i.e the amount which he or she is due to pay

or has borrowed 왍 to make a book to have

a list of shares which he or she is prepared to

buy or sell on behalf of clients

book inventory

book inventory /bυk invənt(ə)ri/ noun

the number of stock items recorded in

accounts, which is verified by a physical

count

bookkeeper

bookkeeper /bυk|kipə/ noun a person

who keeps the financial records of a

com-pany or an organisation

bookkeeping

bookkeeping /bυk|kipiŋ/ noun the

work of keeping the financial records of a

company or an organisation

bookkeeping barter

bookkeeping barter /bυkkipiŋ

bɑtə/ noun the direct exchange of goods

between two parties without the use of

money as a medium, but using monetary

measures to record the transaction

bookkeeping transaction

bookkeeping transaction /bυkkipiŋ

trn|zkʃən/ noun a transaction which

involves changes to a company’s books of

accounts, but does not alter the value of the

company in any way, e.g the issue of bonus

shares

book of account

book of account /bυk əv ə|kaυnt/

noun an account book, a book which records

financial transactions

book of prime entry

book of prime entry /bυk əv praim

entri/, book of original entry noun a

chronological record of a business’s

transac-tions arranged according to type, e.g., cash

or sales The books are then used to generate

entries in a double-entry bookkeeping

sys-tem

book sales

book sales /bυk seilz/ plural noun sales

as recorded in the sales book

book value

book value /bυk vlju/ noun the value

of an asset as recorded in the company’s

bal-ance sheet

book value per share

book value per share /bυk vlju pə

ʃeə/ noun a company’s own assessment ofthe value of its shares, which may differ con-siderably from the market value

booming /bumiŋ/ adjective expanding

or becoming prosperous 쑗 a booming

indus-try or company 쑗 Technology is a booming

sector of the economy.

boost

boost /bust/ noun help given to increasesomething 쑗 This publicity will give sales a

boost 쑗 The government hopes to give a

boost to industrial development.쐽 verb tomake something increase 쑗 We expect our

publicity campaign to boost sales by 25% 쑗

The company hopes to boost its market share 쑗 Incentive schemes are boosting

border tax adjustment /bɔdə tks ə|

/ noun a deduction of indirecttax paid on goods being exported or imposi-tion of local indirect tax on goods beingimported

borrow

borrow /bɒrəυ/ verb 1. to take moneyfrom someone for a time, possibly payinginterest for it, and repaying it at the end ofthe period 쑗 She borrowed £1,000 from the

bank 쑗 The company had to borrow heavily

to repay its debts 쑗 They borrowed £25,000

against the security of the factory. 2. to buy

at spot prices and sell forward at the sametime

bor-financed by bank borrowing.

‘…we tend to think of building societies ashaving the best borrowing rates and indeed

many do offer excellent terms’ [Financial

Times]

borrowing costs

borrowing costs /bɒrəυiŋ kɒsts/ plural

noun the interest and other charges paid onmoney borrowed

borrowing power

borrowing power /bɒrəυiŋ paυə/

noun the amount of money which a pany can borrow

com-borrowings

borrowings /bɒrəυiŋz/ plural noun

money borrowed 쑗 The company’s

borrow-ings have doubled.

bottleneck 28

bottleneck

bottleneck /bɒt(ə)lnek/ noun a situation

which occurs when one section of an

opera-tion cannot cope with the amount of work it

has to do, which slows down the later stages

of the operation and business activity in

gen-eral 쑗 a bottleneck in the supply system 쑗

There are serious bottlenecks in the

produc-tion line.

bottleneck activity

bottleneck activity /bɒt(ə)lnek k|

tiviti/ noun any business activity for which

the work involved equals or exceeds the

income generated

bottom

bottom /bɒtəm/ verb to reach the lowest

point 왍 the market has bottomed out the

market has reached the lowest point and

does not seem likely to fall further

bottom line

bottom line /bɒtəm lain/ noun 1. the

last line on a balance sheet indicating profit

or loss 왍 the boss is interested only in the

bottom line he is only interested in the final

profit 2. the final decision on a matter 쑗 The

bottom line was that the work had to

com-pleted within budget.

bottom-up budgeting

bottom-up budgeting /bɒtəm p

/ noun same as participative

budgeting

bought day book

bought day book /bɔt dei bυk/ noun

a book used to record purchases made on

credit

bought ledger

bought ledger / / noun a book

in which purchases are recorded

bought ledger clerk

bought ledger clerk /

klɑk/ noun an office employee who deals

with the bought ledger or the sales ledger

bounce

bounce /baυns/ verb (of a cheque) to be

returned by the bank to the person who has

tried to cash it, because there is not enough

money in the payer’s account to pay it 쑗 She

paid for the car with a cheque that bounced.

bracket /brkit/ noun a group of items or

people taken together 왍 she is in the top tax

bracket she pays the highest level of tax

branch accounting

branch accounting /brɑntʃ ə|

kaυntiŋ/ noun the fact of operating

sepa-rate accounting systems for each department

of an organisation

branch accounts

branch accounts /brɑntʃ ə|kaυnts/

plural noun accounts showing transactions

belonging to the branches of a large

organi-sation, i.e., between a branch and other

branches or its head office, or other

compa-nies outside the organisation

breach

breach /britʃ/ noun a failure to carry out

the terms of an agreement

breach of contract

breach of contract /britʃ əv

kɒntrkt/ noun the failure to do thing which has been agreed in a contractbreach of trust

some-breach of trust /britʃ əv trst/ noun asituation where a person does not act cor-rectly or honestly when people expect him

or her tobreak

break /breik/ noun 1. a pause betweenperiods of work 쑗 She keyboarded for two

hours without a break. 2. a sharp fall in shareprices쐽 verb 1. to fail to carry out the duties

of a contract 쑗 The company has broken the

contract or the agreement by selling at a lower price. 2. to cancel a contract 쑗 The

company is hoping to be able to break the contract. (NOTE: [all verb senses] breaking – broke – has broken)

break down /breik daυn/ phrasal verb 1.

to stop working because of mechanical ure 쑗 The fax machine has broken down. 2.

fail-to sfail-top 쑗 Negotiations broke down after six

hours. 3. to show all the items in a total list

of costs or expenditure 쑗 We broke the

ex-penditure down into fixed and variable costs.

break even /breik iv(ə)n/ verb to ance costs and receipts, so as to make nei-ther a profit nor a loss 쑗 Last year the

bal-company only just broke even 쑗 We broke

even in our first two months of trading.

break up /breik p/ phrasal verb to splitsomething large into small sections 쑗 The

company was broken up and separate sions sold off.

divi-breakages

breakages / / plural noun

breaking of items 쑗 Customers are expected

to pay for breakages.

breakdown

breakdown /breikdaυn/ noun 1. an act

of stopping working because of mechanicalfailure 쑗 We cannot communicate with our

Nigerian office because of the breakdown of the telephone lines. 2. an act of stoppingtalking 쑗 a breakdown in wage negotiations

3. an act of showing details item by item 쑗

Give me a breakdown of investment costs.

break-even

break-even /breik iv(ə)n/ noun a tion where there is neither a profit nor a lossbreak-even analysis

situa-break-even analysis /breik iv(ə)n ə|

nləsis/ noun 1. the analysis of fixed andvariable costs and sales that determines atwhat level of production the break-evenpoint will be reached 쑗 The break-even

analysis showed that the company will only break even if it sells at least 1,000 bicycles a month. 2. a method of showing the point atwhich a company’s income from sales will

be equal to its production costs so that it ther makes a profit nor makes a loss ( :

nei-29 budget account

Break-even analysis is usually shown in the

form of a chart and can be used to help

companies make decisions, set prices for

their products, and work out the effects of

changes in production or sales volume on

their costs and profits.)

break-even chart

break-even chart /breik iv(ə)n tʃɑt/

noun a chart showing the point at which a

company breaks even as the intersection

between a line plotting total revenue and a

line plotting total cost

break-even point

break-even point /breik|iv(ə)n pɔint/

noun the point or level of financial activity

at which expenditure equals income, or the

value of an investment equals its cost so that

the result is neither a profit nor a loss

Abbreviation BEP

break-even sales

break-even sales /breik iv(ə)n seilz/

plural noun a level of sales that neither

gen-erates profit nor incurs loss

break-out

break-out /breik aυt/ noun a movement

of a share price above or below its previous

trading level

break-up value

break-up value /breik p vlju/ noun

1. the value of the material of a fixed asset 쑗

What would the break-up value of our old

machinery be? 2. the value of various parts

of a company taken separately

bribe

bribe /braib/ noun money given secretly

and usually illegally to someone in authority

to get them to help 쑗 The minister was

dis-missed for taking a bribe.

bricks-and-mortar

bricks-and-mortar /briks ən mɔtə/

adjective referring to the fixed assets of a

company, especially its buildings

bridge finance

bridge finance / / noun

loans to cover short-term needs

bridging loan

bridging loan / / noun 1. a

short-term loan to help someone buy a new

house when the old one has not yet been sold

2. a short-term loan made to a company, e.g

to help in a cash-flow crisis or to fund

com-pany restructuring (NOTE: [all senses] The

US term is bridge loan.)

bring down /briŋ daυn/ phrasal verb to

reduce 쑗 Petrol companies have brought

down the price of oil.

bring forward /briŋ fɔwəd/ phrasal verb

1. to make something take place earlier 쑗 to

bring forward the date of repayment 쑗 The

date of the next meeting has been brought

forward to March. 2. to take an account

bal-ance from the end of the previous period as

the starting point for the current period 쑗

Balance brought forward: £365.15

bring in /briŋ in/ phrasal verb to earn an

amount of interest 쑗 The shares bring in a

small amount.

British Accounting Association

British Accounting Association

/britiʃ ə|kaυntiŋ ə|səυsieiʃ(ə)n/ anorganisation whose aim is to promoteaccounting education and research in theUnited Kingdom F Abbreviation BAA

broker

broker /brəυkə/ noun a dealer who acts as

a middleman between a buyer and a sellerbrokerage

brokerage / / noun 1. same as

broker’s commission 2. same as broking

brokerage firm

brokerage firm / /, kerage house / / noun afirm which buys and sells shares for clientsbroker-dealer

bro-broker-dealer /brəυkə dilə/ noun adealer who buys shares and holds them forresale, and also deals on behalf of investorclients

broker’s commission

broker’s commission /brəυkəz kə|

miʃ(ə)n/ noun the payment to a broker for

a deal which he or she has carried out Alsocalled brokerage (NOTE: Formerly, the com-mission charged by brokers on the LondonStock Exchange was fixed, but since 1986,commissions have been variable.)

brought down or forward: £365.15

or her family See Comment at A shares

of time 쑗 to draw up a budget for salaries

for the coming year 쑗 We have agreed on the

budgets for next year. 2.왍 the Budget the

annual plan of taxes and government ing 쑗 The minister put forward a budget

spend-aimed at boosting the economy.쐽 verb toplan probable income and expenditure 쑗 We

are budgeting for $10,000 of sales next year.

‘…he budgeted for further growth of150,000 jobs (or 2.5 per cent) in the cur-

rent financial year’ [Sydney Morning

Her-ald]

‘…the Federal government’s budget gets for employment and growth arewithin reach according to the latest fig-

tar-ures’ [Australian Financial Review]

budget account

budget account / |kaυnt/ noun

a bank account where you plan income and

budgetary 30

expenditure to allow for periods when

expenditure is high, by paying a set amount

ri|kwaiəməntz/ plural noun the rate of

spending or income required to meet the

budget forecasts

budgetary slack

noun a deliberate underestimation of

income and overestimation of costs,

designed to allow for budgetary

emergen-cies or to make targets more easily attainable

budget centre

budget centre / / noun a

part of an organisation for which a separate

budget is prepared

budget committee

budget committee / |miti/

noun the group within an organisation

responsible for drawing up budgets that

meet departmental requirements, ensuring

they comply with policy, and then

submit-ting them to the board of directors

budget control

budget control / |trəυl/ noun

the monitoring of a company’s actual

per-formance against its expected perper-formance

as detailed in a budget plan

Budget Day

Budget Day / / noun the day

when the Chancellor of the Exchequer

presents the budget to Parliament This is

usually in March, but with an advance

budget statement in November

budget deficit

budget deficit / / noun 1.

a deficit in a country’s planned budget,

where income from taxation will not be

suf-ficient to pay for the government’s

expendi-ture 2. a deficit in personal finances where a

household will borrow to finance large

pur-chases which cannot be made out of income

alone

budget department

pɑtmənt/ noun a department in a large

store which sells cheaper goods

budget director

budget director / |rektə/

noun the person in an organisation who is

responsible for running the budget system

budgeted balance sheet

budgeted balance sheet /

bləns ʃit/ noun a statement of

com-pany’s estimated financial position at the

end of a budgetary year

budgeted capacity

budgeted capacity / |

psiti/ noun an organisation’s available

output level for a budget period according tothe budget It may be expressed in differentways, e.g., in machine hours or standardhours

budgeted income statement

budgeted income statement

organi-budget information

budget information /

infəmeiʃ(ə)n/ noun information about acompany’s expected future levels of incomeand expenditure

budgeting

budgeting / / noun the tion of budgets to help plan expenditure andincome

prepara-budgeting models

budgeting models /

mɒd(ə)lz/ plural noun mathematical els used in the planning of a budget anddesigned to generate a profit

mod-budget lapsing

budget lapsing / / noun

withdrawal by an authority of the unspentportion of an organization’s budget allow-ance at the time the budget period expiresbudget manual

noun a handbook or set of documents thatdetail budgetary procedure for a company ororganisation

budget period

budget period / / noun aperiod of time covered by a budgetbudget planning calendar

budget planning calendar /

plniŋ klində/ noun a schedule ing plans for the preparation of an organisa-tion’s master budget and the departmentalbudgets that depend on it, which usuallytakes several months

show-budget report

budget report / |pɔt/ noun areport that compares a company’s actualperformance with its budgeted performancefor a given period

budget surplus

budget surplus / / noun

a situation where there is more revenue thanwas planned for in the budget

budget variance

noun the difference between the cost as mated for a budget and the actual costbuffer stocks

esti-buffer stocks /bfə stɒks/ plural noun

stocks of a commodity bought by an tional body when prices are low and held forresale at a time when prices have risen, withthe intention of reducing sharp fluctuations

interna-in world prices of the commodity

build into /bild intu/ phrasal verb to clude something in something which is be-ing set up 쑗 You must build all the forecasts

in-31 business expenses

into the budget.

build up /bild p/ phrasal verb 1. to create

something by adding pieces together 쑗 She

bought several shoe shops and gradually

built up a chain. 2. to expand something

gradually 쑗 to build up a profitable business

쑗 to build up a team of sales representatives

building and loan association

building and loan association

/bildiŋ ən ləυn ə|səυsieiʃ(ə)n/ noun US

same as building society

building society

building society /bildiŋ sə|saiəti/ noun

a financial institution which accepts and

pays interest on deposits, and lends money

to people who are buying property against

the security of the property which is being

bought 쑗 We put our savings into a building

society or into a building society account 쑗

I have an account with the Nationwide

Building Society 쑗 I saw the building

soci-ety manager to ask for a mortgage. (NOTE:

The US term is savings and loan.)

buildup

buildup /bildp/ noun a gradual increase

쑗 a buildup in sales or a sales buildup 쑗

There has been a buildup of complaints

about customer service.

built-in obsolescence

built-in obsolescence /bilt in ɒbsə|

les(ə)ns/ noun a method of ensuring

con-tinuing sales of a product by making it in

such a way that it will soon become obsolete

bulk buying

bulk buying /blk baiiŋ/ noun the act of

buying large quantities of goods at low

prices

bullet bond

bullet bond /bυlit bɒnd/ noun US a

Eurobond which is only redeemed when it is

mature (NOTE: Bullet bonds are used in

pay-ments between central banks and also act

as currency backing.)

Bulletin des Annonces Légales Obligatoires

Bulletin des Annonces Légales

Obligatoires /bυlətn deiz |nɒns lei|

l ɒbli|twɑ/ noun in France, an

offi-cial bulletin in which companies make

for-mal announcements to shareholders as

required by law Abbreviation BALO

bullet loan

bullet loan /bυlit ləυn/ noun US a loan

which is repaid in a single payment

bullion

bullion /bυliən/ noun a gold or silver bars

쑗 A shipment of gold bullion was stolen

from the security van 쑗 The price of bullion

is fixed daily.

bumping

bumping /bmpiŋ/ noun US a lay-off

procedure that allows an employee with

greater seniority to displace a more junior

employee 쑗 The economic recession led to

extensive bumping in companies where only

the most qualified were retained for some

jobs 쑗 The trade unions strongly objected

to bumping practices since they considered

that many employees were being laid off unfairly.

buy-쑗 Business is slow 쑗 We did more business

in the week before Christmas than we ally do in a month 쑗 What’s your line of

usu-business? 2. a commercial company 쑗 He

owns a small car repair business 쑗 She runs

a business from her home 쑗 I set up in

busi-ness as an insurance broker. 3. the affairsdiscussed 쑗 The main business of the meet-

ing was finished by 3 p.m.

Business Accounting Deliberation Council

Business Accounting Deliberation Council /biznis ə|kaυntiŋ di|libə|

reiʃ(ə)n kaυns(ə)l/ noun in Japan, a mittee controlled by the Ministry of Financethat is responsible for drawing up regula-tions regarding the consolidated financialstatements of listed companies

com-business address

business address /biznis ə|dres/ noun

the details of number, street, and city ortown where a company is located

business angel

business angel / / noun

a wealthy entrepreneurial individual whoinvests money, usually less money than aventure capitalist, in a company in return forequity and some control in that companybusiness angel network

business angel network /biznis

/ noun a regional work of business angels

net-business centre

business centre /biznis sentə/ noun

the part of a town where the main banks,shops and offices are located

business combination

business combination /biznis

kɒmbi|neiʃ(ə)n/ noun the process inwhich one or more businesses become sub-sidiaries of another business

business cycle

business cycle /biznis saik(ə)l/ noun

the period during which trade expands,slows down and then expands again Alsocalled trade cycle

business day

business day /biznis dei/ noun a day when banks and stock exchanges areopen for business

week-business entity concept

business entity concept /biznis

entiti kɒnsept/ noun the concept thatfinancial accounting information relatesonly to the activities of the business and not

to the activities of its owner(s)business expenses

business expenses /biznis ik|

spensiz/ plural noun money spent on ning a business, not on stock or assets

run-business hours 32

business hours

business hours /biznis aυəz/ plural

noun the time when a business is open,

usu-ally 9.00 a.m to 5.30 p.m

business intelligence

business intelligence /biznis in|

/ noun information that may be

useful to a business when it is planning its

strategy

‘…a system that enables its employees to

use cell phones to access the consulting

firm’s business information database.’

[InformationWeek]

business name

business name /biznis neim/ noun a

name used by a company for trading

pur-poses

business plan

business plan /biznis pln/ noun a

document drawn up to show how a business

is planned to work, with cash flow forecasts,

sales forecasts, etc., often used when trying

to raise a loan, or when setting up a new

business

business property relief

business property relief /biznis

prɒpəti ri|lif/ noun in the United

King-dom, a reduction in the amount liable to

inheritance tax on certain types of business

property

business ratepayer

business ratepayer /biznis reitpeiə/

noun a business which pays local taxes on a

shop, office, factory, etc

business rates

business rates /biznis reits/ plural

noun in the United Kingdom, a tax on

busi-nesses calculated on the value of the

prop-erty occupied Although the rate of tax is set

by central government, the tax is collected

the local authority

business review

business review /biznis ri|vju/ noun a

report on business carried out over the past

year It forms part of the directors’ report

business segment

business segment /biznis semənt/

noun a section of a company which can be

distinguished from the rest of the company

by its own revenue and expenditure

business transaction

business transaction /biznis trn|

zkʃən/ noun an act of buying or selling

business travel

business travel /biznis trv(ə)l/ noun

travel costs incurred in the course of work,

as opposed to private travel or daily travel to

your usual place of work

buy

buy /bai/ verb to get something by paying

money 쑗 to buy wholesale and sell retail 쑗

to buy for cash 쑗 She bought 10,000 shares.

쑗 The company has been bought by its

lead-ing supplier. (NOTE: buying – bought)

buy back /bai bk/ phrasal verb to buy

something which you sold earlier 쑗 She sold

the shop last year and is now trying to buy it

back.

buy in /bai in/ phrasal verb 1 (of a seller

at an auction) to buy the thing which you aretrying to sell because no one will pay theprice you want 2. to buy stock to cover a po-sition 3 (of a company) to buy its ownshares

‘…the corporate sector also continued toreturn cash to shareholders in the form ofbuy-backs, while raising little money in

the form of new or rights issues’

[Finan-cial Times]

buyer

buyer /baiə/ noun 1. a person who buys 2.

a person who buys stock on behalf of a ing organisation for resale or for use in pro-duction

trad-buyer’s market

buyer’s market /baiəz mɑkit/ noun amarket where products are sold cheaplybecause there are few people who want tobuy them Opposite seller’s market

buying department

buying department /baiiŋ di|

pɑtmənt/ noun the department in a pany which buys raw materials or goods foruse in the company (NOTE: The US term is

com-purchasing department.)

buying power

buying power /baiiŋ paυə/ noun anassessment of an individual’s or organiza-tion’s disposable income regarded as confer-ring the power to make purchases 쑗 The

buying power of the dollar has fallen over the last five years.

[Times]

‘…in a normal leveraged buyout, theacquirer raises money by borrowingagainst the assets or cash flow of the target

company’ [Fortune]

bylaw

bylaw /bailɔ/ noun a rule made by a localauthority or organisation, and not by centralgovernment

by-product

by-product /bai prɒdkt/ noun a ondary product made as a result of manufac-turing a main product which can be sold forprofit

calculate /klkjυleit/ verb 1. to find the

answer to a problem using numbers 쑗 The

bank clerk calculated the rate of exchange

for the dollar. 2. to estimate 쑗 I calculate

that we have six months’ stock left.

calculation

calculation /klkjυ|leiʃ(ə)n/ noun the

answer to a problem in mathematics 쑗

According to my calculations, we have six

months’ stock left 왍 we are £20,000 out in

our calculations we have made a mistake in

our calculations and arrived at a figure

which is £20,000 too much or too little

calendar variance

calendar variance /klində veəriəns/

noun variance which occurs if a company

uses calendar months for the financial

accounts but uses the number of actual

working days to calculate overhead

expenses in the cost accounts

calendar year

calendar year /klində jiə/ noun a

year from the 1st January to 31st December

call

call /kɔl/ noun 1. a demand for repayment

of a loan by a lender 2. a demand to pay for

new shares which then become paid up쐽

verb to ask for a loan to be repaid

immedi-ately

call in /kɔl in/ phrasal verb 1. to visit 쑗

Their sales representative called in twice

last week. 2. to ask for a debt to be paid

call up /kɔl p/ phrasal verb to ask for

share capital to be paid

callable bond

callable bond /kɔləb(ə)l bɒnd/ noun a

bond which can be redeemed before it

matures

callable capital

callable capital /kɔləb(ə)l kpit(ə)l/

noun the part of a company’s capital which

has not been called up

call account

call account /kɔl ə|kaυnt/ noun a type

of current account where money can be

withdrawn without notice

call-back pay

call-back pay /kɔl bk pei/ noun pay

given to an employee who has been called

back to work after his or her usual workinghours

called up capital

called up capital /kɔld p kpit(ə)l/

noun share capital in a company which hasbeen called up The share capital becomesfully paid when all the authorised shareshave been called up

‘…a circular to shareholders highlightsthat the company’s net assets as at August

1, amounted to £47.9 million – less thanhalf the company’s called-up share capital

of £96.8 million Accordingly, an EGM

has been called for October 7’ [Times]

call-in pay

call-in pay /kɔl in pei/ noun paymentguaranteed to employees who report forwork even if there is no work for them to do

쑗 Call-in pay is often necessary to ensure

the attendance of employees where there is

at least the possibility of work needing to be done.

money at call, money on call

call option

call option /kɔl ɒpʃən/ noun an option

to buy shares at a future date and at a specificprice Also called call

call purchase

call purchase /kɔl ptʃis/, call sale

/kɔl seil/ noun a transaction where theseller or purchaser can fix the price forfuture delivery

calls in arrear

calls in arrear /kɔls in ə|riə/ plural

noun money called up for shares, but notpaid at the correct time and a special calls inarrear account is set up to debit the sumsowing

Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants

Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants /kə|neidiən institjut əv

tʃɑtəd əkaυntənts/ noun in Canada, the