US CMA Part 2 Financial Management — practice by topic

1. The accounting system generates two kinds of report, internal and external. 2. Financial accounting prepares the external reports, which are used mainly by lenders, suppliers, investors and government agencies. 3. Managerial accounting is the internal side: it gives managers inside the firm information for decisions about current and future operations. 4. Trial balance work and cost bookkeeping are steps inside the record keeping, not the branch that reports to outsiders. _Source: OpenStax Introduction to Business (CC BY 4.0), Ch 14 "Using Financial Information and Accounting", section 14.1 Accounting: More than Numbers_

1. The annual report is the yearly document describing a firm's financial status and its prospects for the future. 2. Financial statements are the chief element of that report, and three of them appear in it: the balance sheet, the income statement and the statement of cash flows. 3. Ledgers, journals and the trial balance are internal records used to build the statements, and they are not published as a yearly document. _Source: OpenStax Introduction to Business (CC BY 4.0), Ch 14 "Using Financial Information and Accounting", section 14.1 Accounting: More than Numbers_

1. Accountants in the United States are classified as either public accountants or private accountants. 2. Public accountants are the independent ones, serving organizations and individuals on a fee basis. 3. Private accountants are employed to serve one particular organization, so they are not paid by the job. 4. Public accountants offer financial statement and tax return preparation, independent auditing and management consulting. _Source: OpenStax Introduction to Business (CC BY 4.0), Ch 14 "Using Financial Information and Accounting", section 14.2 The Accounting Profession_