Unit I Accounting and Accounting

Information

第一单元

会计和会计信息

Learning Objectives:

学习目标：

After studying this unit, you should be

able to:

学习完这个单元，你应该可以做以下：

[if !supportLists]1.      [endif]Begin to familiarize yourselfwith the concept of financial accounting and technical terms of accounting inEnglish.

开始熟悉财务会计和技术术语的会计英语术语

[if !supportLists]2.      [endif]Identify the two major group ofinformation users

确定两大类信息用户

[if !supportLists]3.      [endif]Explain the qualitycharacteristics of accounting information

说明会计信息的质量特征

Text:

课文：

  Introductionto Accounting

  会计概述（介绍）

 Accounting is an information system that identifies, records, andcommunicates relevant, reliable, and comparable information about anorganization’s business activities that can be expressed in monetary terms.

  会议是一个信息系统，可以对一个组织的经营活动用可货币术语表示确认、记录、传达相关性、可靠性和可比较的信息系统。

Identifying business activities requires

selecting transactions and events relevant to an organization.

经营活动的确认要求选择与该组织相关的交易与事项

 Recording business activities requires keeping a chronological log oftransactions and events measured in monetary unit and classified and summarizedin a useful format

对经营活动的记录要求将交易的事项按时间顺序记录，并用货币计量和对提供有用的分类和汇总。

 Communicating business activities requires preparing accounting reportssuch as financial statements.

传达经营活动的要求准备会计报告比如财务报表。

  Italso requires analyzing and interpreting such reports.

这需要分析与解释很多的财务的报告。

Careful analysis of these reports and

trends may suggest the ways in which the business may grow in the future.

细心的分析这些报告和趋势可以建议未来经营成长的方向

Expansion or reorganization should not be

planned without the proper analysis of the accounting information.

如果对会计信息的彻底分析以前不应该规划扩张或重组。

A new product and the campaign to advertise

and sell them should not be launched without the help of accounting expertise

没有经过会计专家的评审不应该开始新产品的生产和推广。

 Accounting information affects many aspects of our lives.

会议信息影响着我们生活的方方面面

When we earn money, pay taxes, invest

savings, budget earnings, and plan for the future ,we are influenced by

accounting.

当我们赚钱、缴税、投资盈余、预算收入和规划未来时，我们都受会计的影响。

Learning Check 1-1

学习自测：

Indicate whether each of the following

statements is true or false.

标注下列陈述是否正确

[if !supportLists]1.      [endif]Recording business transactionis one of the functional procedures of financial accounting. ( T )

记录业务交易是财务会计的程序职能之一。

[if !supportLists]2.      [endif]Accounting information is notrelevant to the daily lives of common people. ( F )

会计信息和普通人的日常生活不相关。

[if !supportLists]3.      [endif]Preparing and distributing

financial statements by management is a way of communicating business

activities with decision makers.（T）管理人员对财务报表的准备和分类是一种与决策制定者交流业务活动方式之一

Information Users:

信息的使用者

Accounting is often called the “language of

the business” because all organization set up an accounting information system

to communicate data to help people make better decisions.

会计经常被称为“商业语言”因为所有的组织都要建立一套会计信息系统关联数据以帮助人们做更好的决策

Financial accounting is the area of

accounting aimed at serving external users by providing them with financial

statements.

财务会计是一个通过提供财务报表服务于外部用户的会计领域。

These statements are known as

general-purpose financial statements.

这些报表通常为通用财务报表。

The term general-purpose refers to the

broad range of purposes for which external users rely on these statements.

通用的意思是指外部用户使用的广泛领域的报表。

External users of accounting information

are not directly involved in running the organization.

会计信息的外部用户不直接参与组织经营。

Almost all of us are users of accounting

information.

我们所有人几乎都是会计信息的使用者。

They include shareholders (investors),

lenders, non-executive directors, customers, suppliers, regulators, lawyers,

brokers, and the press.

外部信息的使用者包括了股东（投资者），贷款者（债权人），非执行董事，顾客，供应商，律师，股票经纪，和新闻媒体

 Eachexternal user has special information needs depending on the types of decisionsto be made.

每一个外部信息使用者都有不同的决策类型，因而对外部信息有特定的需求。

External users have limited access to an

organization’s information.

外部用户只能使用有限的企业信息

Yet their business decisions depend on

information that is reliable, relevant, and comparable

但他们的经营决策取决于信息的可靠性、相关性和可比性。

Accounting information is also useful to

internal users.

会计信息对内部用户也非常有用。

Company managers are the primary internal

users of accounting information.

公司的管理层是会计信息的主要内部使用者

Managers need an information system that

will identify problems, such as possible cost overruns or a department’s

inability to implement a plan properly.

管理层需要信息系统去发现问题，比如费用超支或者某个部门不能很好的执行某项计划

The selection and implementation of

solutions can occur only after problems have been identified.

只有明确了问题才能选择和执行解决方案

Accounting information is used to pinpoint

problems and to help select appropriate solutions.

会计信息被用于精确定位问题并且帮助选择恰当的解决方案。

Managers also use accounting information as

they make business decisions

管理层在做决策时通常用到会计信息。

Learning Check 1-2

学习自测：

[if !supportLists]1.      [endif]Specify the major groups ofaccounting information users:

明确指出会议信息的主要群体：

External users include: shareholders (investors), lenders, non-executivedirectors, customers, suppliers, regulators, lawyers, brokers, and the press.

Internal users include: managers

[if !supportLists]2.      [endif]Indentify the items form the

following list that can be categorized into external or internal information

users.

Quality Characteristics of Accounting

Information

会计信息的质量特征

Quality Characteristics are qualitative

criteria which are used to evaluate the possible measurement options and choose

the most appropriate accounting policies for the given situation.

质量特征是可选择的计量属性进行衡量的计政策的质量性标准以便在给定的情形下选择最合适的会计政策。

The most widely recognized quality criteria

include relevance, reliability, understandability, and comparability.

被最广泛认可的质量标准包括：相关性，可靠性，可理解性和可比性。

Relevance, Theoretically, relevance is the

most important qualitative characteristic.

相关性，从理论上讲，相关性是最重要的质量特征。

If accounting information is to be of any

use, it must be relevant for its intended use.

如果会计信息要成为有用的信息，它必须与应用的目的相关

Relevance relates to the objectives of

financial reporting

相关性和财务报告的目标相关.

The concept refers to the capacity of

accounting information to make a difference to the external decision makers who

use financial reports.

这是指会计信息影响用财务报告的外部决策者做不同决策的能力

Quality relates to relevance include

predict value, feedback value and timeliness

质量关系到的相关性包括预测价值，反馈价值和时效性

Predict value. Accounting information

should be helpful to external decision-makers by increasing their ability to

make predictions about the outcome of future event.

预测价值。会计信息应该对外部决策者对未来事项的支出增长预测能力有帮助

decision-makers working from accounting

information that has little or no predictive value are merely speculating

intuitively.

如果会计信息没有预测价值决策者只能是靠直觉的推测

Feedback value. Accounting information should be helpful toexternal decision-makers who are confirming past predictions or making updates,adjustments, or corrections to predictions.

反馈价值，会计信息应该对外部决策者确认过去的预计或是做更新，调整或校正预测有用。

Timeliness. Accounting information should

be reported soon enough for it to be useful for decision-making

时效性。会议信息应该披露得及时以对决定者有用，

Like the news of the world.

就像新闻一样

Stale financial information has less impact

than fresh information.

过时的陈旧的会计信息比新近的财务信息影响小

Lack of timeliness reduces relevance.

时效性的缺少，相应减少相关性。