Sivut

maanantai 7. marraskuuta 2016

PBL 7: Lack of Knowledge in Accounting

Where does profit come from?

Profit is generally a financial benefit when expenses, costs and taxes are less than a revenue from a business activity. Profit is the money a company makes after all expenses, it is the same if it’s a small business or a multinational company. It is very important to be profitable to be able to invest in the business in the long run and staying healthy as a company. There are three kinds of profit that can be analyzed: gross profit, operating profit and net profit. They all give valuable information about the company and explain how the company performs, when the numbers can be analyzed using different periods of time or be compared against competitors in the same industry. All three kinds of profit can be found on the income statement.

The first one is gross profit. It is the sales minus the cost of the goods sold. The sales is usually the first line in the income statement and is very important for a business that is performing well. Cost of goods sold might be also referred as CGS. If you divide gross profit with sakes you get the gross profit margin, which is presented in percentages.
The second kind of profit is operating profit. It is calculated by deducting operating expenses from the gross profit. Operating expenses are expenses such as salaries, general and administrative costs. They are often referred as SG&A. If you divide operating profit with sales, you get the operating profit margin.
The last one is then net profit. It is the income left after deducting all expenses. In this case you need to deduct your taxes and interest as well. If you divide net profit with sales, you get the net profit margin.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/profit.asp

Income statement and balance sheet

Income statement is an important document for accountants and owners of a business. It’s sometimes referred as profit and loss statement. It demonstrates the profitability of a company during a time period, like 3 months or a fiscal year. It can be important for a lender to research a company if it will issue a loan. It shows if a company is spending properly, if it has enough sales or if it is profitable. The income statement is in general the same for all companies, but is more complex if it’s a big business. The following should be included nonetheless:

A. Revenues and Gains
1. Revenues from primary activities
2. Revenues or income from secondary activities
3. Gains (e.g., gain on the sale of long-term assets, gain on lawsuits)

B. Expenses and Losses 
1. Expenses involved in primary activities
2. Expenses from secondary activities 
3. Losses (e.g., loss on the sale of long-term assets, loss on lawsuits)

Revenues from primary activities is often referred as operating revenues. They are revenues from the core activities, such as revenues for sale coffee and pastries in a coffee shop. Revenues from secondary activities is something not related with the core activities and is often referred as nonoperational activities. Rent or investments can fall into this category. These revenues are reported when the sale is done, not when the business receives its money. The gains are income that comes when other assets are sold, such as a company car.

Expenses involved in primary activities are such expenses that are needed to get normal business revenues. All money paid out of a company is not seen as expenses, such as paying a bank loan. Also investments are expenses, but they are divided often on many years, despite being paid at once.
Expenses from secondary activities are something not directly related with primary business function, such as interest on a loan. It is a finance function.
Losses is loss for sale of long-term assets, such as selling some property with a loss, it is not directly associated with the primary business function.

http://www.accountingcoach.com/income-statement/explanation/
http://www.accountingcoach.com/income-statement/explanation/2

A balance sheet is a financial statement where a company’s assets, liabilities and shareholder’s equity at a specific time is documented.
Assets are divided depending on their liquidity, that is how easily they can be converted into cash. Current assets can be converted into cash in one year and non-current or long-term takes longer

Current assets

  • Cash and cash equivalents
  • Marketable securities: equity and debt securities that can be sold easily.
  • Accounts receivable: money that customers owe the company
  • Inventory
  • Prepaid expenses: something of value already paid such as insuranceLong-term assets

Long-term assets

  • Fixed assets: such as machinery
  • Intangible assets: such as intellectual property


Liabilities is what a company owes to outside parties, such as debts, bills it has to pay and salaries to its workers. They are divided into current and long-term liabilities.

Current Liabilities
Current portion of long-term debt
Bank indebtedness
Interest payable
Rent, tax and utilities
Customer prepayments
Wages payable
Dividends

Long-term Liabilities
Long-term debt
Pension Fund liability
Deferred tax liability

Some liabilities are off-balance sheet, such as operating leases.

Shareholder’s equity is money attributable to shareholders. It’s also known as net assets, because it is total assets deducted the liabilities. Retained earnings are net earnings a company can reinvest in its operations or pay off debt. The rest of that money is distributed to shareholders. Treasury stock is a stock the company has repurchased or never issued. It can be sold later. Additional paid-in capital is what shareholders have paid in the company in excess over the common and preferred stock par value.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/balancesheet.asp

sunnuntai 6. marraskuuta 2016

PBL 6: How To Start a Company

Problem- Lack of knowledge to survive in a business world. How to start an own company?

Learning Objectives-

How to maintain a business?

Maintaining a good and solid business is a key to success. It’s about hard work and being focused for a long time. A business might not be successful from start, but how you manage your business is often more important than the business idea.

Some key facts about maintaining your business:

One thing that can’t be emphasized enough is planning. A business owner needs to have a detailed plan for its operations and have to ability to foresee the future. When there is a plan it’s easier to see how the business is doing, how the revenues are coming in. It’s also very important to know what happens day-to-day.

Customers are the key to get sales and to have more sales in the future. In order to have happy customers you need to have something valuable to sell but also take good care of the customers, it is crucial to have good customer service.

If you want to make some money, as a business-owner you can’t be to fond of security, you need to be able to take some risks. If there is no risk, there is probably no reward.
To stay in the game you need to have great products a retain a competitive edge against the competition.


How to fund your business?

When starting a business and before revenues are coming in you need money to rent a place of business, pay salaries, pay for equipment and so on. Your company does not probably have that mony, so you need some financing. The most obvious way to finance is to use your savings. If you don´t have enough savings you could try to have your friends and family to lend you some money to get things going. It’s a bit risky if you can’t pay them back, you might end up having problems with the relationships with them.

When you have a bit more solid base or an exceptional idea you could get financing from investors, a bank or some other establishment. A bank needs some securities and a detailed businessplan to give a loan. Investors might lend the money for higher interest, but often they might as well be interested in buying a part of your company or wanting a royalty of your future sales, so you need to evaluate what is good for you and your business.


How does the limited liability company manage their obligations in 
Finland?                                                                                                                                             

A Finnish Limited Liability Company (LLC) is an equivalent to a British Ltd or a German GmbH. It can be a private limited company where there needs to be a total of shares for 2500€ or a Public where there needs to be shares of 80000€. The capital is then the company’s assets and can be used for business purposes. The shareholders responsibility is limited to their shares, they are not personally responsible for debts. A shareholder can be a natural person or a legal person (e.g a LLC).

The Board is the top managing organ of a company and must have at least one member and one substitute member. One member must reside in the European Economic Area. In the articles of association the term of the board members is agreed. It can be fixed for an amount of time or be ongoing.

The vast majority of companies appoint a managing director, but it’s not mandatory.
The shareholder assembly is the top organ in a company and is limited by shares. The assembly must be convened 6 months after the end of the fiscal year. There is not a need to have an actual meeting, it can be held in writing as well.

Limited Companies usually needs to have a qualified auditor. If a company is operating a very small scale business, it’s not mandatory.

Usually the relationships between shareholders is regulated in the shareholders agreement. It is normal practice to agree on such issues as pre-emption rights, regulations about financing responsibility, profit distribution policy, prohibition of competition, and the means of settlement of litigation.

Liability for losses or damages in a LLC is usually limited to the shares, but management has a larger responsibility. The founders, members of the board and the supervisory board as well as the managing director are liable in damages for any loss they cause the company in their work whether wilfully or negligently.