Preface This is the first book of a corporate finance series already published online in Japanese. This book provides accounting fundamentals for people who do not have an accounting background. The goal is to understand what the data on the B/S and P/L indicate. Primary readers will be business people and personal investors who would like to value companies using financial statements, but the audience is not limited to such people. For students who are to take accounting classes, this will be a preliminary study. One unique point of this book is its focus on the concepts rather than the details of bookkeeping procedures. This book assumes that the readers are potential “users” of financial statements who won’t make or check the statements themselves but will refer to them to review economic activities. For them, it will be beneficial first to understand what the B/S and P/L represent. Another point of this book is to introduce some examples from Japanese accounting history, which will make an impression on most non-Japanese (and also Japanese) readers. The examples taken from present-day accounting will contribute to the presentation of a widely inclusive perspective on accounting principles. Contents - Preface - Chapter 1: Accountability and the Balance Sheet (B/S) - - Bookkeeping and accounting - - - Snapshot: Convergence - - Companies - - - Snapshot: Eidan, a Japanese form of not-for-profit company - - Stakeholders - - Recognition of income - - The balance sheet - - - Snapshot: What “balance” means - - - Snapshot: Daifukucho - an example of single-entry bookkeeping - - - Snapshot: How “debit” and “credit” were named - Chapter 2: Journal Entries - - Entry format - - - Snapshot: Transactions without journal entries - - - Snapshot: Japanese deposit book format - - General ledger accounts - - Finances - - The operating cycle - - - Credit sales and accounts receivable - - - Snapshot: Long-term contracts and percentage-of-completion method - - - Snapshot: Credit sales fraud - Chapter 3: The Income statement (P/L) - - Key performance indicators for corporate analysis - - - Safety: - - - Profitability: - - - Efficiency: - - - Snapshot: DuPont analysis - - Income statement format - - Redefinition of “operating cycle” - - Depreciation – Allocating expense to multiple years - - - Snapshot: Amortization - - Allowance - Summary