Financial statement users hope that historical performance reflected on income statements might provide some meaningful grounds for predicting a company's future performance. In the case of well established businesses operating in stable environments this would be a reasonable expectation. It's too bad that in the real world there are so few businesses like this.

Accounting provides some measure of a firm's economic efficiency on its income statement. A large net income usually tells us that something has gone right, while a large loss indicates that something is amiss. The same cannot be said about a non profit's income statements (usually called the Statements of Revenue and Expense). Since the central goal of a non profit is to provide services, not earn large profits, the absence of a profit is not a mark against the organization.

Sunk costs are usually defined as previously incurred costs that are not recoverable and should not be taken into account in decision making. Here is a slightly modified example of a sunk cost from Jerold Zimmerman's "Accounting for Decision Making and Control" (Irwin McGraw-Hill):

Example. Abadabba Berman, the comptroller of the Schultz Cement Shoe Company, has contracted with Microstiff to design a proprietary accounting software package for the company at a cost of $15,000.

Businesses spend billions of dollars trying to develop new and better products, These outlays are referred to as research and development (R & D) costs. Accounting rule makers have struggled with how best to classify such expenditures. Should they be treated as expenses or assets? The classification of an outlay as an expense or an asset depends upon how long the firm will benefit from the outlay.

Financial accounting strives to answer two basic questions: how did the business do last year, and what did the business own and owe at the end of the year? The answers to these questions are summarized in two basic statements, the income statement and the balance sheet.

If you have even a passing knowledge of business and economics, answering these questions might not seem that difficult.

It is a widely accepted belief that risk is an important factor in investment decisions. The income method of investment valuation stipulates that the price an investor is willing to pay for an investment is a function of the future expected cash flow, discounted by a rate that reflects the risk associated with receiving this expected cash flow. The Ibbotson build-up, Black/Green, and Schilt are three widely used methods valuators use to determine a specific discount rate to be applied to projected cash flows in valuing closely held companies.

The basic advantages of a computerized accounting system are efficiency and speed. In a manual system receipts and disbursements are initially recorded in registers. This can involve writing a check and then writing a description in a register or this can be done on a one-write system. Either way the transactions in the registers must be manually posted to the general ledger and then compiled into financial statements.

Is there any specific experience that can best prepare an individual to be the President of the United States? Service in the military? Running a business? Governing a state? Or will the much maligned legislative experience suffice? How much of the right sort of experience is enough? Consider the resumes of two of our best presidents.

Consider first Mr.

The following item was reported in a recent American Institute of Certified Public Accountants communication:

"The Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS had posted on the IRS web site a controversial document setting forth the Service's view on what constitutes good governance practices for tax-exempt entities. Included in the document was the suggestion that audit firms be rotated on a regular basis, with five years as the suggested term.

The text book definition of "sunk costs" reads something like this:

Sunk Costs: Costs that were incurred in the past that cannot be recovered and thus are irrelevant for decision making.

Well most costs are incurred in the past so that part of the definition is not all that helpful. More central is the idea of recoverability. But the key underlying idea, which is not spelled out in the definition, is that sunk costs are assets.