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Business Definitions
Source: Bplans: http://articles.bplans.com/business-term-glossary

Business Definitions – A
Accounts Payable (AP) – Bills to be paid as part of the normal course of business. This is a standard accounting term, one of the most common liabilities, which normally appears in the Balance Sheet listing of liabilities. Businesses receive goods or services from a vendor,receive an invoice, and until that invoice is paid the amount is recorded as part of “Accounts Payable.”
acid test – Short-term assets minus accounts receivable and inventory, divided by short-term liabilities. This is a test of a company’s ability to meet its immediate cash requirements. It is one of the more common business ratios used by financial analysts.
assets – Property that a business owns,including cash and receivables, inventory, etc. Assets are any possessions that have value in an exchange. The more formal definition is the entire property of a person, association, corporation, or estate applicable or subject to the payment of debts. What most people understand as business assets are cash and investments, accounts receivable, inventory, office equipment, plant and equipment, etc.Assets can be long-term or short-term, and the distinction between these two categories might be whether they last three years, five years, 10 years, or whatever; normally the accountants decide for each company and what’s important is consistency. The government also has a say in defining assets, because it has to do with tax treatment; when you buy a piece of equipment, if you call thatpurchase an expense then you can deduct it from taxable income. If you call it an asset you can’t deduct it, but you can list it on your financial statement among the assets. The tax code controls how businesses decide to categorize spendings into assets or expenses.
Business Definitions – B
benchmark – A benchmark is a standard or guideline used to compare some aspect of a business to some objectiveor external standard measure. For example, when a banker compares a business’ profitability to standard financial ratios for that type of business, the process is sometimes referred to as “benchmarking.” Business Plan Pro creates a chart that it calls “Business Benchmarks,” which it uses to compare five standard business measures (sales, gross margin, net profits, collection days, and inventoryturnover) as they change over time. In this case the benchmark is the business itself, so it compares past results to planned future results.
brand – A name, term, sign, symbol, design, or a combination of all used to uniquely identify a producer’s goods and services and differentiate them from competitors.
business mission – A brief description of an organization’s purpose with reference to itscustomers, products or services, markets, philosophy, and technology.
business plan – The written document that details a proposed or existing venture. It seeks to capture the vision, current status, expected needs, defined markets, and projected results of the business. A business plan “tells the entrepreneur’s story” by describing the purpose, basis, reason and future of the venture.
buy-sellagreement – An agreement designed to address situations in which one or more of the entrepreneurs wants to sell their interest in the venture.
Business Definitions – C
cash – Cash normally means bills and coins, as in paying in cash. However, the term is used in a business plan to represent the bank balance, or checking account balance. Business Plan Pro builds its financial analysis around cashand cash flow used in this second sense, as the balance of the checking account in the bank, plus other liquid securities used to bolster the checking account.
cash flow budget – A budget that provides an overview of cash inflows and outflows during a specified period of time. This is often called the cash flow, or the cash budget. Just as cash flow is one of the most critical elements of...