The A-Z Of What Your Accountant Is Talking About
Jargon and abbreviations are found all too often in accountancy and business. Here is an A –Z of abbreviations used in the accounting world, and what they stand for.
Finally, you will understand what your accountant is talking about.
ACA – Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
B2B – Business to business, transactions, marketing or communications between two separate businesses.
CARB – Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board, who oversees members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
DPB – Designated Professional Body. Eg Chartered Accountants Ireland.
ES - Ethical standards, regulations setting out the ethical responsibilities of accountants.
FRS – Financial reporting standard, the rules of accounting.
GAAP – Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, the underlying principles under which accounts are prepared.
HMRC – Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the UK tax authority.
IAASA – Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority, who oversees all accounting bodies in Ireland.
JV – Joint Venture, where two or more parties input and capital investment and/or skills in order to create a business.
KYC – Know your client, referring to the client due diligence required to be carried out under the Criminal Justice Act.
LPT – Local Property Tax, a tax based on the market value of a residential property.
MLRO – Money Laundering Reporting Officer, a designated individual within a firm responsible for ensuring compliance with anti-money laundering regulation.
NAS – Non audit services, any assignments carried out which are not specifically auditing. Eg tax computations, annual returns, preparing financial statements.
ODCE – Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, similar function as the director of public prosecutions, however relating specifically to breaches of company law rather than criminal law.
PIP – Personal Insolvency practitioner, an expert in developing debt settlement or personal insolvency arrangement.
QFA – Qualified financial advisor, an expert in advising on financial planning and suitable financial products.
RCT – Relevant Contracts Tax, tax on a payment from a contractor to a subcontractor.
SSAP – Statement of Standard Accounting Practice, the predecessor to FRS above, a few are still in use today.
TR 2 – a form to be completed and sent to Revenue Commissioners to register for tax.
UITF – Urgent Issues Task Force, charged with creating new rules in accounting for dealing with the changing face of business practice.
WACC – Weighted average cost of capital, used to calculated discount factors for valuations, cashflows and other projections.
XBRL – Extensible business reporting language, a coding used in financial statements for filing with tax authorities.
Z-read – a report taken from a point of sale system giving information on sales.