when companies switched from cash accounting to make up accounting is when I quit being an accountant. sorry I meant accrual accounting. which is the same as make up accounting.
and yes you do need to know a bit of math and algebra if you want to be an accountant. after all 2+2 = 4 is not always true.
semp
The basic premise for accrual accounting is for companies to have a longer period of time to pay their bills. Normally it's a net30. Also, a company may want to enter a bill in a current month that hasn't been given to them yet. This allows companies to have Accounts payable and accounts receivable. Normally you have to have some type of credit proof if you want companies to give you a credit account for AR. There is nothing wrong with it. It's just some companies can try to get away with creating faux invoices (AR) that shows they earned more revenue than they actually did. This is fraud. The real reason that companies use accrual base accounting is for organizing what they owe and what they should receive, and it will help them pay their bills based on their cash flow and analyze their actual expenses for the month even if they haven't received the bill yet. Cash accounting would make it harder to organize and see the real business expense/revenue for the current month.
Accounting is 80% organization, 15% knowledge of Debits and Credits and how the PL and BS work, and 5% actual math. In accounting, it's more like 2-2=0, as there is an equal and opposite reaction to every transaction that balances out. I'd say it's mostly basic simple mathematics. It doesn't matter how good you are at complex calculus or how much you think you know about how accounting works, if you are not organized with your files and desk management, or know where you put things into an account. You will not be a good accountant. The #1 thing accounting is useful for as an individual is organizing and understanding your money and cash flow so you can grow your self monetarily, just like a business. That is after all why they call them "Organizations".