CHAPTER 1 ACCOUNTING IN ACTION CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Identify the activities and users associated with accounting. Accounting is an information system that identifies, records, and communicates the economic events of an organization to interested users. The major users and uses of accounting are as follows: (a) Management uses accounting information to plan, organize, and run the business. (b) Investors (owners) decide whether to buy, hold, or sell their financial interests on the basis of accounting data. (c) Creditors (suppliers and bankers) evaluate the risks of granting credit or lending money on the basis of accounting information. Other groups that use accounting information are taxing authorities, regulatory agencies, customers, and labor unions. 2. Explain the building blocks of accounting: ethics, principles, and assumptions. Ethics are the standards of conduct by which actions are judged as right or wrong. Effective financial reporting depends on sound ethical behavior. Accounting is based on standards, such as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). IFRS generally uses one of two measurement principles, historical cost or fair value principle. Two main assumptions are the monetary unit assumption and the economic entity assumption. The monetary unit assumption requires that companies include in the accounting records only transaction data that can be expressed in terms of money. The economic entity assumption requires that the activities of each economic entity be kept separate from the activities of its owner(s) and other economic entities. 3. State the accounting equation, and define its components. The basic accounting equation is: Assets = Liabilities + Equity Assets are resources a business owns. Liabilities are creditors' claims on total assets. Equity is the ownership claim on total assets. The expanded accounting equation is: Assets = Liabilities + Share Capital—Ordinary + Revenues – Expenses – Dividends Share capital—ordinary is affected when the company issues new ordinary shares in