r21219 - gnucash-docs/trunk/guide/ja_JP - Add missing xml file for chapter 16 to Japanese guide.
Cristian Marchi
cmarchi at code.gnucash.org
Thu Aug 25 12:14:47 EDT 2011
Author: cmarchi
Date: 2011-08-25 12:14:47 -0400 (Thu, 25 Aug 2011)
New Revision: 21219
Trac: http://svn.gnucash.org/trac/changeset/21219
Added:
gnucash-docs/trunk/guide/ja_JP/ch_oth_assets.xml
Log:
Add missing xml file for chapter 16 to Japanese guide.
Added: gnucash-docs/trunk/guide/ja_JP/ch_oth_assets.xml
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--- gnucash-docs/trunk/guide/ja_JP/ch_oth_assets.xml (rev 0)
+++ gnucash-docs/trunk/guide/ja_JP/ch_oth_assets.xml 2011-08-25 16:14:47 UTC (rev 21219)
@@ -0,0 +1,442 @@
+<!--
+ (Do not remove this comment block.)
+ Version: 2.2.9
+ Last modified: October 19, 2010
+
+ Maintainers:
+ Tom Bullock <tbullock at nd.edu>
+
+ Author:
+ Tom Bullock <tbullock at nd.edu>
+
+Translators:
+ (translators put your name and email here)
+-->
+
+<chapter id="chapter_other_assets">
+ <title>Other Assets</title>
+ <sect1 id="accts-oa1">
+ <title>General Concepts</title>
+ <para>This chapter presents many additional accounting treatments for
+ frequently encountered business and less-frequently found personal activities
+ that need recording in accounting books. The explanations below cover both the
+ description and purpose of the activity, and they include also the usual
+ accounting treatments (bookings or recordings) for these transactions.</para>
+
+ <para>These concepts have evolved over centuries of experience by those
+ keeping accounting records and will help you maximize your record keeping’s
+ utility and meaningfulness.</para>
+
+ <para>This section introduces categorization of assets in the balance sheet
+ based on time or the asset’s useful life (current and long-term). Sometimes
+ assets are also considered from the standpoint of their <emphasis>liquidity
+ </emphasis>, which is regarded as how close or distant the asset is from
+ being turned into cash. Near-cash assets are relatively quickly converted
+ to cash (e.g., accounts receivable), while assets requiring rather a long
+ time to convert to cash are considered to be relatively <emphasis>fixed
+ </emphasis> in their non-cash state (e.g., heavy equipment, buildings, land).
+ (Fixed does not mean they were repaired!)</para>
+
+ <para>You should find that current assets parallel those with more liquidity,
+ while long-term and fixed assets are those with much less liquidity. Finally,
+ below you will find a few assets that could be either current or long-term
+ based on the nature of the facts constituting them.</para>
+ </sect1>
+ <sect1 id="accts-oa2">
+ <title>Other Assets Described</title>
+ <sect2 id="accts-oa3">
+ <title>Current Assets</title>
+ <para>Current Assets are those activities whose
+ normal expected life would be one year or less. Such activities could
+ be tracking reimbursable expenses, travel advances, short-term loans
+ to a friend or family member, prepaid expenses, annual insurance
+ premium amortization, and so on. The individual entity could have
+ many other kinds of short term activities that reflect what it is
+ doing. (These asset types are explained individually below.)
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
+ <sect2 id="accts-oa4">
+ <title>Long-term (Fixed) Assets</title>
+ <para>Long-term (Fixed) Assets are those
+ activities whose normal expected life exceeds one or more years. This
+ grouping covers both tangible and intangible assets. Examples of
+ tangible assets are land, buildings, and vehicles (cars, trucks,
+ construction equipment, factory presses, etc.) Intangible assets
+ include such things as patents, copy rights, goodwill, etc. Because
+ the lives of some of these assets show wear and tear and deterioration
+ in value over time, businesses and individuals can allow for that
+ diminution in value by calculating depreciation on such assets. For
+ example, land normally does not depreciate, but buildings do, as do
+ equipment and vehicles. (These asset types are explained individually
+ below.)</para>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
+ <sect1 id="accts-oa5">
+ <title>Current Assets</title>
+ <para>This section explains short-term receivables, reimbursable expenses,
+ travel advances, prepaid premiums, prepaid rent, suspense or wash accounts.
+ </para>
+ <sect2 id="accts-oa6">
+ <title>Short-term Receivables</title>
+ <para>This kind of account
+ is useful to reflect an agreement made with someone you trust.
+ Suppose you lent someone $500 and he agreed to repay you $50 a month.
+ If he paid on time, the loan you made would be paid off within a year,
+ which is why it is classified as a short-term receivable. So you
+ could record that loan initially in this account tree: <emphasis>OtherAssets:Current Assets:LoanToJoe.</emphasis>
+ At the time you give him the money: your
+ entry is debit (increase) LoanToJoe $500 and credit (decrease) Bank
+ $500. Each time you receive Joe’s payment you record $50 debit
+ (increase) to Bank and credit (decrease) LoanToJoe.</para>
+
+ <tip>
+ <para>Don’t become confused by the use of the word <quote>Loan</quote>.
+ <quote>Loan-To</quote> is the tipoff that you really have a receivable, that is,
+ you will receive from Joe, the money you previously loaned. Until he
+ actually pays the money owed you, you reflect his debt in your books
+ by an account describing your expectation–you will receive the
+ money owed you, hence the word <quote>receivable</quote>.</para>
+ </tip>
+ </sect2>
+ <sect2 id="accts-oa7">
+ <title>Reimbursable Expenses</title>
+ <para>This kind of activity
+ is one in which you spend your own money on behalf of someone else
+ (your employer, perhaps) and later you receive repayment of what you
+ spent. The case might be a business trip. The employer has a policy
+ of covering (paying for) all authorized expenses. After the
+ trip is over, the employee submits a report listing dates and amounts
+ spent with receipts for all the expenditures. The employer reviews
+ the report and pays for all items that it considers as having a valid business reason.
+ (Normally, employees know in advance what the employer will
+ reimburse, so only those items are recorded as a reimbursable expense
+ on the employee’s books.)</para>
+
+ <para>Because a business trip can involve different kinds of expenditures
+ (air travel, lodging, transportation at the destination, etc.),
+ different kinds of expenditures would be recorded in the one account
+ as long as the expenditures all related to the same trip. In other
+ words, if a second trip is made before the first is fully settled, a
+ second account for a different event could be set up. It would make
+ sense to do this, if it would help to keep separate all the details of
+ one trip from those of another. It is up to the person making the
+ trip to decide how much trouble it would be to put separate trips in
+ separate accounts or to put them all in the same account. The trip
+ taker should remember that the account must be reconciled in order to
+ know with certainty that all expenses have been reimbursed.</para>
+
+ <para>Recording the expenditures on the trip would be much the same.
+ That is, if you paid trip expenses by cash you would debit (increase) the
+ reimburseable expense account for the money paid in cash, because it
+ is a receivable to you until it has been reimbursed to you. The credit
+ offsetting your expenditure would decrease the account that shows the
+ cash in your pocket or the account from which you drew the cash for
+ the payment made. If you paid by credit card, the debit side would be
+ the same as just described, but the credit would be an increase to the
+ credit card company account on your books.</para>
+
+ <para>When you received your reimbursement, then the journal entry (or
+ transaction) to record receipt of the funds from the employer would be:
+ debit (increase) Bank for the check amount and credit (decrease) the
+ reimbursable expense account for the check amount.</para>
+
+ <para>If it turns out that the reimbursable expense account is not
+ zero balance after processing the employer’s payment, then it means that
+ there is a difference between you and the employer in handling the expense,
+ which needs to be investigated. If the balance is a debit
+ (a positive balance), your account has some money that was not reimbursed.
+ If the balance is a credit (a negative balance), you were paid for more
+ than what you recorded as due you. In both of those situations you should
+ reconcile the difference between what you recorded and what was paid.
+ That effort should disclose exactly what is causing the discrepancy.
+ You will need to contact the employer’s bookkeeper to know what was paid,
+ if the reimbursement check was not accompanied by a detailed list of the
+ items being paid you.</para>
+
+ <para>In the event the employer refused to reimburse you for an
+ expenditure, that effectively makes it your expense. In that case, you
+ would make this entry: debit (increase) your own Expense
+ (appropriately named) and credit (decrease) the Reimbursable Expense
+ account. That entry should result in a zero balance in the
+ Reimbursable Expense account. If not, reconcile until you identify
+ the difference.</para>
+
+ <tip>
+ <para>Sometimes there are small differences that don’t match an
+ individual entry. In those cases divide the amount by 2 or by 9. If
+ the unresolved amount is divisible by two, it suggests that both you
+ and the employer entered the item in the same manner: both as debits
+ or both as credits. If it is divisible by 9, then likely one of you
+ transposed adjoining numbers; e.g., one entered 69 and the other
+ entered 96. If the difference is divisible neither by 2 or by 9, then
+ it could be that more than one error is present.</para>
+ </tip>
+ </sect2>
+ <sect2 id="accts-oa8">
+ <title>Travel Advances</title>
+ <para>These are very similar to
+ Reimbursable Expenses. The difference is that someone gives you
+ money first; you spend it, and then you give a report accounting for
+ what you spent it on. The report is supported by invoices establishing
+ who, what, where, when, and how much for each expenditure. In the
+ Reimbursable Expense case, you spent your money first and later
+ recovered it.</para>
+
+ <para>In the Travel Advance case when you receive the advance, you
+ record on your books this entry: debit (increase) Bank for the travel
+ advance amount received (say, $500); credit (increase) the short-term
+ liability Travel Advance ($500). This is a liability, because
+ you are not gifted with the money, but only loaned it for the purpose
+ of having funds to spend when doing the employer’s business.</para>
+
+ <para>Frequently, the way these monetary arrangements work is that at
+ the beginning of for example a salesperson’s employment, he or she receives the advance
+ and monthly (or more frequently) turns in a report about who, what,
+ where, when, and how much he spent. The money in the report is
+ reimbursed if approved.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>During the period after receiving the advance and before filing
+ a request for reimbursement report, the salesperson can record his or her expenditures into
+ the advance liability account. In that case, the balance
+ in the account will show how much of the advance has not yet been spent
+ (assuming the Travel Advance balance is a credit). If no mistakes have
+ been made and all expenses are approved, then the sum of the unspent
+ account balance and the reimbursing check amount will equal the original
+ travel advance amount.</para>
+
+ <para>It makes sense for the salesperson to record the travel expenses to this advance account (and
+ not to his or her own expense accounts), because the money is being spent
+ on behalf of the employer, for the employer’s authorized expenses. It
+ is not the employee’s own money, and therefore not his or her own expense.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>When the salesperson receives the report reimbursement (say, $350), he or she debits
+ (increases) Bank, and credits (increases) again the Travel Advance
+ liability account, assuming that previously he or she had been recording
+ expenditures to the travel advance account. Tracking activity in this
+ manner causes the account to always show the amount that is owed the
+ employer.</para>
+
+ <para>See <xref linkend="accts-oa7"/> above for what to do if
+ the employer does not accept an item the employee put on the travel
+ advance reimbursement request report. The difference resolution effort
+ is essentially the same for both types of accounts.</para>
+ </sect2>
+ <sect2 id="accts-oa9">
+ <title>Prepaid Premiums or Prepaid Rent</title>
+ <para>Some types of
+ expenses are usually billed as semi-annual or annual amounts. For
+ example, the insurance industry will bill home insurance annually,
+ while car insurance premiums can be annual or semi-annual. For those
+ that pay an amount that covers several months or a full year, the
+ proper accounting treatment is to reflect in each accounting period
+ the amount that expresses the benefit applying to that period.</para>
+
+ <para>In the case of someone who pays a full-year’s insurance premium
+ at the beginning of the insurance period, the entry to record this is
+ debit (increase) Prepaid Insurance Premium for say, $1,200, and credit
+ (decrease) Bank for $1,200.</para>
+
+ <para>Then a monthly recurring journal entry (scheduled transaction)
+ is created that debits (increases) Insurance Expense $100 and credits
+ (decreases) Prepaid Insurance Premium $100. This technique spreads
+ the cost over the periods that receive the insurance coverage benefit.
+ Businesses following generally accepted accounting practices would
+ normally use this technique, especially if they had to present
+ financial statements to banks or other lenders. Whether individuals do
+ depends on the person and how concerned they are to match cost with
+ benefit across time periods. Another factor influencing use of this
+ technique would be the number of such situations the person encounters.
+ It is relatively easy to remember one or two, but more difficult if
+ having to manage 10 to 20. You would set up as many or as few as proved
+ useful and important to you.</para>
+ </sect2>
+ <sect2 id="accts-oa10">
+ <title>Suspense or Wash Accounts</title>
+ <para>The purpose of
+ these accounts is to provide a device to track <quote>change of mind</quote> situations.
+ The objective of these accounts is to provide a temporary location to
+ record charges and credits that are not to be included permanently in
+ your books of record. When the transactions reflected in these accounts
+ have been fully completed, Wash/Suspense accounts will normally carry
+ a zero balance.</para>
+
+ <para>For example, say in the grocery store you see canned vegetables on sale,
+ so you buy 6 cans at $1 per can. Say that the total purchases were $50.
+ When you come home and are putting things in the cupboard you discover
+ you already had 12 cans. You decide to return the 6 you just bought.
+ Some persons in this situation would charge (increase) the whole bill
+ to Grocery Expense; and when they returned the cans, they would credit
+ (decrease) Grocery Expense. That is one way of handling that. The effect
+ of this method is to leave recorded on your books the cost of items that
+ you really did not purchase from a permanent standpoint. It is only
+ when the items have actually been returned and the vendor’s return
+ receipt has also been recorded that the distortion this method generates
+ will then be removed.</para>
+
+ <para>Actually, there are several treatments, depending on when and how
+ the original transaction was booked/recorded and when you decided to
+ return the items purchased. Basically, did you change your mind before
+ you recorded the transaction or after doing so?</para>
+
+ <para>If you decided to return the items after recording the purchase
+ transaction, you may originally have charged Grocery Expense for the full
+ amount ($50) of all items. In that scenario, what you kept and the amount of
+ the items to be returned were grouped into one account. You could edit the
+ original transaction and restate the amount charged to the Grocery Expense
+ account to be the difference ($44) between the total paid ($50) for groceries
+ and the value of the items to be returned. That leaves the returned-item
+ value as the amount ($6) you should record to the Suspense account.</para>
+
+ <para>Obviously, if you decided to return items before you recorded your
+ purchase, then you would book the original entry as a charge to Grocery
+ Expense for the amount kept ($44) and as a charge to Suspense for the
+ amount returned ($6). The off-setting credit ($50) to cash or credit
+ card is not affected by these treatments.</para>
+
+ <para>When there are several persons shopping and at different vendors,
+ there can be a case where there are several returns happening at once
+ and in overlapping time frames. In that case the Wash Account is
+ charged (increased) at time of changing the mind, and either Bank or
+ Credit Card is credited. When the return occurs, the reverse happens:
+ Bank or Credit Card is debited for the cash value of the returned items
+ and the Wash/Suspense Account is credited in the same amount.</para>
+
+ <para>If the wash account has a non-zero balance, scanning the debit
+ and credit entries in the account will show the non-matched items.
+ That is, debits not matched by offsetting credits indicate items
+ intended to be returned but not actually returned yet. The reverse
+ (credits not matched by offsetting debits) indicates that returns were
+ made but the original charge was not recorded in the Wash Account.</para>
+
+ <para>These differences can be cleared up by returning unreturned items
+ or recording charges (debits) for items already returned. The mechanics
+ of doing that likely will be finding the original expense account the
+ item was charged to and making an entry like: debit Wash Account, credit
+ original expense. It also could be as described above where the original
+ recording is adjusted by adding a charge to Wash/Suspense account and
+ decreasing the amount charged to the original account.</para>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
+ <sect1 id="accts-oa11">
+ <title>Short or Long-term Assets</title>
+ <para>This section explains why some types of assets may be short or
+ long-term and presents an example.</para>
+
+ <para>An example is deposits (e.g., utility, rental, security). If the
+ deposit agreement contains a provision to recover the deposit at the
+ end of a year, the treatment could be that of a short-term asset.
+ However, when the agreement is that the deposit holder returns the
+ funds only upon successful inspection at the end of the relationship,
+ then at the start of the relationship or agreement, the person paying
+ the deposit has to decide whether to write it off as a current expense
+ or to track it for eventual recovery at the end of the agreement
+ (not infrequently, moving to a new location).</para>
+
+ <para>Whichever decision is made, the accounting treatment is to debit
+ (increase) expense (assuming the write-off decision) or debit (increase)
+ Deposits Receivable (assuming the intent is to recover the deposit in
+ the future) and credit (decrease) Bank for the amount of the deposit
+ (if paid by cash) or credit (increase) credit card if paid using that
+ payment method.</para>
+ </sect1>
+ <sect1 id="accts-oa12">
+ <title>Long-term (Fixed) Assets</title>
+ <para>This section illustrates long-term assets (those whose useful lives
+ exceed a year) and discusses these types: land, buildings, leasehold
+ improvements, intangibles, vehicles and other equipment.</para>
+ <sect2 id="accts-oa13">
+ <title>Land</title>
+ <para>Land is not a wasting asset. That is, it
+ does not get used up over time and rarely suffers damage such that it
+ loses value. For that reason, it usually is recorded at cost at the
+ time of purchase. Appreciation in its value over decades is not recorded
+ and is not recognized in any way on the books of the owner. It is only
+ after land has been sold that sale price and purchase cost are compared
+ to calculate gain or loss on sale.</para>
+
+ <para>Land is frequently sold/purchased in combination with structures
+ upon it. That means that the cost has to become separated from the
+ cost of structures on it. Land valuation is usually part of the transfer
+ of ownership process and its value is shown on the purchase documents
+ separately from that of any structures it supports.</para>
+
+ <para>Land values shown on purchase documents frequently arise from the
+ process of value determination managed by assessors whose job it is
+ to assign values to land for tax purposes. Local and regional areas of
+ a state or province use the values determined by assessors in their tax
+ formulas, which provide revenues for local and regional governing
+ authorities to finance their required community services.</para>
+
+ <para>Should land be acquired in a situation not subject to a history of
+ land valuation by a formal valuation system, then the purchaser can appeal
+ to real estate agents and an examination of recent sale transactions for
+ information that would allow calculating a reasonable amount to express
+ the value of the land.</para>
+ </sect2>
+ <sect2 id="accts-oa14">
+ <title>Buildings</title>
+ <para>Buildings are the man-made <quote>caves</quote> in which
+ much of life’s human interaction occurs. These structures are wasting
+ assets, because in their use they or their components gradually wear.
+ Over time they begin to lose some of their function and they can suffer
+ damage due to planetary elements or human action.</para>
+
+ <para>Accepted accounting practice is to record the cost of the building
+ determined at time of ownership transfer (purchase) or at conclusion of all
+ costs of construction. Because buildings are frequently used for decades,
+ and due to the need to be able to calculate gain or loss on sale,
+ accounting practice preserves the original cost by not recording declines
+ in value in the account containing the original purchase or construction
+ cost.</para>
+
+ <para>Instead, the depreciation technique is used to show (in the
+ balance sheet) the structure’s net book value (original cost reduced by
+ accumulated depreciation). Depreciation is a separate topic treated
+ elsewhere in this Guide.</para>
+ </sect2>
+ <sect2 id="accts-oa15">
+ <title>Leasehold Improvements</title>
+ <para>When a business does
+ not own the building where it operates, and instead has a long-term
+ lease, it is not uncommon for the business tenant to make improvements to
+ the premises so that the structure obtains both function and appearance
+ that enhances conducting its business activities.</para>
+
+ <para>In these cases, the expenditures that the business incurs are recorded
+ in a Leasehold Improvements account: increase (debit) Leasehold Improvements,
+ decrease (credit) Bank or increase (credit) a suitable liability account
+ (which could be a liability to a contractor or a bank or a credit card,
+ etc.).</para>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2 id="accts-oa16">
+ <title>Vehicles or Equipment</title>
+ <para>Vehicles or Equipment of all kinds usually
+ last for several years, but their useful lives are much shorter than
+ that of assets that have little movement in their functioning. Because
+ they do wear out over time, common accounting practice in business is
+ to record depreciation using life spans and depreciation methods
+ appropriate to the nature and use of the asset. Frequently, the life
+ and depreciation methods chosen are influenced by what is permitted per
+ national tax regulations for the kind of asset being depreciated.</para>
+
+ <para>Usually, businesses depreciate their assets. Individuals can
+ do so as well to the degree that taxing authorities permit. Very wealthy
+ persons employ accountants and attorneys to track and manage their
+ investments and assets holdings to take advantage of all tax benefits
+ permitted by law.</para>
+ </sect2>
+ <sect2 id="accts-oa17">
+ <title>Intangibles</title>
+ <para>The mechanics of accounting (debiting
+ and crediting appropriate accounts) for these assets are relatively simple,
+ much the same as for any of the above assets. Where the difficulty lies
+ is in their valuation, which is an advanced topic and not something that
+ individual persons and small businesses would likely encounter. For that
+ reason further discussion of items such as patents, copyrights, goodwill,
+ etc. are left out of this Guide.</para>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
+ </chapter>
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