ACCOUNTING/MICROECONOMICS/MACROECONOMICS

What about managerial/finance accounting. i mean accounting is really simple
it's just a clusterfuck of jargon and random abritrary decisions that this thing or that thing is negative or positive on the balance sheet despite it being technically an asset or liability. it's been years since i took an accounting 101 course but i remember being not nearly jewish enough to grasp the rationale behind it.

t. got a 95 in calc 2 and generally enjoying real™ math™ as i progress through an EE degree
 
it's just a clusterfuck of jargon and random abritrary decisions that this thing or that thing is negative or positive on the balance sheet despite it being technically an asset or liability.
Accounting makes sense if you constantly look at it from the perspective of, "is this business insolvent?" Everything about assets, liabilities, and goodwill is meant to partially answer that question.

  • Have cash? It's an asset, you're more solvent
  • Owe money? Liability, less solvent
  • Sold product to someone and sent a bill? Accounts receivable, an asset over time, you're only more solvent when they pay. Bridging that gap is an entire market of commercial credit lending.
  • Had cash but lent it out to others? Same as above, but slower and you get interest.
  • Took out a loan and bought equipment? Liability, offset by the asset of that equipment, which degrades over time (depreciation), but your loan liability also shrinks over time as you pay it. Another timing-based solvency equation.
  • Got a brand name? It's worth something, but not cash, unless you sell it, but its value fluctuates in a completely unpredictable way. Estimating its value is the closest accountants come to legally sanctioned numbers cooking fraud.

All of that is wrapped around the regular boring process of making widgets and selling them, i.e. "doing actual work". People doing actual work think the accounting numbers are meaningless, but that's because workers aren't trying to figure out if their business is trending towards insolvency or stability. That's for management and numbers wizards.

But I object to OP, accounting is too practical to be grouped in with micro- and macroeconomics.
 
My favorite part about talking accounting with people is slowly watching the life-force drain from their body as I talk.

Anyone have any good solutions for tracking personal finances? I don't own a business; just a wagie but I would like to keep track of things better. Most of my education has been centered around business so I don't really know how to apply it to myself.
 
All of that is wrapped around the regular boring process of making widgets and selling them, i.e. "doing actual work". People doing actual work think the accounting numbers are meaningless, but that's because workers aren't trying to figure out if their business is trending towards insolvency or stability. That's for management and numbers wizards.
like the teachers said, it's to be info for the higher ups
 
Anyone have any good solutions for tracking personal finances? I don't own a business; just a wagie but I would like to keep track of things better. Most of my education has been centered around business so I don't really know how to apply it to myself.
I've become a bit of an actualbudget whore https://actualbudget.org/#features but you need to have the accounting mentality where you're more interested in where the money is going than what particular account it is in

It' just a free version of YNAB basically, which is envelope budgeting but it's good - you don't need the server and the desktop app is fine to start with

Accounting in general is just telling you exactly how fucked you are (good or bad) - the reason people hate it is that they never WANT to know how fucked they are. But without knowing that, you can never work to get unfucked and start fucking.
 
have you ever used the techniques in managerial accounting
Myself no, I've never worked in industry, just public. I have however advised clients on implementing GAAP standards and financial reporting in general.

If you're talking about cost accounting I know that as well, especially transfer pricing.
 
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