Accounting Glossary

Browse 20 accounting terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

20 Accounting Terms

Accrued Revenue
Revenue that has been earned through delivered goods or services but has not yet been billed or collected in cash. It appears in accrual accounting so...
Capital Expenditure
Money spent on long-lived assets such as equipment, facilities, or infrastructure that are capitalized rather than treated as immediate operating expense....
Cash Flow
The movement of cash into and out of a business over time. A company can look profitable on paper and still struggle if cash flow timing is poor.
Cost of Goods Sold
The direct costs tied to producing or delivering what the company sells, such as hosting, manufacturing, support delivery, or payment processing depending on...
Cost of Revenue
The costs directly associated with generating recognized revenue, often including support, hosting, services delivery, and infrastructure. It is closely...
Deferred Revenue
Cash received from customers for services not yet fully delivered, recorded as a liability until the revenue is earned. Annual SaaS contracts often create...
EBITDA
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, a financial metric used to approximate operating performance before certain non-operational...
G&A
General and administrative expense, covering overhead functions such as finance, legal, HR, and office costs that support the company broadly rather than...
Gross Revenue
Total revenue before certain deductions such as refunds, discounts, or partner payouts, depending on context and accounting treatment. Teams use the term when...
Net Income
The bottom-line profit remaining after all expenses, taxes, interest, and other costs are subtracted from revenue. Net income is a core accounting measure,...
Net Revenue
Revenue remaining after deducting items such as refunds, discounts, returns, or partner payouts as defined by the business. It provides a more realistic view...
One-Time Revenue
Revenue that does not recur predictably, such as setup fees, implementation work, hardware sales, or one-off consulting. It can help cash flow but usually...
Operating Expense
An expense associated with running the business, such as payroll, rent, marketing, or software, excluding costs treated as cost of revenue or capital...
OpEx
Short for operating expense, referring to the ongoing costs of running the business. Finance teams use OpEx in planning, margin analysis, and board...
P&L
Short for profit and loss statement, the financial report showing revenue, costs, and profit over a period. Teams also use 'owning the P&L' to mean being...
PnL
A common shorthand spelling of profit and loss statement, showing revenue, expenses, and profit over a period. Teams also use 'PnL ownership' to mean...
Pro Forma
Adjusted or projected financial reporting that shows what numbers would look like under specified assumptions, such as after an acquisition or excluding...
Revenue
The income a company earns from selling products or services, recognized according to accounting rules rather than simply when cash arrives. Revenue is the...
Revenue Recognition
The accounting process of determining when revenue is officially recorded as earned rather than just when cash is received. In subscription and services...
Write-Off
An accounting recognition that an asset, receivable, or investment has lost value or should no longer be carried at its prior amount. In startup contexts,...

Related Topics