Understand Accounting Terms First

For someone that wants to start learning Microsoft Dynamics NAV, especially with a background like mine (non-financial, purely science), it is necessary to first understand some accounting terms and principle. Hopefully, the following would do a lot of good to such people.

Accounting reform
Accounting reform is change to accounting rules that goes beyond the enforcement of standard accounting practices and the elimination of “creative accounting”. It is advocated by those who consider the present standards and practices of the profession wholly inadequate to the task of measuring and reporting the activity, success, and failure of modern enterprise, including government. “Accounting”, says Baruch Lev, a notable proponent of such reform, “is about accountability”. He notes that the present regime of accounting rules dates back about 500 years to Renaissance Italian practices.

Accounting software
Accounting software is computer software that records and processes accounting transactions such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and trial balance. It may be developed inhouse by the company or organization using it, may be purchased from a third party, or may be a combination of a third-party application software package with local modifications. It varies greatly in its complexity and cost.

Accounts payable
Accounts payable is one of a series of accounting transactions dealing with the paying of suppliers to which one owes money for goods and services. The average household performs this task by writing checks each month to such suppliers as the electric company, telephone company, cable TV or satellite dish service, the local newspaper, and so on.