Glossary
Accountant Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential accountant terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key accountant vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in accountant training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Accrual accounting
- Recording revenue and expenses when earned or incurred.
- Accrued expense
- An expense incurred but not yet paid.
- Audit
- An independent examination of financial statements or controls.
- Deferred revenue
- Cash received before revenue is earned.
- Depreciation
- Allocating the cost of an asset over its useful life.
- EBITDA
- Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
- FASB
- Financial Accounting Standards Board, which sets GAAP.
- Financial statements
- The balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement and statement of equity.
- GAAP
- Generally Accepted Accounting Principles: U.S. accounting standards.
- Internal controls
- Processes that safeguard assets and ensure accurate records.
- Materiality
- Whether a misstatement is significant enough to influence decisions.
- Month-end close
- The process of finalizing accounts each month.
- Reconciliation
- Comparing balances to supporting records to confirm accuracy.
- Tax provision
- The estimated income tax expense on financial statements.
- Variance analysis
- Explaining differences between actual and budgeted results.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Accountant practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Accountant training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.