Alphabet Accounting Podcast

Welcome to the Alphabet Accounting Podcast – brought to you by Warwick Business School.Join Professor Lisa Weaver and Associate Professor Jodie Lucas as they take you on an A–Z journey through the essential concepts and terminology used throughout the BSc Accounting & Finance degree.Each episode unpacks a key word or phrase explaining what it means, why it matters, and how it connects to real-world accounting and financial decision-making. Whether you're a current student, preparing to apply, or just curious about the language of finance, this podcast will help demystify the subject one letter at a time.To find out more about our BSc Accounting & Finance degree visit: https://www.wbs.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/accounting-and-finance/

In this episode, we will be covering Assets and Amortisation. Assets: What is an Asset? We'll be including non-current assets and current asset examples.Amortisation: We'll explore the definition of Amortisation and how it impacts the accounts and examples of factors which impact the useful estimated life.

In this episode, we will be discussing the Accruals Concept, Accounting Period and Accounting Estimates. Accruals Concept: What is meant by this fundamental concept? And we'll provide an example of how this matching concept.Accounting Period: We discuss what is meant by the Accounting period and what a company can choose as their year-end.Accounting Estimate: in addition to examples of accruals and amortisation discussed in the podcast, we also give some extra examples of the Accounting Estimates to help you understand that accounting is an exact science.

In this episode, we explain ARGA, Authorised Shared Capital and one of our favourite words, Audit. ARGA: Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA), who they are and what ARGA does.Audit: an overall introduction to what an external audit is and why large companies need an Audit due to the divorce of ownership and management.Authorised Shared Capital: A distinction is explained between authorised share capital, being the number of shares a company may issue and the actual issued share capital, which is shown on the Statement of Financial Position.

We move on to our next letter, starting things off with Balance Sheet, Biological Assets and Brands. Balance Sheet: aka Statement of Financial Position. The statement is briefly explained.Biological Assets: definition of what is meant by Biological Assets, some examples and an overview of how they are measured.Brands: definition of Brands, examples of the accounting treatment for purchased and internally generated Brands and link back to A and Amortisation

We have quite a few words on this one, starting with Bad Debts then Big Bath provisions. To round out the episode, we combine discussions on Bank Overdraft and Borrowing Costs.Bad Debts: definition of Bad Debt, discussion of how this itself is also an accounting estimate and a brief discussion on how companies decide which debts may be irrecoverable on their ledger.Big Bath Provisions: A definition of provision, and an example of how companies used to be able to use big bath provisions to smooth out the impact on their accounts and how accounting standards changes have now resolved this problem.Bank Overdraft: What is meant by overdraft, and the difference between having an overdraft facility in place and how you account for an overdraft once it's been utilised?Borrowing Costs: What are Borrowing Costs, alternative terms used for Borrowing Costs and a brief look at how it is accounted for and presented when shown in the statement of profit or loss account.

In part 1 of our Cs, we have Capital Expenditure (or CapEx for short), Carrying Value and Current Assets. We then explain all things credit with a review of Creditor, Credit Control and Credit Note. To finish off the episode is a bit on Current Ratio. 

In part 2 of Letter C, we unpick what is meant be Cost of Sales, Carried Down/Brought Down and explain what a Contingent Liability and Contingent Asset are. 

In part 3, we begin by decoding the Cash Flow Statement and then understanding why Cash Doesn't Equal Profit. Stay tuned for a speedy exploration of Cash Equivalents and insights into Consolidation and Control. 

In our final episode on C, we look at 4 more words and phrases. We start with a thorough discussion about Corporate Governance before a shorter one on the Companies Act. After that, we look at Confidentiality and then another bigger discussion on what is meant by Creative Accounting.

In this episode, we will be covering Directors, Director's Remuneration, Disclosure Notes and finally Double Entry Bookkeeping. 

In this episode, we will be discussing Depreciation, Derecognition, Deferred income/revenue and Dividends. 

This episode is jam-packed with Ds, as we cover Directly Attributable Costs, Decommissioning Costs, Debt, Debtor and Discounted Cash Flow, then we finish off with a short chat on Debenture Loans.

Moving on from D and straight into our first episode on E. We chat about Earnings Per Share, EBITDA, and Equity. We then have some really quick discussions on Economic Life, Estimates, and lastly Error.

In this second Letter E episode, we cover several E-based phrases including Exceptional Items/Extraordinary Items, Effective Interest, Exposure Draft and lastly External Auditor.

Carrying on to Letter F now, we begin by looking at inventory, including Finished Goods and then First In/First Out or FIFO. We then talk about an incredibly important topic, Fraud and Faithful Representation, followed by Fair Value and Finance Cost.

What would the letter F be without a look at phrases with the term 'Finance' in them? We start with clarifying Financial Assets and Financial Analysis. We then have a couple more discussions around Forecast and Foreign Exchange.

Moving swiftly on, we have part 1 for Letter G. In this episode, we explore Gearing, Gap, Going Concern and then a quick chat about Groups. 

Moving forward to part 2 on G. We first tackle Government Grants before looking at a rather new set of terms to do with sustainability; Greenwashing and Green-dazzling. To conclude we explore all things Goodwill, including Goodwill Impairment and Purchase Goodwill.

Rather than our usual in-person recording, we jumped online for some H words, so the sound is a bit different this time!In part 1, we look at Honest/Honesty, Horizontal Analysis and Hedging Instruments. 

Continuing our online H chat, we looked at Historic Costs and loosely related it to Hyperinflation. This episode finishes with us exploring Homogeneous Population.

We move to I now. We have two shorter explanations on Intangible Assets and then Intellectual Property/Intellectuals. We then have a really in-depth look at Impairments.

A few more from Letter I to get through, starting with a triple header of Income statement, Interest and Investment Income. Moving on from those, we then have some longer discussions on Inventory, Internal Auditor, and Internal Controls.

We were trying to come up with some Js and Ks, but it was a bit tough, so we're putting them together into one episode. For our Js we have something that has been mentioned before: Journal. We'll then turn to Joint Ventures. Our single K is one of those phrases you'll hear in the workplace a lot: Key Performance Indicators.

To start our Ls, we wonder about Limited Liability as well as Liability itself. We then cover two more words: Lease and Liquidity. 

Mmm, a handful of M's in this episode. We start by asking what is meant by Margin and Markup, followed by unpicking Management Accounts. Afterwards, we explain Matching and clarify what is meant by Materiality.

For part 1 of Letter N, we are looking at all things Non-Current and explaining what is meant by Non-current Liabilities and Assets. Next, we explore the phrase Netting Off before a combined discussion on Negative Goodwill and Net Realisable Value (NRV).

In this episode, we will cover the basics of Nominal Value of Shares and why they are usually set to £1. Then we'll discuss Non-Executive Directors or NEDS and then finally Net Profit. 

Our first of three episodes on Letter O opens with, funnily enough, Opening Balance. Next, we look at what people mean when they talk about Overheads as well as related terms, Operating Costs and Operating Finances.  Then we ponder how you can look at your auditing without bias by introducing Objectivity.

In part 2 of O, we have 3 sections where we will chat about Off Balance Sheet Finance (which we'll link with Part 1 and Objectivity), followed by Obsolescence (a word with at least one obsolescent letter in it), concluding with what happens with Overtrading.

We round off Letter O by looking at 3 more O phrases: Onerous Contract, Other Comprehensive Income, and Operating and Financial Review. 

In this first episode on Letter P, we'll start by explaining what Petty Cash is. Then we will give some examples of when you might want to use a Prepayment. We'll finish the episode by exploring Payables and Preference Shares.

In the next episode, we are going to be finding out about Provisions and Present Value. We'll explain a term that comes under two slightly different names: Prior period error/Prior year adjustment. And to conclude, we are looking at Post Balance Sheet Events. 

In part 3, we unpick a few things together with Proforma/PBIT/PBAT. We then look at our first ratio with P.E Ratio (more on those later). Then we grapple with exploring what a Parent Company is, before finishing on Policies.

We are looking at four Q terms in this episode. We will talk about Quick ratio before a longer general chat on ratios in R. After that, we will explore Qualified opinion, Quoted price and lastly Qualitative characteristics. 

Without sounding like a pirate, here we are at R. There's a smattering of them, including in this episode: Research, Right of use asset, Recoverable amounts and Retained earnings.

For part 2 of letter R, we look at probably one of the most fundamental words in accounting, Revenue. We also take a quick look at 3 more Rs, which are Reconciliation, Related parties and Ratios.

We start Letter S by reviewing the accounting terms Sales and Sale Returns, Security, and Segment reporting, and their meanings in a business context.

In the next part of letter S, we explore more terms, including the difference between Subsidiary and Significant Influence and how they are accounted for in financial statements. Then we discuss the importance and meaning of the terms Shareholder/Stakeholder/Sole Trader, as well as the different voting rights and control they bring. Lastly, we turn to the markets and clarify Share Price, as well as including another S with SMEs.

There are a few Ts to get through, starting off with T-Account and Trial Balance. Then we look at a key term, Turnover and link it to Tax Expense. We move on to another form of asset, in the guise of Tangible Assets, as well as discussing Trade Debtor and Credit. We finish this episode by discussing True and Fair, as well as Trust.

There are not many Us and Vs, but there are some. We start off with a lightning round on a bunch of U terms and words: Unaudited Financial Statements, Unmodified/unqualified opinion, and lastly UEL (Useful Estimated/Expected Life). Then we have a slightly lengthier chat on three Vs:  Value in Use, Volume Discount and Value in Costs. 

Woah! Time to cover some big Ws, kicking off with WIP (Work in Progress). We then look at Weighted Average, Wear and Tear, and Write Down. We then get a bit superficial and reveal what is meant by Window Dressing. Our last two Ws we will discuss are Written Presentations and Working Capital.

Unsurprisingly, we haven't got many for the final trio of the alphabet. But we have some, including a fun discussion to tie everything we've covered together. We start with Xero (pronounced with a Z, but spelt with an X), then XBRL (which starts with an E),  and then lastly the classic X word, Xylophone. We then have a pair of Y words with Year End and Yield. And our final words to finish off the podcast are... Zebra and Zoo? Stick with us on this, though, we promise it'll make sense.