Another way of developing an understanding of a range of Accounting Themes is to present them as proverbial phrases. Here are some well-known Accounting Sayings. Each saying is preceded by its respective theme written in capitals:
THEME – UNDERSTAND THE NUMBERS/UNDERSTANDING ACCOUNTING
Here are four different quotes on this theme:
‘Accounting is possibly the most boring subject in the world. And also it could be the most confusing. But if you want to be rich, long term, it could be the most important subject.’ – Anon.
‘ You have to know accounting. It’s the language of practical business life. It was a very useful thing to deliver to civilisation. I’ve heard it came to civilization through Venice which if course was once the great commercial power in the Mediterranean. However, double entry book keeping was a hell of an invention.’ – Charlie Munger.
‘You have to understand accounting and you have to understand the nuances of accounting. It’s the language of business and it’s an imperfect language, but unless you are willing to put in the effort to learn accounting – how to read and interpret financial statements – you really shouldn’t select stocks yourself.’ – Warren Buffett
‘My father told me when I went to college that I needed to take an accounting class. I enrolled and went the first day. I didn’t understand a thing that was being said and dropped the class. I really regret that decision. I should have stuck it out and learned the basics of accounting, but took the easy way out.’ – Georgina Bloomberg
THEME – ACCOUNTING IS NOT ALWAYS BLACK AND WHITE
‘In the Corporate World, some things aren’t exactly black and white when it comes to Accounting Procedures.’ – George W Bush
THEME – BUSINESS VALUATION
‘Managers and Investors alike must understand that Accounting numbers are the beginning, not the end, of Business Valuation.’ – Warren Buffett
THEME – CREATIVE ACCOUNTING – DON’T COOK MY BOOKS
‘Creativity is great – but not in Accounting.’ – Charles Scott
THEME – BUDGETS
‘Balanced budget requirements seem more likely to produce accounting ingenuity than genuinely balanced budgets.’ – Thomas Sowell
THEME – WHAT ACCOUNTING ISN’T
‘Aggressive accounting does not mean illegal accounting.’ – Kenneth Lay
THEME – DECISIONS BASED ON ACCOUNTING
‘Almost all decisions based on cost accounting are utterly wrong.’ – Eliyau Goldratt
THEME – BE CAREFUL
‘While it’s trendy to outsource your Accounting to a third party, once you hit a certain size, it’s dangerous.’ – Brad Field
THEME – EVALUATING YOUR WORTH
‘If you want an Accounting of your worth, count your friends.’ – Merry Browne