Financial accounting is a snapshot of the state of your business for your use and for possible lenders, so get it right

Financial accounting is the single most critical information system your business will require. Financial accounting aims to produce two basic financial reports, the balance sheet and the profit and loss statements. Traditional software systems uses a ledger of accounts to categorize financial activities of your company. Typically, the ledger is divided into two major portions, the assets portion, usually envisioned as being on the left side of the ledger, and the liabilities and equity portion, that being on the right side. Under assets you will have such accounts as the cash account, accounts receivables, and fixed assets, including inventory, buildings owned, and office equipment and other assets for which you paid money. Each account is also split into two parts, the left side being the debits side and the right side being the credits side. Now, the ledger should be balanced such that the assets side debit sum of all assets accounts is equal to the sum of all liabilities and equity on the credit side of the ledger.

Common practice has devised the double entry method for maintaining balances between assets on the one side and liabilities and equity on the other side. For instance, if you start a business with $1000, you would enter $1000 in the equity account on the right side as a credit and a $1000 debit on the assets side in the cash account. The ledger remains balanced.

In financial accounting you create your two pertinent reports from your general ledger. Your profit and loss statement reports ordinary income/expense, the cost of goods sold being subtracted from total income to derive gross profit. Your profit and loss statement will also report expenses. Subtracting total expense from gross profit will render your net ordinary income. You will also account for other income and add it to net ordinary income to derive you net income, the end point of this financial accounting report.

The principal financial accounting report, the one you often submit to lenders, is the balance sheet. This summarizes your entire ledger. It will first show current assets, starting with cash, including undeposited funds, checking and saving, all added together to render total cash. Next, you will show total accounts receivable and then other current assets, such as owner loans receivable and prepaid insurance. The other current assets are added together with total cash and total accounts receivable to get your total current assets. Next, still on you assets side, you will show fixed assets, such as furniture, vehicles, the amount of depreciation to be subtracted from these fixed assets to obtain your total fixed assets. Finally, you add total fixed assets with total current assets to obtain you total assets.

Your financial accounting balance sheet isn't complete until you've shown your liabilities and equity portion of the general ledger. You will show current liabilities, including accounts payable and credit card amounts owed, as well as other current liabilities such as payroll. These added together give you your total current liabilities, but you still have to show your long term liabilities, such as notes payable, tax payable and other payroll liabilities. Adding together you total current liabilities and long term liabilities gives you your total liabilities. Finally, you have to account for equity, the amount of money invested by owners and shareholders. Total liabilities are added to total equity to obtain the end result, total liabilities and equity.

If you've done your accounting properly, total assets will equal total liabilities and equity - balanced. Your finance accounting reports are now available for you and your lender to measure the health, value, and profitability of your company.

Is it possible to logically and morally examine the pros and cons of abortion?

Ever since the Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade, the ethical issues of the pros and cons of abortion have raged throughout our society, becoming part of every political stance in every election since. It's almost a given that a politician running for office must make a statement, either for or against abortion. Over the years, the argument has taken on new monikers, 'pro life' or 'pro choice', eliminating the word 'abortion'. Entire political and religious groups have coalesced around one viewpoint or the other, seemingly without examining the gray areas of each. The issue of abortion is not one that is bantered about at dinner parties. However, strangely, every individual is 'expected' to be either pro life or pro choice.

Let's say you're trying to make a decision on whether you should adopt a child. It would be natural that a couple would discuss the pros and cons of adoption versus having a child of their own. For example, the point might be made that there are millions of orphans in need of parents and a home. Let's further say that the woman has been taking contraceptives up to this point. Might not contraceptives be considered a preemptive form of abortion? It could be argued that, by taking contraceptives and so avoiding a state of conceiving a child, abortion would have been the other alternative. This perspective also begs the question of family planning. However, can't it just as well be said that adopting one of millions of orphaned children would be a morally laudable action?

One of the darker sides of the pros and cons of abortion arguments is evidenced in the case of victims of incest and rape. Former Vice President Dan Quayle made it clear that, in his view, even in cases of incest and rape, abortion was not an option. Babies born of incest are often afflicted with terrible physical and mental deficiencies, with which that child must suffer all his life. What about the mother? Might the psychological trauma to her be so great that she could never bond with and love that child? The same may be said of children of rape. In the case of the conception of a child by either incest or rape, it can hardly be said this child was conceived by choice. In this case, it's hard to justify a birth of a child with a good chance of suffering throughout his or her life, with physical, emotional and social problems. The typical discussions on the pros and cons of abortion seldom consider these serious repercussions.

In considering the pros and cons of abortion, it also seems reasonable to assess cases in which a woman with mental problems may not be able to give the proper emotional and physical care to her own child. Both mother and child could suffer tremendous emotional damage as a result. For example, a schizophrenic or psychopathic woman might become pregnant. She, not being able to give her child a stable upbringing, might be forced to give her child up for adoption, for the sake of a pro life agenda.

Another of the seldom discussed pros and cons of abortion is the situation of a woman who suffers a spontaneous abortion. Whereas a medically induced abortion is said to be murder by some in the pro life camp, a spontaneous abortion is not.

The subject of abortion is complicated. The pros and cons of abortion are usually only considered from an agenda driven perspective, politically charged or religiously inspired by what a person's religious adviser deems to be the truth.

In the end, a woman who chooses to have an abortion must bear the consequences of that decision on her own. As an ethical dilemma, it is she who must ultimately answer to her Creator. If she does not subscribe to a religious view of any kind, should that negate her right to make such a choice? Should governments dictate this weighty decision affecting her, the father and the child? Has the government devised a comprehensive list of the pros and cons of abortion which covers every nuance of every circumstance? This would likely be impossible. What do you think?