What Creates a Current Account Balance

The Economics Dictionary defines the balance of the Current Account as follows: The current account balance is the difference between a countrys savings and its investment. [If the current account balance is] positive, it measures the portion of a countrys saving invested abroad; if negative, the portion of domestic investment financed by foreigners savings. The current account balance is defined by the sum of the value of imports of goods and services plus net returns on investments abroad, minus the value of exports of goods and services, where all these elements are measured in the domestic currency. In laymans terms, when a countrys current account balance is positive (also known as running a surplus), the country is a net lender to the rest of the world. When a countrys current account balance is negative (also known as running a deficit), the country is a net borrower from the rest of the world. The U.S. current account balance has been in a deficit position since 1992 (see chart), and that deficit has been growing. Thus the United States and its citizens have been borrowing heavily from other countries such as China. This has alarmed some, though others have argued that it means eventually the Chinese government will be forced to raise the value of its currency, the yuan, which will help alleviate the deficit. For the relationship between currencies and trade, see A Beginners Guide to Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). U.S. Current Account Balance 1991-2004 (in Millions) 1991: 2,8981992: -50,0781993: -84,8061994: -121,6121995: -113,6701996: -124,8941997: -140,9061998: -214,0641999: -300,0602000: -415,9992001: -389,4562002: -475,2112003: -519,6792004: -668,074Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis Current Account References Articles on the Current AccountDefinition of the Current Account

Why Is Smoking Bad - 1199 Words

Why is smoking bad? Smoking is one of the most common problems today that are killing people all around the world. It is a terrible habit and shouldn’t be done. Even though people claim that it relaxes you, helps relieve stress, and helps boost your mood. The negative things of smoking definitely overcome the positives of smoking. Cigarettes are harmful to everyone especially older people and children. Cigarette smoking has so many health problems in them it’s ridiculous. It’s a major cause of lung cancer, heart disease, strokes, bronchitis, diabetes, and so much more. There are three major things in cigarettes and that’s tar, carbon monoxide, and nicotine. When a smoker inhales the smoke of a cigarette 70% of the tar stays in the lungs†¦show more content†¦It’s terrible and they just don’t get that. Also sometimes teenagers just happen to be raised in that type of environment so they don’t know any better. Some of them just want attention so they’re going about it by smoking. Coming from my point of view I think it is in fact stupid to think smoking cigarettes is cool, and to ever start doing it. Some teenagers don’t understand the serious health risks they are causing themselves. Smoking is a very bad habit and should be stopped by people. If someone doesn’t want to stop for themselves then stop for other people. For example, say you’re smoking and theirs some child near you. They are breathing in much of that smoke and its causing them about as much harm as its causing you. It†™s not just younger people either, for instance more older women who tend to smoke get more hip fractures, and get injured a lot more. Smoking effects are different for each person who smokes depending on what’s in the cigarettes. Smoking happens to not only be a health issue but a financial issue also. Until we stop smoking more people more people are going to get sick, more people are going to get addicted, and more people are going to cause much pain to their loves ones who are going to have to deal with their loss. Smoking can break the body down and cause a much slow and painful death. They’re have been about 443,000 deaths by smoking. Theirs also more deaths by smoking every year. Due to smoking about 80 percent of lung

Advantage of Using Xero Online Accounting Software Free Samples

Question: What Is The Advantage Of Using Xero Online Accounting Software? Answer: Introduction: Xero is online accounting software made for small businesses. It is available for various platforms example web based, android,iPhone iPad,iPhone,iPad,Linux,Mac,Windows. Its free trial version is also available. It provides data integrity and data security .It is available for many types of businesses like retail, high tech , legal, hospitality, start ups, cafes etc. Xero provides clear view of your financial figures. It provides you better view and understanding to your bank sheets, invoices, other bills and expense claims in a visually appealing way(FinancesOnline.com 2017). Xero features are listed below: Xero is connected to many other third party apps which are commonly used in businesses to handle finances. Data fusion sets right way into Xero ledger. It helps user by removing the time and effort need for manual data entry. It has encryption also which gives security to your data. It has multifactor authentication options. It gives you option to save your data at multiple locations; you can keep back up at various locations. So in case if you lost or forget the one location you can take back up from another one. But keep it at safe place so that no unauthenticated person can see it or make any misuse of it. It automatically creates and send invoices. It keeps the track of customers and suppliers. It can handle data in multiple currencies. You need not worry about conversions. There is personalized dashboard account in Xero. Dashboard means user can monitor company billing, invoice and make comparisons of all the finances in fancy charts which gives you a better understanding view. Main functional tabs are setting button and accounts menu. User can create records according to your payroll needs. Graphical representation of your money usage which will give you view about where is your money going. No need to drafting the purchase files from scratch as there are templates available in the Xero rest is your creativity to make those files personal as much as you can. There is very less space for any financial fraud as Xero provides two factor authentication and multiple approval models. Every transaction has details attached with it like on which date is has been created, user and manual notes. It is handy to use, as said by accountants. User can view all the transactions and calculations in one view , no need to scramble between huge data on many pages. It gives you free and unlimited email support. It facilitates the user with smart list which means it categorize your contact list on the basis of purchase history. It controls and keep the track of inventory Advantage of using Xero online accounting software In Xero, it automatically transfers all your online transactions, your bank details and give a detailed overlook of bank figures of your credit cards, PayPal and other accounts. Its a better option in comparison to manual entry of bank statements(Roth Michael 2013). User can scan the invoices in Xero and its security system is strong which keeps them safe .In case you want o search in future they entered invoice , you can search it by data or by amount or by the supplier name against which you made an invoice. Xero files are an important feature. User always wants to the growth graph of his business. You can check and see your business performance whenever you want to .One can login the Xero account only you need good internet connection .You can grant permissions to use and access this software .You can grant permission to your accountant also to access it. Updates and upgrades will do automatically, you need only a internet connection whenever there will be a new updation it will reflect in the software automatically. Integration with social media also. Xero requires no accounting knowledge. Its is recommended as Xero is for small scale businesses, so one should go for $60 to $80 plan. Its a faster plan comparison to others online accounting software available in the market. Xero sync with other online business accounting software with ease. User can sync their customers with an email marketing program. These third party connections are free or few are at low cost .Some of the latestdesktop software can connect to online software too, although other older version does not have this option. Xero is a online accounting software so it does not depend on Operating system. Its platform free software. If in case your system crashes in between you need not to worry as back up handled by Software Company. So this software gives you security of data. Some disadvantages of Xero online accounting software are listed below: Monthly charges One can only access XERO until there accounts subscription is active, there is only option to buy monthly subscription rather than buy and pay it for once. Only passwords can secure the data User needs a strong password to keep the data safe. If it gets in the hands of the wrong person your data can be misused. High Speed and good bandwidth of Internet connection You Need a good internet plan and speed to work on Xero efficiently .it will be quite difficult and frustrating to work on Xero at low speed as it is in online mode and if data is heavy it will take long to upload only. Xero does not have itemized quantity purchasing. Another disadvantage of Xero is it needs 2 data entry personnel and Xero is very slow in managing their processing requirements. Xero doesnt have any time tracking tool. Xero is online only while other accounting software are offline too. Xero does not have stock control feature in their packages. May be in coming future they will launch this feature. Internal strength in the college expense reimbursement process As according to the case Queensland Agriculture College /head has official statements of policies and procedures for staffs expense reimbursement. Expense reports must be signed /approved by head and finance authority. Approved expense report of staff reimbursement and cash advance forms makes easy to record all authorized transactions. Expense reimbursement checks are issued by head of department.(duly signed authority) Expense reimbursement are made only after receipt of approved expense report and cash advance approval form for anticipated expenses. Internal audit reconciles the expense reimbursements. College has made a proper hierarchy to signed the reimbursement of expenses and further it is checked and signed by financial department of college. All the transactions are recorded and receipts of cash payments are with finance office , in case any issue arise in future they can check it from the records. There is well detailed procedure to receive cash advances for anticipated expenses. Staff has to complete and get approved a cash advance approval form, it further goes to accounting department for verification , so there is two way verification of every expenses(Rausch 2015). Internal Audit compares expense reimbursement checks with expense report from each departments net amount to the total of the expense reimbursement issues to staff. Auditing of reimbursements makes sure that college policies and rules are being followed properly and reimbursements are being checked closely time to time(Steinbart B 2014). There is a sense of insecurity with data as data is somewhere on the internet because its a online business accounting software and data is saved online somewhere on data, so hackers always have chance to attack the online data. Weaknesses in internal expense reimbursement process There is no limit on the staffs total fortnights expenditures or cash advances. Expense reimbursement checks are sent to the college head for the distribution rather than to the cashier. The head of the college doesnt keep a copy of expense report and other cash advances for auditing purposes. Before approving the expense advance expenditures he should discuss it with finance department of the college so that he can get the in-depth view of expenses, and he understands well that there is no space for fraud. There should be a well establishes relationship between finance department, accounts department , head and cashier so that they can co work properly and handle the things smartly. The expense report is not checked for mathematical accuracy. So there may be chance if someone could try to make a fraud and make wrong or more entries in the form. A copy of the Cash Advance Approval form should be sent to the college Cashier so it can compare it with the one submitted by the staff(Hall 2011). If in case some member offended and violating college rules, they made for expense reimbursements, they should be punished, so that in future staff members should be aware that college is strict about its policies. There is no reconciliation of college Cashier disbursements with Cash Advance Approval form. They did not mention what kind of documents are required to attach with expense form , there should be original documents to be attached(Samuel 2013). References FinancesOnline.com 2017, , viewed 9 March 2017, https://reviews.financesonline.com/p/xero/. gofi8ure 2009, gofi8ure, viewed 17 May 2017, https://www.gofi8ure.co.nz/xero-accounting-software. Hall, JA 2011, Accounting Information Systems, South Western Cengage Leanring. Rausch, S 2015, MY BOULAY, viewed 1 May 2016, https://www.boulaygroup.com/Knowledge/Articles/entryid/214/internal-control-guidelines-for-employee-expense-reimbursements. Roth, RA Michael, K 2013, Global finance advisory services, viewed 2017, https://www.srr.com/article/impact-expense-reimbursement-fraud. Samuel, N 2013, 'IMpact of accounting information systems on Accounting ', pdf, Master of Business Administration, University of Nairobi, D61/63152/2011. Steinbart, PJ B, RM 2014, Accounting Information Systems.