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FINANCIAL DICTIONARY & GLOSSARY: AC - AM

accounts payable - see creditors.

accounts receivable - see debtors.

accrual - a gradual or automatic increase in an amount of money (e.g. interest), usually money owed to someone; (to accrue).

accrual basis - in a budget or balance sheet, estimates expenses and income for the period in which they are incurred rather than actually spent or received.

accrued expenses - expenses incurred at the date of the balance sheet, but not yet paid (e.g. wages, taxes and interest).

accrued revenue - revenue earned but not yet received or recorded.

accumulate - to grow by way of regular additions (e.g. accumulated debts).

acid-test ratio - see quick-asset ratio.

acquire - to buy, to gain, to get, to receive, to take possession of something; to take over a company by buying its shares; to make an acquisition.

actuary - person who calculates probabilities for an insurance company, so that it can set its premiums.

administrator - see liquidator.

affiliate - one of a group of companies which is wholly or partly owned by another; to enter into association with others.

agent - person who negotiates purchases and sales in return for commission or a fee.

aggregate demand - the total amount spent in a country by consumers, companies and the government.

aggregate supply - the amount of output that business produces and sells, given current prices, costs and production capacity.

aid - money given to developing countries by richer ones.

allocating costs - the process of assigning costs to individual products, processes and departments.

allocative efficiency - the situation in which all the resources in an economy are fully and efficiently employed.

amalgamate - to merge, to combine; to join two or more businesses into a single organization.

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