205 Fun Facts About Accounting

Which Franciscan friar published the first printed description of double-entry bookkeeping in 1494?

Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan friar, printed the first description of double-entry bookkeeping in his 1494 Summa de arithmetica, written in Italian so merchants could read it.

Which Renaissance artist illustrated Pacioli's Divina proportione (1509)?

Leonardo da Vinci drew the illustrations; the two worked together from about 1497 to 1506.

The oldest surviving complete double-entry system is the 1340 Messari accounts of which Italian city?

Genoa: the 1340 ledgers of the city's massari (treasurers) are the oldest complete double-entry books; Florence's Farolfi fragments of 1299-1300 are older but incomplete.

Accounting records over 7,000 years old, in the form of clay tokens, have been found in which ancient region?

Mesopotamia: clay tokens dating from around 8000 BC were used by temple economies to track goods, thousands of years before cuneiform writing developed.

The word 'auditor' comes from the Latin audire, meaning what?

Audire means to hear: early audits were literally heard, with the accounts read aloud to the person checking them.

The words debit and credit come from the Latin debere and credere, meaning what?

To owe and to entrust: debere and credere gave us debit and credit, and by convention debits go on the left of a ledger and credits on the right.

The fundamental accounting equation states that assets equal liabilities plus what?

Equity: assets equal liabilities plus owners' equity, and every double-entry transaction keeps the two sides in balance, which is why a balance sheet balances.

Which financial statement alone shows a company's position at a single point in time?

The balance sheet gives a snapshot of what a company owns and owes as of one date, while the income and cash flow statements cover a period.

The cash flow statement is divided into operating, financing and which third category of activities?

Investing activities complete the trio; FASB Statement 95 made the statement mandatory in 1987, and most companies prepare it by the indirect method starting from net income.

Which type of asset generally cannot be depreciated for tax purposes?

Bare land: land does not wear out or get used up, so it has no determinable useful life to depreciate over, unlike buildings, machinery and vehicles.

The straight-line method divides an asset's cost, less its expected salvage value, by what?

Its useful life in years; the declining-balance method instead front-loads the charge by applying a fixed percentage to the remaining book value each year.

Which inventory costing method is allowed under US GAAP but explicitly prohibited under IFRS?

LIFO: IAS 2 prohibits last-in-first-out and allows only FIFO or weighted average cost (or specific identification), while US GAAP permits LIFO, partly for its tax advantage.

The body that sets US GAAP for public companies, the FASB, is based in which Connecticut city?

It replaced the AICPA's Accounting Principles Board in 1973 and is led by seven full-time board members.

The International Accounting Standards Board was established in what year?

2001: the IASB began work in April 2001, taking over from a predecessor committee dating from 1973, and the EU made IFRS mandatory for listed companies from 2005.

The world's first professional body of accountants received its royal charter in 1854 in which country?

Scotland: the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh received its royal charter in 1854 and was the first body to use the title chartered accountant.

The first law creating the Certified Public Accountant credential was passed in 1896 in which US state?

Licensee number one, Frank Broaker, got his certificate on experience alone without sitting an exam.

Which organisation sets the Uniform CPA Examination in the United States?

The AICPA writes and scores the Uniform CPA Examination, which NASBA and the state boards administer; since 2024 it has had three core sections plus one discipline section.

William Welch Deloitte became the first independent auditor of which public company, in 1849?

The Great Western Railway appointed Deloitte in 1849, usually cited as the first independent audit of a public company; the London practice he opened in 1845 grew into the Deloitte network.

The letters in KPMG stand for Klynveld, Peat, Marwick and which fourth surname?

The firm was born in 1987 when KMG and Peat Marwick joined in what was then the first mega-merger of big accounting firms.

Which firm merged with Price Waterhouse in July 1998?

Coopers & Lybrand: its July 1998 merger with Price Waterhouse created PricewaterhouseCoopers and turned the Big Six accounting firms into the Big Five.

What is an auditor's opinion called when the financial statements are found fairly presented?

Unqualified opinion: the auditor states the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects; a qualified opinion flags an exception, and an adverse opinion says they are materially misstated.

Enron traders were taped gloating about overcharging 'Grandma Millie' during which state's power crisis?

California: tapes released in 2004 caught Enron traders joking about 'Grandma Millie' as they gamed the state's 2000-01 electricity crisis with schemes nicknamed Death Star and Fat Boy.

Which Enron vice president warned Kenneth Lay in 2001 the company might 'implode in a wave of accounting scandals'?

Sherron Watkins, an Enron vice president, sent Lay an August 2001 memo warning the company might 'implode in a wave of accounting scandals'; Time named her a 2002 Person of the Year with Cynthia Cooper and Coleen Rowley.

WorldCom inflated its earnings by billions mainly through what accounting trick?

Capitalising line costs: WorldCom booked routine network lease fees as capital assets; internal auditor Cynthia Cooper found the entries in June 2002, the overstatement topped $11 billion, and CEO Bernard Ebbers got 25 years.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 created which new body to oversee the auditors of public companies?

The PCAOB (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) was created by the 2002 Act, named for Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley, to register and inspect the auditors of public companies.

Which section of Sarbanes-Oxley requires management to report on internal controls over financial reporting?

Section 404 mandates reporting on internal controls; Section 302 makes the CEO and CFO personally certify the accuracy of the financial statements.

Bernie Madoff's roughly $65 billion Ponzi scheme was 'audited' by what kind of outfit?

A three-person shop: Friehling & Horowitz, a storefront firm in New City, New York, signed off on Madoff's books; Harry Markopolos had warned the SEC from 2000 that the returns were impossible, and Madoff got 150 years in 2009.

Al Capone was finally sent to prison in 1931 for what offence?

Income tax evasion, five counts, earned him 11 years and Alcatraz; the strategy of pursuing gangsters through tax law came from Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt.

The office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue was created in 1862 under which president?

The bureau was only renamed the Internal Revenue Service in 1953, after a corruption scandal.

Before it moved to April 15 in the 1950s, the US individual tax filing deadline fell on which date?

March 15 was the deadline from 1918 until the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 moved it to April 15 for returns filed from 1955; the very first returns under the modern income tax had been due March 1.

The US federal government's fiscal year begins on the first day of which month?

October: the federal fiscal year has run from October 1 to September 30 since 1977 under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974; Australia's starts on July 1 and Japan's on April 1.

The UK tax year for individuals starts on April 6, an oddity that dates back to what event?

The 1752 calendar switch: the old tax year began on Lady Day, March 25, and skipping eleven days pushed it to April 5; a leap-year adjustment in 1800 nudged it to the 6th.

William the Conqueror's great survey of England for tax purposes, completed in 1086, is known as what?

The Domesday Book recorded some 13,418 places and 268,984 heads of household; its name compares the finality of its findings to the Day of Judgement.

On which Greek island was the oldest known counting board, from around 300 BC, found?

Salamis: the marble Salamis Tablet, found on the island in 1846, dates from around 300 BC; the word calculate comes from Latin calculus, a pebble moved on such boards.

What name is given to the traditional Japanese abacus?

Soroban: the Japanese abacus has one upper and four lower beads per rod, a simplification of the Chinese suanpan; the word abacus itself may derive from a Hebrew word for dust.

The first spreadsheet program for personal computers, released for the Apple II in 1979, was called what?

VisiCalc: Dan Bricklin conceived it watching a Harvard Business School professor redo a model on a blackboard, and Software Arts shipped it for the Apple II in October 1979.

Which spreadsheet, launched for the IBM PC in 1983, quickly wiped out its Apple II predecessor?

Lotus 1-2-3 combined spreadsheet, charting and database functions and exploited the IBM PC's memory; Lotus bought the older program's maker, Software Arts, in 1985 and discontinued it.

Which comedian worked as an accountant for United States Gypsum before his stand-up career took off?

Bob Newhart kept books for United States Gypsum in Chicago; his deadpan telephone routines made his 1960 debut, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, the first comedy album to top the Billboard chart.

Which best-selling legal thriller writer earned an accounting degree from Mississippi State in 1977 before law school?

John Grisham took a BS in accounting at Mississippi State in 1977 before an Ole Miss law degree; The Firm (1991) was his breakthrough and became a 1993 Tom Cruise film.

Which rock frontman was studying finance at the London School of Economics when he left in 1963 for music?

Mick Jagger was studying accounting and finance at the London School of Economics on a grant when he quit in 1963 to pursue the Rolling Stones full-time.

Which Chinese dynasty introduced the paper drafts nicknamed 'flying cash'?

Tang: feiqian or 'flying cash', introduced in the early 9th century, let merchants deposit coins in the capital and redeem a paper certificate in the provinces, a forerunner of Song dynasty paper money.

Until the late 20th century, how many big firms dominated the audit market before mergers left four?

The Big Eight shrank through mergers and the 2002 collapse of Arthur Andersen.

In 2011 the Big Four were reported to audit what share of FTSE 100 companies in the UK?

99%: a 2011 House of Lords committee found the Big Four audited 99 of the FTSE 100 and 96% of the FTSE 250, a concentration that later pushed the Competition and Markets Authority to propose splitting audit from consulting.

William Welch Deloitte opened his first office in 1845 on which London thoroughfare?

Basinghall Street: William Welch Deloitte set up in 1845 opposite the Bankruptcy Court there in the City of London, building a practice on railway and insolvency work.

Deloitte's first overseas branch, opened in 1890, was located where?

Wall Street: Deloitte's first overseas branch opened in New York in 1890 under Edward Adams and P.D. Griffiths; Chicago and Buenos Aires offices followed.

Which two men formed the New York firm that merged with Deloitte in 1952?

Haskins and Sells: Charles Waldo Haskins and Elijah Watt Sells set up their New York practice in the 1890s; the 1952 merger with Deloitte eventually produced the name Deloitte Haskins & Sells.

Nobuzo Tohmatsu's Japanese firm, founded in 1968, joined which accounting network in 1975?

Touche Ross: Tohmatsu Awoki & Co, founded in Tokyo in 1968, joined the Touche Ross network in 1975, which is why the name survives in Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

Which strategy consultancy, founded by Michael Porter, did Deloitte buy out of bankruptcy in 2013?

Monitor Group, co-founded by Harvard's Michael Porter in 1983, filed for Chapter 11 in November 2012 and was bought by Deloitte in January 2013, becoming Monitor Deloitte.

Deloitte was an official sponsor of which Summer Olympic Games?

London 2012: Deloitte was the Games' official professional services provider, seconding staff to the organising committee LOCOG over the seven years before the opening ceremony.

What is the selling of a company's receivables to a third party at a discount called?

Factoring: a business sells its invoices to a factor for immediate cash, typically 70-90% of face value up front, and the factor then collects from the customers.

Peat Marwick merged in 1987 with which European accounting grouping?

KMG: the European grouping, formed in 1979 by Dutch, German, British and other national firms, merged with Peat Marwick in 1987 to create KPMG.

How old was William Barclay Peat when he joined the London firm he would later head?

17: William Barclay Peat joined Robert Fletcher & Co in London in 1870 as a teenager and was running the firm by 1891, when it took his name.

Piet Klijnveld and Jaap Kraayenhof opened their accounting firm in 1917 in which city?

Amsterdam: Piet Klijnveld and Jaap Kraayenhof opened Klynveld Kraayenhof & Co. there in 1917, the firm that supplied the 'K' in KPMG.

From 1984, Peat Marwick was the first big corporate customer of which computer?

Apple Macintosh: Peat Marwick bought Macs in bulk from 1984, the year the machine launched, and for a time was its only large corporate customer.

KPMG Canada sponsored which skier, who won Canada's first Olympic gold on home soil in 2010?

Alexandre Bilodeau won the men's moguls at Vancouver 2010, Canada's first gold at a home Games; after retiring in 2014 he trained as an accountant and joined KPMG in Montreal.

KPMG was criticised for auditing which three US regional banks that collapsed in 2023?

Signature, First Republic and SVB were all KPMG audit clients; First Republic's May 2023 failure was the second-largest in US history, behind only Washington Mutual in 2008.

EY's oldest ancestor firm, Harding & Pullein, was founded in England in what year?

1849: Harding & Pullein opened in England that year; Frederick Whinney joined at once, became a partner in 1859, and the firm was later renamed Whinney, Smith & Whinney.

Ernst & Ernst was founded in 1903 by brothers Alwin and Theodore Ernst in which city?

Cleveland: Alwin and Theodore Ernst opened Ernst & Ernst there in 1903, and Alwin, a bookkeeper by training, championed using accounting data to guide business decisions.

Arthur Young, whose Chicago firm became half of EY, was an accountant of what nationality?

Scottish: Arthur Young was born in Glasgow in 1863 and emigrated to the United States, founding Arthur Young & Co. in Chicago in 1906.

EY's 1989 founding merger combined Arthur Young & Co. with which firm?

Ernst & Whinney, itself the 1979 product of Ernst & Ernst and Britain's Whinney Murray, merged with Arthur Young in 1989 to create Ernst & Young.

EY's two-letter name became official in a rebranding campaign in which year?

The initialism was already in informal use before the campaign.

EY's Entrepreneur of the Year program began in 1986 as a single award in which city?

Milwaukee: the first Entrepreneur of the Year awards were held there in 1986 as a single local program, which later spread across the United States and to dozens of countries.

William Cooper's 1854 practice became Cooper Brothers when how many of his brothers joined?

Three: William Cooper's three brothers joined him in 1861, seven years after he opened at No. 13 George Street, London, and the firm became Cooper Brothers.

Samuel Lowell Price took Edwin Waterhouse into partnership in 1865 at No. 13 on which London street?

Gresham Street: Price, Holyland and Waterhouse went into partnership at No. 13 in 1865; William Hopkins Holyland soon left to practise alone and the firm became Price, Waterhouse & Co. in 1874.

Which insolvency specialist did Coopers & Lybrand acquire in 1980 to expand in that field?

Cork Gully, the insolvency practice of Sir Kenneth Cork (Lord Mayor of London 1978-79), joined Coopers & Lybrand in 1980, and the name lived on as Coopers & Lybrand Cork Gully.

PricewaterhouseCoopers shortened its trading name to 'PwC' in which year?

2010: PricewaterhouseCoopers adopted PwC as its trading name in September 2010, twelve years after the merger that created it.

In 2017 PwC became the first Big Four firm to accept what as payment for advisory services?

Bitcoin: PwC's Hong Kong practice accepted its first bitcoin payment for advisory services in late 2017, the first such payment taken by a Big Four firm.

Arthur E. Andersen, founder of the ill-fated firm, was born in 1885 in which state?

Illinois: Andersen was born in Plano, Illinois, in 1885, was orphaned at 16, and worked as a mail boy by day while studying at night.

At what age did Arthur Andersen become his state's youngest CPA?

23: in 1908 Andersen graduated from Northwestern after studying at night while working full-time, and that same year became the youngest CPA in his state.

Arthur Andersen's very first client in 1913 was a company in which industry?

Andersen had worked as controller at the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee.

What did Andersen staff call themselves, a nod to their deliberately uniform look?

Arthur Androids: the nickname mocked the firm's insistence on a uniform look and method, so that the same service was delivered the same way in every office.

Andersen partner Carl Bass was removed from the Enron account after doing what?

Challenging its accounting: Bass, of Andersen's professional standards group, had objected to Enron's treatment of its partnerships and was removed from the account in early 2001 at Enron's request.

On what date in 2002 was Arthur Andersen convicted of obstruction of justice?

June 15, 2002: a Houston jury convicted Andersen of obstruction of justice over the shredding of Enron audit documents; the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the verdict in 2005.

From what phrase was the name Accenture, adopted by Andersen Consulting in 2001, derived?

'Accent on the future': Kim Petersen, a Danish employee in the Oslo office, coined the name in an internal contest, and it took effect on January 1, 2001.

How much did Andersen Consulting pay Arthur Andersen in the 2000 arbitration to break ties?

$1.2 billion: the August 2000 ICC arbitration let Andersen Consulting break away for roughly that sum, far below the $14.6 billion Arthur Andersen had demanded, on condition it give up the Andersen name.

Andersen's consulting arm's 1950s GE project led to what landmark in US computing?

First commercial computer use: Andersen's Joseph Glickauf helped GE install a UNIVAC I at Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1954, the first US computer bought for business data processing.

How old was Alexander Richardson Grant when he founded Alexander Grant & Co in Chicago in 1924?

26: Alexander Richardson Grant, then a 26-year-old senior accountant at Ernst & Ernst, founded Alexander Grant & Co. in Chicago in 1924; it took the name Grant Thornton in 1986.

The accounting network BDO takes its initials from Binder, Dijker and which third founding firm?

Binder was British, Dijker Dutch and Otte German.

The BDO accounting network is headquartered in Zaventem, near which capital city?

Brussels: Zaventem, the municipality east of the capital that also hosts Brussels Airport, houses BDO's global coordination office.

Enron was formed in 1985 when Kenneth Lay merged Houston Natural Gas with which company?

InterNorth: the Omaha pipeline company combined with Houston Natural Gas in 1985, and Lay, HNG's chief, ended up running the merged firm, renamed Enron in 1986.

Which rival Houston company offered to buy Enron at a knock-down price before its 2001 collapse?

Dynegy agreed in November 2001 to buy Enron for about $9 billion in stock, then walked away as the disclosures mounted, and Enron filed for Chapter 11 on December 2, 2001.

Enron's stock peaked at about what price before falling below $1 in November 2001?

$90.75: Enron shares peaked at that price in August 2000 and were below $1 by late November 2001; shareholders' $40 billion lawsuit eventually recovered $7.2 billion.

Enron CFO Andrew Fastow named his LJM partnerships after whom?

His wife and two sons: LJM stood for Lea, Jeffrey and Matthew Fastow; the partnerships let Fastow pocket tens of millions while buying assets from Enron to hide its losses.

How long was ex-Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling's original 2006 prison sentence?

24 years: Skilling's 2006 sentence of 24 years and four months was cut to 14 in a 2013 deal, and he was released in 2019 after about 12 years.

Kenneth Lay died in July 2006 while on holiday near which Colorado town?

Aspen: Lay died of a heart attack on July 5, 2006 at a rented house near Aspen, three months before sentencing, so his conviction was vacated.

Which 2005 documentary about Enron shares its name with a 2003 book by McLean and Elkind?

The Smartest Guys in the Room: Alex Gibney's 2005 documentary took its title from Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind's 2003 book, which grew out of McLean's Fortune article 'Is Enron Overpriced?'.

How much did WorldCom's internal auditors initially uncover in June 2002?

$3.8 billion: Cynthia Cooper's internal audit team uncovered the first $3.8 billion of capitalised expenses in June 2002; later investigations put the total overstatement above $11 billion.

What was WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers' press nickname?

The Telecom Cowboy: the press nickname came from Ebbers' cowboy boots and jeans; he lived on a Mississippi farm and loved driving a tractor.

Where was WorldCom's Bernard Ebbers born?

Edmonton, Alberta: Ebbers was born there in 1941 and moved to Mississippi on a basketball scholarship; he was released in 2019 on health grounds after 13 years of a 25-year sentence.

Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski was convicted in 2005 over roughly how much in unauthorised bonuses?

$81 million: Kozlowski and CFO Mark Swartz were convicted in 2005 of taking $81 million in unauthorised bonuses, plus $14.725 million of art bought with company money; he was paroled in 2014.

HealthSouth, whose executives faked accounts from 1996 to 2003, was based in which city?

Founder Richard Scrushy had started the company as Amcare in 1984.

Adelphia's founders bought their first cable franchise in 1952 for how much?

$300: John Rigas bought the Coudersport, Pennsylvania cable licence for $300 in 1952; fifty years later the family was found to have hidden $2.3 billion of debt and used the company as a personal bank.

Adelphia founder John Rigas received what prison sentence in the 2002 fraud case?

15 years: John Rigas was sentenced in 2005 to 15 years, later resentenced to 12, and his son Timothy to 20; John was released in 2016 on health grounds.

Waste Management executives inflated results from 1992 to 1997 partly by capitalising what?

They also refused to write off costs from failed projects.

HP wrote off how much of Autonomy's value within a year of its $11.7bn 2011 purchase?

HP blamed 'serious accounting improprieties'; ex-CEO Mike Lynch blamed HP's management.

Parmalat's 2003 collapse exposed a forged letter claiming €3.9bn was held at which bank?

Bank of America: a forged document claimed its Cayman subsidiary Bonlat held about €3.9 billion there; the bank denied it in December 2003 and the group collapsed within days.

How old was Calisto Tanzi when he opened the pasteurisation plant that became Parmalat?

22: Tanzi, born in 1938, dropped out of university and opened the pasteurisation plant in Parma in 1961; he built Parmalat into a multinational listed in Milan in 1990.

Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju confessed to falsifying accounts on 7 January of which year?

2009: Raju's letter of 7 January 2009 admitted that about 50 billion rupees of Satyam's reported cash did not exist, weeks after shareholders had blocked his attempt to buy the family's Maytas firms.

Wirecard filed for insolvency in June 2020 after revealing how much cash was 'missing'?

€1.9 billion: two Philippine banks denied holding the cash Wirecard claimed sat in trustee accounts; CEO Markus Braun was arrested and COO Jan Marsalek fled abroad.

Which Big Four firm was Wirecard's long-time auditor?

Ernst & Young audited Wirecard for more than a decade and refused to sign off only in June 2020; Germany's regulator BaFin was also accused of failing to spot the fraud.

Wirecard's fugitive COO Jan Marsalek is suspected of spying for which country?

Russia: German and British investigators linked Marsalek to Russian intelligence, and a 2024 London trial of a Bulgarian spy ring named him as its handler; he is thought to have fled to Moscow in 2020.

Which Japanese term describes the loss-hiding scheme at the heart of the 2011 Olympus scandal?

Tobashi ('flying away'): Olympus shifted more than 117.7 billion yen of investment losses dating to the late 1980s into off-book funds, then absorbed them through inflated acquisition fees.

Michael Woodford, who exposed the Olympus fraud, was notable as the company's first what?

Foreign CEO: Woodford, a Briton, became Olympus's first non-Japanese chief executive in October 2011 and was sacked two weeks later for questioning some $1 billion of acquisition fees.

Lehman Brothers' 'Repo 105' manoeuvre classified short-term repurchase agreements as what?

Sales: by over-collateralising the repos at 105%, Lehman booked them as sales rather than financings, temporarily moving up to $50 billion off its balance sheet at quarter-ends.

Who was the bankruptcy examiner whose March 2010 report exposed Lehman's Repo 105?

Valukas was chairman of law firm Jenner & Block.

Bre-X's fraudulent gold find was at Busang, in which country?

Indonesia: the Busang site lay in East Kalimantan on Borneo; core samples had been salted with gold, and the 1997 collapse wiped out about C$6 billion of market value.

The name of Bre-X's parent, Bresea, was derived from what?

David Walsh named it for his sons Brett and Sean.

Polly Peck's Asil Nadir fled in 1993 to which territory before returning to face trial in 2010?

Northern Cyprus: Nadir, a Turkish Cypriot, skipped bail in 1993 and lived there for 17 years beyond the reach of extradition; he was jailed for 10 years in 2012 for stealing £29 million from Polly Peck.

Barings Bank collapsed in 1995 after losses of roughly how much from Nick Leeson's trades?

£827 million: Leeson's unauthorised futures positions in Singapore lost that sum, twice the bank's capital; Barings, founded in 1762 and financier of the Louisiana Purchase, was sold to ING for £1.

Nick Leeson served more than four years in which prison?

He was arrested in Frankfurt and extradited to Singapore in November 1995.

What two-word note did Nick Leeson leave before fleeing Singapore on 23 February 1995?

'I'm sorry': Leeson left the note on his desk and fled with his wife on 23 February 1995, via Malaysia and Thailand, before his arrest at Frankfurt airport on 2 March.

Robert Maxwell was found to have embezzled hundreds of millions of pounds from what?

His companies' pension funds: after Maxwell's body was found off the Canaries in November 1991, some £460 million proved to have been taken from Mirror Group and other pension schemes to prop up his empire.

Which Big Four firm was Carillion's auditor when it collapsed in 2018?

KPMG had audited Carillion for 19 years and was fined £21 million in 2023 over its work; the Wolverhampton-based contractor went into compulsory liquidation in January 2018 with nearly £7 billion of liabilities.

The BCCI bank, shut down in 1991, was founded in 1972 by a financier from which country?

Pakistan: Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani banker, registered BCCI in Luxembourg in 1972 with head offices in Karachi and London; regulators closed it in July 1991 amid billions of dollars of fraud.

Luckin Coffee admitted in 2020 to inflating 2019 sales by up to how much?

$310 million: Luckin disclosed in April 2020 that its COO had fabricated about 2.2 billion yuan of 2019 sales, and it later paid a $180 million SEC penalty.

Which short-selling firm published the 89-page report alleging Luckin Coffee's fraud?

Muddy Waters: Carson Block's firm tweeted the anonymous 89-page report on 31 January 2020 and said it was short the stock; Luckin denied it until its own April 2020 admission.

Charles Ponzi promised investors a 50% profit within how many days?

45 days: Ponzi promised 50% in 45 days or 100% in 90, supposedly from arbitraging international postal reply coupons; the 1920 collapse cost investors about $20 million.

Ponzi may have been inspired by a Brooklyn bookkeeper known by what nickname?

'520% Miller': William F. Miller's Franklin Syndicate in Brooklyn promised 10% a week, 520% a year, in 1899; Ponzi's 1920 scheme may have borrowed the idea.

Before his Ponzi scheme was exposed, Bernie Madoff had chaired which stock exchange?

His firm helped develop the technology behind the Nasdaq market.

Who told the FBI in December 2008 that Bernie Madoff had confessed to a Ponzi scheme?

His sons Mark and Andrew: on 10 December 2008 Madoff told them the business was 'one big lie', and they reported him through their lawyers; FBI agents arrested him the next morning.

What is the title of Harry Markopolos's 2010 book about trying to expose Madoff?

No One Would Listen: Markopolos's 2010 memoir recounts his SEC submissions of 2000, 2001 and 2005, the last titled 'The World's Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud', all ignored.

Tax agent Frank J. Wilson's team examined roughly how many documents to convict Al Capone?

2 million: Wilson's IRS intelligence agents sifted through some two million documents, building a net-worth case that Capone spent lavishly despite declaring no income.

Frank J. Wilson, the tax agent who helped jail Capone, later became chief of which agency?

Secret Service: Wilson led it from 1937 to 1946, pushing the anti-counterfeiting 'Know Your Money' campaign; earlier he had helped trace the ransom notes in the Lindbergh kidnapping.

Sarbanes-Oxley is named after Senator Paul Sarbanes and a Republican congressman from which state?

Ohio: Michael Oxley, a Republican congressman from Findlay, Ohio, co-sponsored the 2002 act, which was signed on July 30.

How many sections (titles) does the Sarbanes-Oxley Act contain?

Eleven: the Act's eleven titles range from auditor oversight (Title I) to corporate fraud accountability (Title XI); it was signed on July 30, 2002 in reaction to Enron and WorldCom.

The FASB replaced which AICPA body as US standard-setter on July 1, 1973?

Accounting Principles Board: the APB, an AICPA body since 1959, gave way to the independent FASB on July 1, 1973 on the recommendation of the Wheat Committee chaired by former SEC commissioner Francis Wheat.

How many full-time board members lead the FASB?

Seven: the FASB's seven full-time members serve five-year terms and may be reappointed once, and they must sever ties with former employers.

The AICPA was founded in 1887 under what original name?

American Association of Public Accountants: founded in New York in 1887, it became the American Institute of Accountants in 1917 and took the AICPA name in 1957.

In which North Carolina city is the AICPA headquartered?

Durham: the AICPA moved most of its operations from New York to a campus in Durham, North Carolina, in 2006, keeping smaller offices in New York and Washington.

As of 2024, how many semester units did the US CPA licence typically require?

150: the 150-semester-hour rule applied in every state as of 2024, alongside the Uniform CPA Exam and a year of experience; from 2025 several states began allowing 120 hours plus extra experience.

As of 2019, which was the only US state without a CPA mobility law?

Hawaii: by 2019 every other state had adopted NASBA's mobility model letting out-of-state CPAs practise without a local licence, leaving Hawaii the lone holdout.

Who became the world's first woman chartered accountant, recognised by the ICAEW in 1920?

Mary Harris Smith had run her own London practice since 1887 and was admitted to the ICAEW in 1920 after the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 opened the profession to women.

The ICAEW was established by Royal Charter in which year?

1880: the Institute received its Royal Charter in May 1880, uniting five earlier English societies; its headquarters is Chartered Accountants' Hall in Moorgate, London.

In the UK, which body's members alone use the plain 'CA' designation?

ICAS: only members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland may use the bare letters CA in the UK; ICAEW members use ACA or FCA.

The ACCA was founded in 1904 under what name?

London Association of Accountants: founded in 1904 to open the profession to those excluded by the older institutes, it became the Association of Certified Accountants and received its Royal Charter in 1974.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India was established on 1 July of which year?

1949: the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 set up the Institute on 1 July that year, and Indian chartered accountants mark the date as CA Day.

Canada's CPA designation united three former designations: CA, CGA and which?

CMA: Certified Management Accountants joined Chartered Accountants and Certified General Accountants under the CPA banner in the 2012-2014 unification; CPA Canada represents the merged profession.

The Institute of Internal Auditors' first international chapter, formed in 1944, was where?

Its Certified Internal Auditor designation was introduced in 1974.

Which UK body jointly awards the CGMA management accounting designation with the AICPA?

CIMA: the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, founded in 1919, and the AICPA launched the Chartered Global Management Accountant designation together in 2012 and merged operations as the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants in 2017.

The GASB sets GAAP for which US entities?

State and local governments: the GASB, created in 1984, sets accounting standards for US states, cities and other local units; like the FASB it is a private body overseen by the Financial Accounting Foundation.

The US Government Accountability Office is known by what nickname?

The congressional watchdog: the GAO, created in 1921 and headed by the Comptroller General of the United States, audits federal spending on behalf of Congress.

The UK's National Audit Office reports to which officer of the House of Commons?

The NAO also carries out value-for-money audits of public policy.

The existence of an Exchequer in England was first recorded in which year?

1110: the Exchequer is first recorded under Henry I in 1110; twice a year, at Easter and Michaelmas, sheriffs were summoned to account for the king's revenue over its chequered cloth.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer heads which UK government department?

HM Treasury; the Chancellor's formal title is chancellor and under treasurer of His Majesty's exchequer.

In 2005 the Inland Revenue merged with which department to form the UK's tax authority?

HM Customs and Excise: the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 merged it with the Inland Revenue on 18 April 2005 to create HMRC, whose logo is the Tudor Crown within a circle.

The US Bureau of Internal Revenue was renamed the Internal Revenue Service in which year?

1953: the Bureau of Internal Revenue became the Internal Revenue Service in a 1953 reorganisation that followed a patronage scandal and replaced political appointees with career staff; the commissioner has served five-year terms since 1998.

The Sixteenth Amendment authorising a federal income tax was ratified in what year?

1913: the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified on February 3, 1913, letting Congress tax incomes without apportionment and effectively overruling the Supreme Court's 1895 Pollock decision.

Which Washington, D.C. holiday can push US Tax Day past April 15?

Emancipation Day: the District of Columbia's April 16 holiday counts as a legal holiday for IRS deadlines, so when its observance collides with April 15 or the following weekend, Tax Day slips to the next business day.

Who first proposed a value-added tax, in 1918, to replace Germany's turnover tax?

Georg Wilhelm von Siemens, of the Siemens industrial family, proposed a value-added tax in 1918 as a fairer alternative to the cascading turnover tax; Germany only adopted VAT in 1968.

As of 2025, which is the only OECD member country without a value-added tax?

United States: it relies on state and local retail sales taxes instead, while every other OECD member, from Japan's consumption tax to the Australian and New Zealand GST, runs a VAT-style levy.

Where did brothers Henry and Richard Bloch found H&R Block in 1955?

Kansas City: Henry and Richard Bloch launched H&R Block there in 1955 when bookkeeping clients kept asking for tax returns; they spelled it 'Block' so customers would not say 'blotch'.

TurboTax was developed in 1984 at which San Diego company, which Intuit bought in 1993?

Chipsoft: Michael Chipman's San Diego company launched TurboTax in 1984, and Intuit bought Chipsoft in 1993, making San Diego the home of its tax business.

QuickBooks was first introduced in what year?

1992: Intuit launched QuickBooks in 1992 as a small-business follow-up to Quicken, and it soon claimed up to 85 percent of the US small-business accounting software market.

Cloud accounting firm Xero was founded in 2006 in which city?

Wellington: Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards founded Xero in the New Zealand capital in 2006 and listed it on the NZX the following year.

What was Xero originally called when founded in 2006?

Accounting 2.0: the working name was dropped before the 2006 launch in favour of Xero, and by 2021 the company had passed three million subscribers.

British accounting-software firm Sage was founded in 1981 in which city?

Newcastle: Sage was founded in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1981 by David Goldman, Paul Muller and student Graham Wylie, who wrote the first version during a summer job at an accountancy firm.

Indian accounting-software giant Tally Solutions is headquartered in which city?

Bangalore: Tally Solutions is headquartered in Bangalore, where Shyam Sunder Goenka and his son Bharat founded it in 1986 as Peutronics; its Tally software is ubiquitous among Indian small businesses.

Which software group bought the Atlanta accounting package Peachtree from ADP in 1998?

Sage: the British group bought Peachtree, one of the earliest PC accounting packages, from ADP in 1998 and renamed it Sage 50 in 2013.

Enterprise-software giant SAP is headquartered where in Germany?

Walldorf: SAP has been based in the small Baden-Württemberg town since 1977, five years after five ex-IBM engineers founded it nearby; the name stands for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung.

Who co-founded Software Arts with Dan Bricklin in 1979?

Bob Frankston wrote most of the code for the pair's 1979 Apple II spreadsheet while Bricklin designed it; Bricklin is often called 'the father of the spreadsheet'.

Microsoft's 1982 spreadsheet, released first for CP/M, was called what?

Multiplan: Microsoft released it in 1982, initially for CP/M, writing it with a p-code compiler so it could be ported to many machines; Excel succeeded it from 1985.

Microsoft Excel's built-in macro programming language is called what?

VBA: Visual Basic for Applications arrived in Excel 5.0 in 1993, replacing the older XLM macro sheets; Excel itself dates from 1985 on the Macintosh.

What is the difference between current assets and current liabilities called?

Working capital: current assets minus current liabilities measures the short-term liquidity a business has to fund day-to-day operations; a negative figure signals strain.

On an income statement, revenue is nicknamed what?

The top line: revenue sits at the top of the income statement, while net profit, left after all expenses are deducted, is the bottom line.

Which International Accounting Standard specifically deals with cash flow statements?

IAS 7: the standard on statements of cash flows, in force since 1994; IAS 12 covers income taxes, IAS 16 property, plant and equipment, and IAS 38 intangible assets.

Goodwill can only be recognised on a company's books through what event?

An acquisition: goodwill is the premium a buyer pays over the fair value of the acquired firm's net identifiable assets; internally generated goodwill is never booked.

Retained earnings are also known by what nickname?

Plowback: retained earnings are profits plowed back into the business rather than paid out as dividends; a negative balance is called an accumulated deficit.

The IFRS accounting standards are issued by the IFRS Foundation and which board?

IASB: the International Accounting Standards Board, the IFRS Foundation's London-based standard-setting body, issues IFRS to replace divergent national rules and make statements comparable across borders.

The IASB succeeded which committee, which had been set up in 1973?

IASC: the International Accounting Standards Committee, formed in 1973 by professional bodies from nine countries, was replaced by the IASB in a restructuring of the standard-setter.

The going-concern assumption presumes a business will keep operating for at least how long?

12 months: IAS 1 requires management to look at least twelve months beyond the reporting date when assessing whether the business can continue as a going concern.

What is the accounting term for expensing an intangible asset over its useful life?

Amortization is the intangible-asset counterpart of depreciation, which applies to tangible assets.

Money a business owes its suppliers appears on the balance sheet as what?

Accounts payable: amounts owed to suppliers for goods bought on credit sit among current liabilities; notes payable, by contrast, are debts backed by formal written instruments.

Petty cash is most commonly accounted for using which method?

Imprest: the petty cash fund is set at a fixed float and topped back up to that amount against vouchers and receipts, so cash plus receipts always equals the float.

Fund accounting, which stresses accountability over profit, is used mainly by which entities?

Nonprofits and governments: fund accounting segregates resources by purpose or restriction to show accountability rather than profit; US nonprofits have reported net assets with and without donor restrictions since 2018.

The matching principle says an expense should be reported in the same period as what?

The related revenue: the matching principle, a cornerstone of accrual accounting, books an expense in the period it helps generate revenue, so cost of goods sold is recorded when the sale is.

Bad debt is occasionally known by what other name?

Uncollectible accounts expense: bad debt records receivables a business no longer expects to collect, usually through an allowance for doubtful accounts; a high rate points to weak credit and collections management.

Off-balance-sheet financing is sometimes given what colourful nickname?

Total return swaps are one example of an off-balance-sheet item.

Break-even analysis was developed by Karl Bücher and which other economist?

Johann Friedrich Schär, the Swiss pioneer of business economics, developed break-even analysis with Karl Bücher; at break-even, total cost equals total revenue.

What does the first 'C' in COSO, the internal-control framework's sponsor, stand for?

Committee: COSO is the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, formed in 1985 by five accounting bodies, whose 1992 Internal Control – Integrated Framework became the US benchmark for assessing controls over financial reporting.

Fair value accounting has been part of US GAAP since which decade?

1990s: mark-to-market or fair value rules entered US GAAP in the early 1990s through standards such as SFAS 115 on investment securities (1993); Enron's abuse of mark-to-market for long-term contracts helped bring it down.

Which fiscal-year abbreviation refers to the year running through 2023-2024?

FY24: fiscal years are conventionally named for the calendar year in which they end, so a year running from mid-2023 to mid-2024 is FY24.

Cotrugli's 1458 treatise, the earliest known double-entry manuscript, came from which republic?

Ragusa: Benedetto Cotrugli, a merchant of the Republic of Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik), wrote 'Della mercatura e del mercante perfetto' in 1458, describing double-entry 36 years before the first printed treatment.

The Summa de arithmetica, the first printed book on double-entry, was published in which city?

Venice: Paganino Paganini printed the Summa de arithmetica there in November 1494; its bookkeeping section, 'Particularis de computis et scripturis', spread double-entry across Europe.

Luca Pacioli was born in which Tuscan town, giving him the nickname 'Luca di Borgo'?

Sansepolcro: Pacioli was born around 1447 in Borgo Sansepolcro, hence 'Luca di Borgo'; he later taught mathematics in Perugia, Naples, Rome and Milan.

Which ancient people invented a phonetic alphabet 'probably for bookkeeping purposes'?

Phoenicians: their 22-letter consonantal alphabet, spread by Mediterranean trade from about 1050 BC, is the ancestor of Greek and Latin script, and some historians suggest it arose to serve bookkeeping.

The Code of Hammurabi, with rules for merchants' accounts, dates from roughly which century BC?

18th century BC: Hammurabi's code, carved around 1754 BC, required merchants and their agents to record loans and goods in writing before witnesses, an early legal basis for bookkeeping.

Al-Khwarizmi's algebra treatise closed with calculations for what purpose?

Islamic inheritance shares: the final part of al-Khwarizmi's ninth-century Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing works through the fractional shares due to heirs under Islamic law; its title gave us the word algebra.

The Lebombo bone, a possible 44,000-year-old tally stick, carries how many notches?

29: the baboon fibula found in Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains on the South Africa-Eswatini border carries 29 notches, suggesting a lunar or menstrual count.

Canada's Institute of Chartered Accountants was incorporated in which year?

1902: the Dominion Association of Chartered Accountants, forerunner of the CICA, was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1902; the CGAs followed in 1908 and the cost accountants in 1920.

In the 2016 film The Accountant, Ben Affleck plays an autistic CPA named what?

Christian Wolff: Affleck's autistic savant keeps the books for criminal organisations and fights with Pencak Silat; a sequel, The Accountant 2, followed in 2025.

The Producers' meek accountant Leo Bloom is a nod to a character in which novel?

Ulysses: Mel Brooks named the nervous accountant after Leopold Bloom, the hero of James Joyce's 1922 novel, and Gene Wilder's performance earned a 1968 Oscar nomination.

Who was first invited to play Leo Bloom in The Producers, before Gene Wilder got the part?

Peter Sellers accepted the role of Leo Bloom and then never contacted Brooks again, so Gene Wilder got the part; Sellers later took out a trade-paper ad championing the finished film.

Will Ferrell's Harold Crick in Stranger than Fiction works for which agency?

IRS: Crick is an Internal Revenue Service auditor who begins hearing novelist Karen Eiffel narrating his life while auditing baker Ana Pascal, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal.

In A Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchit works for Scrooge in what role?

Clerk: Cratchit copies letters in Scrooge's counting-house for fifteen shillings a week, and wears his comforter at work because Scrooge keeps the coal-box in his own room.

In Breaking Bad, Skyler White works as a bookkeeper for which Albuquerque firm?

Beneke Fabricators: Skyler returns to bookkeeping for Ted Beneke's firm in season 2 and discovers he is cooking the books; Anna Gunn won two Emmys for the role.

Which Office accountant is introduced as senior accountant and head of the Party Planning Committee?

Angela Martin: the senior accountant rules the Party Planning Committee with an iron fist; Angela Kinsey, who plays her, originally auditioned for the role of Pam.

Which actor plays Dunder Mifflin accountant Kevin Malone?

Brian Baumgartner played Kevin for all nine seasons and later hosted an Office oral-history podcast; Kevin's UK counterpart is Keith Bishop, played by Ewen MacIntosh.

Which Office accountant returned in the 2025 spin-off series The Paper?

Oscar Martinez: Oscar Nunez reprised the Dunder Mifflin accountant in The Paper, the 2025 Peacock mockumentary set at a struggling Toledo newspaper owned by the company that absorbed Dunder Mifflin.

Which best-selling saxophonist majored in accounting at the University of Washington?

Kenny G (Kenneth Gorelick) graduated magna cum laude in accounting from the University of Washington in 1978 while already playing professionally with Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra.

Which UFC champion earned a business/accounting degree from Cal Poly in 1995?

Chuck Liddell, 'The Iceman', wrestled for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and graduated in 1995 with a degree in business/accounting before becoming UFC light heavyweight champion in 2005.

Nike co-founder Phil Knight once taught accounting at which university?

Portland State: Knight taught accounting there in the late 1960s while building Blue Ribbon Sports, and met graphic design student Carolyn Davidson, who drew the Nike swoosh for $35.

Which accounting firm gave Home Depot co-founder Blank his first job, in 1963?

Arthur Young and Company: Blank joined the firm as an accountant after graduating from Babson in 1963, then moved to Daylin Inc., where he met Bernie Marcus before they founded Home Depot in 1978.

Which Led Zeppelin singer briefly trained as a chartered accountant after grammar school?

Robert Plant lasted two weeks training as a chartered accountant after leaving King Edward VI Grammar School in Stourbridge, then left home at 16 to sing with local blues bands.

What is an asset's cost less its accumulated depreciation called?

Book value: cost less accumulated depreciation is the carrying amount shown on the balance sheet; salvage value is the estimated residual at the end of the asset's useful life.

What is the acid-test ratio more commonly called?

Quick ratio: the acid test divides cash, marketable securities and receivables by current liabilities, leaving out inventory, which may not convert to cash quickly.