When you start a business you quickly find out that you need to understand accounting terms. Whether you are dealing with your accountant, bookkeeper or doing the accounting yourself, you will encounter accounting abbreviations. Most business people have heard of “Accounts Payable” (AP) and “Accounts Receivable” (AR). But what about AJE? That stands for “Adjusting Journal Entry” which you will likely encounter when your accountant is ready to close your accounting books for your business’ fiscal year.

I have been in business for several years and have compiled a list below of some of the most common accounting abbreviations and accounting terms that you will encounter. Having this handy list available helps you focus on your business rather than spending excessive time deciphering accounting terms. Even if you use accounting software such as QuickBooks, it is still useful to become familiar with these terms.

* ABC: Activity Based Costing

* AJE: Adjusting Journal Entry

* AP: Accounts Payable

* AR: Accounts Receivable

* AT: Asset Turnover

* BB: Beginning Balance (see also: EB)

* BV: Book Value

* CJE: Closing Journal Entry

* CM: Contribution Margin (= Sales less Variable Costs)

* COGM: Cost Of Goods Manufactured

* Cr: Credit

* CVP: Cost-Volume-Profit

* Dr: Debit

* EB: Ending Balance (see also BB)

* EPS: Earnings Per Share

* EVA: Economic Value Added

* FIFO: First In, First Out (see also: LIFO)

* FC: Fixed Costs (see also: VC)

* FS: Financial Statements

* FYE: Fiscal Year End; (e.g.: FYE2010)

* GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

* GL: General Ledger

* IS: Income Statement

* ISO: International Standards Organization

* JE: Journal Entry

* JIT: Just In Time

* LIFO: Last In, First Out (see also: FIFO)

* LOC: Line of Credit

* NI: Net Income

* OH: Overhead

* PL: Profit/Loss Statement

* PM: Profit Margin

* PVA: Process Value Analysis

* RE: Retained Earnings

* ROI: Return On Investment

* SAG Expenses: Selling, Administrative, and General Expenses

* SHE: Stockholders Equity

* SP: Sales Price (price of goods/services sold)

* TB: Trial Balance

* VC: Variable Costs (see also: FC)

* WIP: Work-In-Progress

There are many other accounting terms but the above terms are the ones that I have found are a good starting point for understand accounting abbreviations.

Are you new at negotiating banquet prices or do you know how hotels think about negotiating banquet food? What can and can not be negotiated during the planning process? So, what has been your experience as a meeting and event planner been when this issue comes up?

Are banquet menus prices set in stone? Some are and some are not.

Remember that hotels make most of their money from room rates. The profit margin is higher. On banquet food there is a smaller profit margin, so there is less to work with and hotels normally will not offer discounts unless there are specific requests and they really have a reason to negotiate.

Banquet food pricing consists of three items, food cost, staff labor and profit. Since the food cost and staffing takes up so much of the banquet price, it is very hard to ask your Catering Manager to just lower the price.

However, even though the hotel is reluctant to reduce prices, you still might have some options. Ask your Catering Manager to get with the Chef and come up with a menu that has a lower food cost so the hotel can still maintain their profit margin, yet allow them to lower the price of the banquet item.

I have worked with many Chefs and they always have a couple of menu items in their hip pocket that would work for both their cost and your budget.

An example of this is a banquet for a teenage YMCA group. Banquet menus may run $20 – $30++ for normal beef, chicken or fish items. However, teenagers just want to be fed and would be happier with spaghetti, meat sauce, a small tossed salad, plain rolls and a simple dessert (Chef’s choice). The food cost for this menu is much lower and therefore the hotel can still make a profit and the group can fit the price into their budget.

Another way would be to ask your Catering or Convention Service Manager to get with the Chef and ask for a simple buffet with Chef’s choice of entree, starch and dessert. This would not work for a high powered corporate event, but might work for lunch if you are just trying to feed the group. Again, the Chef can keep his food cost in line and you can fit something into your meeting budget that will work.

So, are banquet menu prices set in stone? Some are and some are not. Sometimes it is necessary to negotiate special food items and pricing in order to “make it work” for the group and the hotel.

CFD Trading or Contract for Difference trading is considered to be the best profit making business in this financially strained economy. CFD Trading is an agreement or a contract that is agreed upon by the giver and the saver that operates on the closing and the opening price of stock. The profit margin entirely depends on the market price of shares and stocks. Thus, it is an effective technique of trading on the price changes in the share market without physically getting occupied in purchasing and selling the assets owned. The investors are at a great risk in this type of investment as the financial market is highly unpredictable these days . It is a kind of financial derivative which includes swaps, futures, warrants, convertibles, options etc. Most of the investors prefer these types of financial derivatives due to the following reasons: – Large returns (but also equal amount of losses) can be earned by investing little capital. The derivatives offer good amount of leverage. – The investor is free to take upward or downward position in the basic instrument on which the financial derivative is based. – The investor can manage risk of investment that he or she makes in the primary instrument. Any investor, seller or speculator can easily reach CFDs as related to other famous financial derivatives, which is one of the major factors for its popularity. In other words, CFD is an agreement or a contract agreed by the buyer as well as the seller to pay the price difference between the buy or sell price and sell or buy price of the financial instrument during the settlement of the deed. CFD Trading is beneficial for providers as well as investors. If the trader is smart enough, he or she can earn huge profits from a huge variety of markets that are loaded with currencies, indices, commodities and equities. Compared to conventional trading, CFD Trading is very flexible. It is possible to speculate high and low price changes. For instance you buy a CFD on share of value $12 and the share price rises to $12.50, then you make a profit of the price difference of $0.50 for ever share that you purchased when the purchase price was lesser. This confirms that you will surely earn $500 on the 1000 CFDs you bought for low price. This is an affordable and flexible way to make profit. Here are a few advantages that have made this incredible financial product so popular: – Aids to improve the trading capital since CFDs are traded on margin. – You need not pay any deposits, invented price or deal size. – No requirement for stamp duty. – Trading is comparatively profitable. – one account for several financial products. – Quick completion as well as greater liquidity. – No fees are paid for index trading. If you research the financial market properly, you will find that CFD Trading is the most profitable business today. People find this trading method as the best one because they earn good amount of profits on their investments instantly.

If you are new in candy business or already a candy store owner, then here are some tips to help you to gain more profit from your business. These tips will help you to save more money from your business as well as giving more sales.

1. Buy bulk product

If you own a bulk candy store, then you should always buy bulk product. This will save a lot of money and increase your profit margin. The bulk purchase will give you wholesale price, so you can get more profit from.

2. Show off

To make more sell, you have to let the customers know what you have. So make sure that each of your products is available to see by the clients. It may happen that the customer needs a specific product that you have, but not in the display. So he did not mention it in front of you and you just make some loss.

3. Special offers

There are many times when other candy producers offer special discount on their products in different occasions. You should take advantage of such chances. Sometimes, the products are not only the candy but also some candy tools that might help your bulk candy store. You should always keep an open eye for such opportunity. You can easily get information about these offers from the internet.

4. Versatile display

Try to save as much space as you can by using multiuse display. This will save you a lot of money as well as allowing you to use multiple products in limited space.