This paper involves writing a response to the following questions
Compare a review and an audit. What are the differences? What are the similarities?
Reviews and audits are the two different services that can be rendered by a certified public accountant (CPA) on matters relating to financial statement of an organization. An independent expert often provides an audit regarding the financial statement of an organization (Lobo & Zhao, 2013) . The expert gives his/her opinion regarding the financial statement of the business. The statement shows fairly the results of operations as well as the financial position of the organization. An audit requires the expert to collect sufficient and justifiable information regarding the data gathered in the financial statement. A review shows a report that is given by a CPA expressing that the financial statements provided are not subject to material misstatement (Lobo & Zhao, 2013) . Normally, the procedures followed when carrying out a review is narrowed down to inquiry management and analytical procedures. Additionally, it obtains a management representation regarding the completeness of the provided information.
What are the primary accounting fields and their associated professional responsibilities?
There are three major accounting fields. These are public, management as well as the government. Accounting refers to the examination and preparation of financial records. Usually, the records are prepared for firms, companies, and organizations. The clients in the public accounting include the government, individuals or organizations. Typically, there exist an outsourced that an organization utilizes to meet a diverse range of duties that are a tax, review, account and access-oriented (Fields, Lys & Vincent, 2001) . Notably, organizations usually have persons who have the capability to retrieve information and data from the organization under study purposely to make restitutions and amendments. The role of the management accounting is to analyze and account the financial data of their customers and issue such information to the internal administration of the firm but not the public. The government accounting serves to maintain and examine the records from various government agencies that conduct taxations and government regulations.
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What are the major forms of business structures? How do they differ?
Business structures fall into three major categories namely sole proprietorship, partnership and corporations. A sole proprietorship is an enterprise that is owned by a single person. Usually, the person owns all the assets that are found within that business. As such, the person enjoys all the profit generated by the business. The owner also is responsible for losses and debts. The partnership is a business that is owned by two or more people. Just like in sole proprietorship, the government does not differentiate between the business and the owners (Williams, Barton, Coltrain, 2000) . Partnership requires the owners to have a formal agreement that shows how profits will be shared, a methodology for resolving disputes and the future plans of the business. On the other hand, the government usually chatters corporations. As such, the law considers corporations as a unique entity that is distinguished from the owners. It can be taxed, sued of venture into contractual agreements.
What are the differences, including timing issues, between cash and accrual basis accounting?
The distinction between cash and accrual is timing oriented. the partner for timing, in this case, is often referred to as revenue recognition. Cash basis usually takes into consideration the revenue generated when cash has been issued but not before. In addition, it also recognizes an expense whenever cash has been given out. As such, a bill that has not been paid is not regarded as an expense. Accrual basis recognizes revenues whenever it has been earned rather than when it has been received. On the other hand, an expense is not considered to be one even when a bill has been received irrespective of the time when they will be paid. Cash basis serves an important role by tracking the inflows and outflows of cash whenever they occur. However, it does not match expenses and revenues during the accounting period (Graham, Jana, & Douglas, 2012). This role is served excellently on the accrual basis.
References
Fields, T. D., Lys, T. Z., & Vincent, L. (2001). Empirical research on accounting choice. Journal of accounting and economics , 31 (1), 255-307.
Graham, J. R., Jana S. R., & Douglas A. S (2012). Research in accounting for income taxes. Journal of Accounting and Economics 53(1): 412-434.
Lobo, G. J., & Zhao, Y. (2013). Relation between audit effort and financial report misstatements: Evidence from quarterly and annual restatements. The Accounting Review , 88 (4), 1385-1412.
Williams, C., Barton, D., & Coltrain, D. (2000). Selecting a Business Structure. Arthur Capper Cooperative Center, Kansas State University .
