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B
BACS (bankers automated clearing
services)
An electronic bulk clearing system generally used by banks
and building societies for low-value and/or repetitive items
such as standing orders, direct debits and automated credits
such as salary payments.
bad debt
A debt which is considered to be uncollectable and is, therefore,
written off either as a charge to the profit and loss account
or against an existing doubtful debt provision.
balance sheet
A statement of the financial position of an entity at a
given date disclosing the assets, liabilities and accumulated
funds such as shareholders' contributions and reserves,
prepared to give a true and fair view of the financial state
of the entity at that date.
balanced scorecard
An approach to the provision of information to management
to assist strategic policy formulation and achievement.
It emphasises the need to provide the user with a set of
information which addresses all relevant areas of performance
in an objective and unbiased fashion. The information provided
may include both financial and non-financial elements, and
cover areas such as profitability, customer satisfaction,
internal efficiency and innovation.
bank reconciliation
A detailed statement reconciling, at a given date, the cash
balance in an entity's cash book with that reported in a
bank statement.
basic standard
A standard that remains unchanged since the previous period
and probably many previous periods, that may be used for
comparison but is likely to be out of date and irrelevant.
benchmarking
The establishment, through data gathering, of targets and
comparators, whereby relative levels of performance (and
particularly areas of underperformance) can be identified.
By the adoption of identified best practices it is hoped
that performance will improve.
beta factor 
The measure of the volatility of the return on a share relative
to the market. If a share price were to rise or fall at
double the market rate, it would have a beta factor of 2.
Conversely, if the share price moved at half the market
rate, the beta factor would be 0.5.
bill of materials (BOM)
A detailed specification, for each product produced, of
the sub-assemblies, components and materials required, distinguishing
between those items which are purchased externally and those
which are manufactured in-house.
bookkeeping
Recording of monetary transactions, appropriately classified,
in the financial records of an entity, either by manual
means, or otherwise.
bottleneck
An activity within an organisation which has a lower capacity
than preceding or subsequent activities, thereby limiting
throughput. Bottlenecks are often the cause of a build-up
of work-in-progress and idle time.
break-even point
The level of activity at which there is neither profit nor
loss, ascertained by using a break-even chart or by calculation.
budget
A quantified statement, for a defined period of time, which
may include planned revenues, expenses, assets, liabilities
and cash flows.
business entity concept
The concept that financial accounting information relates
only to the activities of the business entity and not to
the activities of its owners.
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