Explaining Basic Accounting Concepts and Business
University of Phoenix

Introduction
Accounting has become an indispensible part of today’s economy. It is being used to keep a track of company’s profit or loss, assets, liabilities and owner’s equity. Financial accounting, on the other hand, is to prepare financial reports to external parties such as: investors, creditors, and governmental agencies. However, prior to reporting any information to external users, financial accounting must be completed according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles guidelines.
Identify the hierarchy of sources for generally accepted accounting principles. Generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP for short, are the accounting rules used to prepare and standardize the reporting of financial statements, such as balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements, for publicly traded companies and many private companies in the United States (Paul, 2008). The main sources of GAAP are the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB), Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). The SEC is a structure for setting accounting standards. The ACIPA created the Accounting Principle Board and serves as an organization to provide CPA services the best professional resources, guidance, and information. The FASB was renewed by the Accounting Principle Board (APB). ACB consists of Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC), and the major operating organization in this structure - the Financial Accounting Standards Board (Pakhare, 2011). The GASB agency handles the local and state government matters. The hierarchy of GAAP is defined in a