| Internet Sites of Possible Use to Accountants With Fixed and Intangible Assets, Equity, and Asset Valuation Information May 21, 2005 I. Introduction. This article presents several websites that have fixed asset, equity, or cost of capital information of possible use to accountants. The websites were found by searching the Internet using two search engines (Google and Yahoo), and dozens of relevant search terms. Fixed and intangible assets, equity, and asset valuation is one of the twenty-eight management accounting-related topics used on the Management Accounting Information Center (MAIC)'s front page, as links to Internet websites with information on the topics. The twenty-eight topics were chosen initially to cover functional areas that management accountants work in. The purpose of using these twenty-eight topics, and the website links that each topic leads to, is to allow the management accountant, while sitting at his (or her) work computer, to quickly link to websites with information and data in most, if not all, functional areas of interest to management accountants. These twenty-eight topics hopefully cover most, if not all, of the functional areas that management accountants might have questions and problems in, although it is very unlikely that answers and solutions to all questions and problems will be found at websites that are linked to, through these twenty-eight topics. As mentioned above, the twenty-eight MAIC front-page topics do, in the author’s view, represent most functional areas of interest to accountants. Some front-page topics, such as “Accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory, and working capital”, “Banking, cash, and debt management”, and “Insurance and risk management” are make up of subcategories, which, at least in the author’s opinion, are closely interrelated to one another, from an accountant’s work perspective. Hopefully, by using these subcategory groupings, and therefore only twenty-eight front pages topics, the use of the MAIC, to find needed information on the Internet, is made much more efficient and effective. The MAIC front-page topic (and the subject of this article) “Fixed and intangible assets, equity, and asset valuation” is also one of these front-page topics with subcategories - subcategories that are interrelated to each other (at least in the author’s view). For example, the connection that the author sees between fixed assets and the equity is that considerations related to the need and use of equity often comes from needs for long-term assets. The Internet searching for this article, mentioned above, using fixed and intangible asset and equity-related terms, discovered 38 websites judged to have useful information for the accountant. These 38 websites primarily focus on one of the following five areas: Fixed asset accounting and financial management Intangible and intellectual assets Asset leasing Asset valuation Equity The rest of this article will identify websites in each of these five areas. II. Fixed Assets Accounting and Financial Management. Websites identified in this section provide: definitions and practices related to fixed assets accounting; suggestions for fixed asset management; capitalization guidelines; and guidance for determining needs for fixed asset purchasing. Also included is a website on fixed asset accounting in government organizations. This link, www.answers.com/topic/capital-asset, goes to a site maintained by answers.com that provides definitions of a fixed (capital) asset. Also provided is information on accounting for fixed assets, including problems associated with intangible asset accounting. General information on depreciation is provided at this site, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depreciation, maintained by Wikipedia. The concept and purpose of depreciation and methods of depreciation are defined. At this business.com site, www.business.com/directory/accounting/asset_analysis, are many links to websites with information on various aspects of fixed asset accounting and management. Information is provided on depreciation, guidance on purchasing a fixed asset accounting system, and suggested strategies in good fixed asset management. Linking to this site, www.tookit.cch.com/text/p07_2614.asp, will provide you a broad, simple overview of the types of costs that need to be capitalized, the Section 179 expensing options for small companies, how to handle startup costs, and how to depreciate assets. This site is provided by CCH, Inc. as part of their CCH Business Owner’s Toolkit. This link, www.expectationsinvesting.com, takes you to a site, created by Al Rappaport and Michael Mauboussin, that provides an overview on computing a company’s incremental fixed capital needs, based on historic fixed capital purchases. This link, www.census.gov/csd/ace, takes you to a Census Bureau site, which has annual capital expenditures by hundreds of companies, classified by NAICS four-digit codes. Data is about two years old. The data is aggregated, but knowing the approximate number of companies in each NAICS code would lead to average capital spending expenditures for companies similar to your company. The data needs to be downloaded. Capital lease, capital interest, and new versus used capital equipment expenditures are available. This site, www.gasb.org/repmodel/capasset.html, maintained by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), provides information on the accounting and financial management of capital (fixed) assets in government organizations. Information is also provided on the physical and operational management of capital assets. Accounting and financial management topics include capitalization thresholds, depreciation, and suggested useful lives. Compliance with the GASB Standard 34 is emphasized. III. Intangible and Intellectual Assets. Most of the websites identified in this section deal with the value of intangible and intellectual assets and the problems of measuring the value and accounting for intangible assets. Information on intellectual property issues is found at some of the sites. Aspects of the measurement of intangible assets are discussed at this site, www.sveiby.com/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx, Karl-Erik Sveiby company's site. Several links are provided to websites with substantial information on intangible asset measurement issues. This link, www.strassmann.com/pubs/cik/cik-value.shtml, takes you to the article “The Value of Computers, Information, and Knowledge”, written by Paul Strassmann. The article deals with why and how “knowledge or intellectual” capital can be measured. An analysis, supported by data, is provided on costs associated with information technology, and with the information processes within a company. An information productivity metric, for measuring the productivity of using information within an organization, is suggested. Companies and countries are compared using this metric. Several articles, with ideas on measuring information costs and returns, are available at this site, www.strassmann.com, maintained by Paul Strassmann. Ideas and suggestions about the relationships of productivity and information can be found. Statistics and data related to organizational use of information are available. This link, www.businesscontrolling.info, takes you to Juergen Daum’s website, which focuses on the increasing importance of intangible assets as the underlying value of organizations. Articles and reviews deal with the effects of knowledge, innovations, and other “intellectual capital” assets of a company (booked or non-booked) on the value of a company (balance sheet value, and market capitalization value). The emphasis is on the increasing importance of all of this and what managers should do about it. The British Bournemouth Law School’s Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management maintains this site, www.cippm.org.uk, where some limited information is available on issues and views related to intellectual property. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) maintains a site, www.wipo.int/index.html, at which information is provided on aspects of intellectual property. General information is provided on what intellectual property is. Perhaps, very useful for organizational decision-making is information provided that relates to issues involved with intellectual property use. Better understanding of intellectual property issues may improve accounting and financial management-related decisions about intellectual property. click here to go to next and final page |
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