Editing Accounting (section)

===Financial accounting===
{{main article|Financial accounting}}
Financial accounting focuses on the reporting of an organization's financial information to external users of the information, such as investors, potential investors and creditors. It calculates and records business transactions and prepares [[financial statement]]s for the external users in accordance with [[generally accepted accounting principles]] (GAAP).<ref name = "HDF 2006">{{Citation
 | last1 = Horngren
 | first1 = Charles T.
 | author-link1= Charles Thomas Horngren
 | last2 = Datar
 | first2 = Srikant M.
 | author-link2= Srikant Datar
 | last3 = Foster
 | first3 = George
 | title = Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis
 | place = New Jersey
 | publisher = Pearson Prentice Hall
 | year = 2006
 | edition = 12th
}}</ref> GAAP, in turn, arises from the wide agreement between [[accounting research|accounting theory]] and practice, and changes over time to meet the needs of decision-makers.<ref name = "NP 2013" />

Financial accounting produces past-oriented reports—for example financial statements are often published six to ten months after the end of the accounting period—on an [[Annual report|annual]] or quarterly basis, generally about the organization as a whole.<ref name = "HDF 2006" />