A
AA - active account (an account which has frequent entries)
AA - active asset (an asset that is used in actual operations and earns income)
AAA - accumulated adjustments account (an S corporation account containing the accumulated taxable income adjusted for changes/modifications made to stock basis)
AAA - American Accounting Association (accounting academicians/theory)
AABA - Association for Accountancy and Business Affairs (British accounting/auditing organization)
AAII - American Association of Individual Investors (nonprofit organization designed to educate investors about investment basics)
AAOIFI - Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (organization promoting Islamic principles for financial institutions)
AAR - average annual return (the annual return of a mutual fund stated after all fees have been deducted)
AASB - Australian Accounting Standards Board
AAT - Association of Accounting Technicians (British professional accounting organization)
ABA - American Bankers Association (national trade association representing commercial banks)
ABA - American Bar Association (organization representing practicing attorneys)
ABB - activity based budgeting (budgeting methodology)
ABC - activity based costing (method of allocating costs to products)
ABC - American Business Conference (organization advocating policies promoting economic growth, tax reform, trade, and business standards)
ABI - adjusted business income (income minus losses from an active business carried on in Canada)
ABLA - American Business Law Association
ABM - activity-based management (organizational approach to evaluating performance)
ABO - Accumulated Benefit Obligation (estimated liability of a pension plan assuming immediate termination)
ABS - asset-backed security (a security collateralized by a particular asset, such as a loan, lease, or real estate)
ABS - Automated Bond System (New York Stock Exchange computerized system for bond trading)
ABWA - American Business Women's Association
AC - account current (statement issued by an isurance company on a monthly basis to its agents showing commissions, premiums written, cancellations of policies, and endorsements)
AC - active capital (working capital - capital in productive use represented by the amount by which current assets exceed current liabilities)
AC - actual cost (cost actually incurred)
ACA - Association of Certified Accountants (UK)
ACA - Association of Chartered Accountants (UK)
ACAT - Accreditation Council for Accountancy and Taxation (non-profit organization which accredits qualified professionals in accounting)
ACAT - Automated Customer Account Transfer
ACB - adjusted cost basis (cost of a property or partnership interest plus the costs incurred to acquire it (Canada))
ACCA - Association of Certified and Corporate Accountants (British professional accounting organization)
ACCA - Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (British professional accounting organization)
AccSEC - Accounting Standards Executive Committee (AICPA accounting standards body dealing with technical accounting and reporting issues)
ACE - adjusted current earnings (alternative minimum taxable income after adjustments)
ACE - AMEX (American Stock Exchange) Commodities Exchange
ACES - Advance Computerized Execution System (NASD (National Association of Securities Dealers) automated trading system)
ACFE - Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (international organization dealing with fraud/white collar crime)
ACH - Automated Clearing House (nationwide electronic network that processes debit and credit transactions between participating banks)
ACID - Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability (transaction processing systems - requirements/principles of data integrity)
ACL - access control list (computerized table controlling access to a system, by listing users and the type of access each user is allowed)
ACL - Audit Command Language (audit-related software)
ACRS - Accelerated Cost Recovery System (tax depreciation method)
ACT - Automated Confirmation Transaction (postexecution service of NASDAQ that speeds price and volume reporting of securities trading)
ACU - Asian Currency Unit (unit of account for dollar-denominated deposits held in separate accounts in Asian banks and financial centers)
ACV - actual cash value (the cost of replacing damaged or destroyed property minus depreciation)
ACWP - actual cost of work performed (the real costs of work charged against the completed activities of a project)
ADA - Americans With Disabilities Act (group of laws prohibiting discrimination based on disability)
ADB - adjusted debit balance (position of a margin account after subtracting the amount owing the broker from the credit balance on the special miscellaneous account)
ADB - Asian Development Bank (international financial institution)
ADBG - African Development Bank Group (international financial institution promoting economic development in Africa)
ADR - American Depositary Receipt (receipt for the shares of a foreign-based corporation held in the vault of a U.S. bank and entitling the shareholder to all dividends and capital gains)
ADR - Asset Depreciation Range (IRS tax classification system for depreciation costs)
ADR - automatic dividend reinvestment plan (plan under which stockholders can get more shares instead of receiving dividends)
ADRS - Asset Depreciation Range System (IRS tax classification system by which the asset depreciation range for an asset is determined)
ADS - Advanced Detection System (National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) automated surveillance system, used to monitor member firms' trading and reporting in order to uncover operational irregularities)
ADS - Alternative Depreciation System (IRS system used in computing alternative minimum taxable income (AMTI) depreciation)
ADS - American Depositary Share (share issued under a deposit agreement representing the underlying share of a foreign-based corporation)
A&E - Analysis and Evaluation
A&E - Appropriation and Expense
AE - account executive (brokerage firm employee who advises and handles orders for clients)
AES - Advanced Encryption Standard (a public encryption algorithm supporting large key block sizes)
AET - Accumulated Earnings Tax (tax on corporations that pile up earnings without distributing them to stockholders)
AEX - Amsterdam Exchanges
AFC - average fixed cost (fixed costs per unit produced)
AFD - allowance for depreciation (reserve for depreciation on the value of fixed assets)
AFL-CIO - American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations (U.S. national labor union)
AFWA - Accounting and Financial Women's Alliance (organization of women CPAs and corporate accountants)
AGA - Association of Government Accountants (organization of accountants employed in government)
AGI - Adjusted Gross Income (federal tax term - taxpayer's gross income minus above-the-line deductions)
AH - Authentication Header (a protocol which provides authentication and integrity services for data packets in transmission)
AI - Artificial Intelligence (a branch of computer science in which human intelligence is simulated using computers)
AIA - Association of International Accountants (British-based professional accounting organization)
AICPA - American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (professional organization of practicing CPAs)
AID - Agency for International Development (agency created to administer assistance programs to less developed countries)
AIM - American Institute for Management
AIMR - Association for Investment Management and Research (professional organization for investment practitioners)
AIP - automatic investment program (any program in which an investor can accumulate or withdraw funds automatically)
AIS - Accounting Information System (system providing internal management reports and external reports) (a systematic device and methods used for gathering, processing, and reporting accounting information)
AISG - Accountants International Study Group (orgnization examining common accounting interests/challenges)
AJE - adjusting journal entry (an entry used at the close of a period to record income and expenses and other adjustments)
AL - accrued liability (the liability arising from accrued costs or expenses that have been incurred but not yet paid)
ALAE - allocated loss adjustment expense (an allocation of expenses incurred in investigating and settling claims)
ALE - annual loss expectancy (an estimate of the frequency of a loss in a twelve-month period combined with an estimate of the dollar amount size of the loss if it occurs)
ALT - alternative trading system (Electronic Communications Networks (ECN) - electronic systems providing alternatives to traditional location-based stock markets for securities trading)
ALU - arithmetic logic unit (the area of the central processing unit that performs mathematical and analytical operations)
AM - Allied Member (general partner or voting stockholder of a member firm of the New York Stock Exchange who is not personally a member)
AMA - American Management Association
AMA - Asset Management Account (account at a brokerage house, bank, or savings institution that combines banking services with brokerage features)
AMBAC - American Municipal Bond Assurance Corporation (private company providing insurance on municipal bond offerings in the event of default)
AMEX - American Stock Exchange (Manhattan-based securities/options trading exchange)
AMPS - Auction Market Preferred Stock (preferred stock bought and sold through brokers on the securities exchanges)
AMT - alternative minimum tax (a tax designed to ensure that wealthy individuals, trusts, estates, and corporations pay at least some income tax)
ANSI - American National Standards Institute (U.S. standards organization)
AOGI - adjusted ordinary gross income (adjusted gross income of a personal holding corporation)
AON - all or none (investment banking - offering giving the issuer the right to cancel the whole issue if the underwriting is not fully subscribed; securities - buy or sell order preventing partial transactions)
AOS - Automated Order System (electronic system for execution of securities transactions)
AP - accounting period (period of time chosen to report accounting results - a period at the end of which accounts are made up, balances are struck, and a profit or loss is arrived at)
AP - accounts payable (money owed to someone else)
AP - analytical procedures (audit procedures involving the evaluation of financial information by studying expected relationships between financial and non-financial data)
APB - Auditing Practices Board (auditing standards-setting body in the United Kingdom)
APB - Accounting Principles Board (former body of the AICPA - replaced by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB))
APBO - accumulated post-retirement benefit obligation (accumulated benefit obligation - actuarial present value of pension benefits owed to employees for services before the pension plan went into effect)
API - Accountants for the Public Interest (organization focusing on public policy questions)
API - application program/programming interface (a set of routines and protocols that allow different parts or processes within a system to communicate)
APIC - additional paid-in capital (the capital paid in by stockholders when buying stock, in excess of the par value or stated value of the stock)
APO - Align, Plan and Organize (skill categories/good practice planning guidance)
APR - annual percentage rate (cost of credit that consumers pay expressed as a simple annual percentage)
APS - alternative practice structure
APS - Auction Preferred Stock (adjustable-rate preferred stock)
APV - adjusted present value (net present value of an asset financed by equity, plus the present value of cash flows from financing)
APY - annual percentage yield (amount of interest, expressed as a percentage rate, that a deposit account would earn in a year at a stated interest rate)
AQL - acceptable quality level (a quality standard that allows a prespecified number of defects)
AR - accounts receivable (money due to be received from someone else)
AR - annual return (the tax return, filed annually, covering a one-year period)
ARACR - acceptable risk of assessing control risk too low (risk an auditor is willing to take if the assessment of controls, and the resulting control risk estimate, is wrong)
ARB - Accounting Research Bulletin (AICPA publication with recommended procedures)
ARB - Airport Revenue Bond (tax-exempt bond issued by a city, county, state, or airport authority to support the expansion and operations of an airport)
ARF - American Retail Federation
ARM - Adjustable Rate Mortgage (mortgage agreement between a financial institution and a real estate buyer stipulating predetermined adjustments of the interest rate at specified intervals)
ARP - Address Resolution Protocol (a broadcast-based protocol which resolves the Internet Protocol (IP) address with the hardware address)
ARR - average rate of return (a rate of return calculated by using the average investment amount of two or more investments)
ARSC - Accounting and Review Services Committee
AS - account sales
AS - accumulated surplus
ASAP - As Soon As Possible
ASB - Accounting Standards Board (official UK body for issuing accounting standards)
ASB - Auditing Standards Board (authoritative body of the AICPA setting standards for audit engagements)
ASC - Accounting Standards Codification (FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) system of organizing pronouncements)
ASCA - Arab Society for Certified Accountants (regional accounting organization)
ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange (computer code converting a character into a binary number allowing different microcomputers and information services to communicate with each other)
ASCPA - American Society of Certified Public Accountants (federation of state societies absorbed by the AICPA in 1936)
ASE - American Stock Exchange (Manhattan-based options exchange)
ASE - Amsterdam Stock Exchange
ASE - Athens Stock Exchange (principal stock exchange in Greece)
ASEC - Assurance Services Executive Committee
ASIC - application-specific integrated circuit (specialized hardware switches with dedicated high-speed bandwidth ports)
ASP - Application Service Provider (external provider of software or services)
ASR - allowance for sampling risk (audit analysis/procedure)
ASRS - Accounting Series Releases (Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official accounting/auditing pronouncements)
ASSC - Accounting Standards Steering Committee
ASWA - American Society of Women Accountants (professional accounting organization)
ASX - Australian Stock Exchange
AT - attestation standards (standards applied to examinations or reviews of non-financial statement information)
ATDM - asynchronous time division multiplexing (information from data channels is allocated bandwidth as needed via dynamically assigned time slots)
ATI - accumulated taxable income (tax base on which the accumulated earnings tax is levied)
ATM - Asynchronous Transfer Mode (a high-bandwidth, low-delay switching and multiplexing technology that allows integration of real-time voice, video, and data)
ATM - Automatic Teller Machine (unmanned location where the insertion of a precoded credit or debit card provides access to bank teller services, including cash)
ATOI - after-tax operating income (after-tax profit)
ATS - alternative trading systems (electronic trading systems that provide alternatives to traditional fixed-location stock exchanges)
AUC - average unit cost (average cost per unit)
AVC - additional voluntary contribution (extra contribution to a pension plan)
AVC - average variable cost (variable cost per unit)
AVCO - average cost (cost per unit)
AVR - asset valuation reserve (reserve for stocks, bonds, real estate, mortgages, and similar invested assets)
AWSCPA - American Women's Society of Certified Public Accountants (professional accounting organization of CPAs)