Accounting & Finance Jargon Buster

I do admit that most people might not be enthused by the idea of an accountant talking to a bunch of librarians.

However, I spent my Tuesday afternoon as a librarian in exactly that context, and it was tremendous amounts of fun!

Matt Davies, a lecturer at Aston Business School, has a very compelling teaching persona; he plays it as an abject geek, both self-aware and surprised that other people might not want to share in his passions. Somehow he can jump from "I'm sorry you're stuck in a room listening to an accountant for the next three-and-a-half hours" to "what do you mean you don't visit the Companies House website for fun?!" without any incongruity.

The course itself was an entry-level introduction to basic concepts in accounting and finance. The first section gave me that "GCSE-Physics" feeling of "well, of COURSE it works like that.. but I've never seen it written as an equation before" - for example, the balance sheet relationship:

Equity (the amount of "money" in the business, eg investments & profits)
=
Assets (the amount of "stuff" the business has, eg buildings/stock/money in bank accounts)
-
Liabilities (the amount of "debt" the business has, eg, wages/tax/mortgages)

Or the difference between a cash flow statement (anything in or out within a defined year) and an income statement (incomings and outgoings matched by business transaction).

The section on ratios started to diverge into a more arcane and academic realm; it became apparent that financial ratios have a certain amount in common with academic referencing styles. By this I mean that each lecturer has their own preferred way of doing things, and the same ratio can have many different names in different places (eg the "quick ratio" is the same thing as the "acid test) - so a standardised guide can only help so far.

Then we moved on to finance concepts like "the time value of money" (a combination of inflation, risk, and the fact that we all like spending money now) and financial market jargon. One thing that really struck me here was the immense power wielded by credit ratings agencies - not only does a company's credit rating affect its likelihood of being lent money in the future, but in many cases the interest rate on existing debts are tied to the credit rating.

All in all, I would very much recommend this course to anyone starting out in finance librarianship; it's an invaluable introduction to the terminology and key concepts of the field. However, it was very much an introduction; now I understand the context, I am even more keen to understand the kinds of research questions which are being asked. Only one way to find that out, I suppose... to the faculty profiles I go!