P

Partnership - A partnership is an unincorporated business structure that has more than one owner. A partnership is different from a sole proprietorship in that a sole proprietorship can only have one owner.

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Post - To post is to summarize all journal entries and transfer them to the general ledger accounts. Posting is done at the end of an accounting period (monthly).

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Predatory Pricing - An anti-competitive measure employed by a dominant company to protect market share from new or existing competitors. Predatory pricing involves temporarily pricing a product low enough to end a competitive threat.

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Prepaid Expenses - Prepaid expenses are amounts that are paid in advance by a company to a vendor or creditor for goods and services. An example would be insurance premiums that are paid in advance of the coverage contained in the policy. Prepaid expenses is classified as a current asset on the balance sheet of the company.

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Prepaid Income - See Customer Deposits.

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Price Earnings Ratio - It is also known as the company's P/E for investment purposes. The price-earnings ratio is the price of a company's share of common stock in the public market divided by its earnings per share (EPS). You multiply this multiple by the net income of the publicly traded company and you will have a value for the business. If the business has no net income, there is no P/E. To illustrate a P/E ratio if the price of the stock is $35, and the EPS is $3.50, the P/E ratio is 10 times earnings.

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Profit And Loss Statement - It is also called a "P&L" and income statement. It shows a company's business revenue and expenses for a specific period of time. For example, for the six months ending June 30, 2002. The difference between total revenue or total sales and the total expenses is the company's net income. A key element of the profit and loss statement, one that distinguishes it from a balance sheet, is that the amounts shown on the statement represent transactions over a period of time, such as, six months ending June 30, 2002, while the items on the balance sheet show information for a specific date, such as, June 30, 2002.

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Profit Plan - The profit plan for the fiscal year is a complete financial picture of the operating plans, sales volumes, capital expenditure plans, and the resulting profitability, financial condition, and cash flow for the year. The profit and loss portion is developed by applying operating budgets to the forecast sales. These, plus the capital budgets, are analyzed to determine their effect on the financial position and to develop the cash flow.

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Proprietorship - A proprietorship is an unincorporated business structure with only one owner.

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Purchases - The inventory or raw materials for manufacturing, merchandising, or mining plus cost of shipping minus purchases for personal use.