ACCT 3316: Data Analytics

Vocabulary for Chapters 1-4

Amortization Schedule

A schedule (or table) detailing each periodic payment to ultimately pay off a loan/debt.

AMPS Model

A framework for performing data analytics, which includes Ask the Questions, Master the Data, Perform the Analysis, and Share the Story.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

A hierarchical view of thinking and learning skills.

Dashboard

A graphical summary of various measures tracked by a company.

Data Analytics

The process of evaluating data with the purpose of drawing conclusions to address all types of questions, including accounting questions.

Data Integrity

The accuracy, validity, and consistency of data used and stored over time.

Dynamic

Characterized by constant updates, change, or activity.

Information Overload

Access or exposure to too much information to be able to process.

PivotTable

A tool that allows reorganizations and summarizations of certain data using cross-tabulations without changing the underlying spreadsheet (or data)

Static

Characterized by the lack of constant updates, change, or activity.

Visualization

The representation of information as a graph, chart, or other image

10-K

A required annual submission to the Securities and Exchange Commission reporting a company’s financial performance.

10-Q

A required quarterly (every 3 months) submission to the Securities and Exchange Commission reporting a company’s financial performance.

8-K

A required submission to the Securities and Exchange Commission that is used to notify investors of important events or announcements.

Audit

An assessment of the accounting principles used and significant estimates made; it evaluates the overall financial statement presentation.

Big Data

Datasets that are too large and complex for businesses’ existing systems (traditional capabilities) to capture, store, manage, and analyze.

Budgets

Financial plan used to prioritize the needs of an organization for an upcoming time period.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

An information system for managing all interactions with current and potential customers.

Data Ethics

The moral responsibility associated with gathering and protecting data, and an understanding of how such responsibility affects individuals.

Earnings call

A conference call between company management (like a CEO and CFO), analysts, investors, and the media to discuss earnings and other financial results that generally precede the call.

EDGAR

The Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) system. The EDGAR system automatically collects, validates, and indexes, and serves as a repository for all forms submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Financial Accounting Data

Any information external decision makers, such as stockholders, banks, and suppliers, might use to help make decisions.

Financial Statements

A collection of reports that communicate a company’s financial results, financial condition, financial health and its cash flows.

Fixed assets

Property, plant (factories, office buildings, stores), and equipment (vehicles, fork lifts, computers, machinery, power tools, technical apparatus).

General Ledger

Provides the current balance of all asset, liability, equity, revenue, and expense accounts, summarizing all of the company’s transactions.

Human Resource Management System (HRMS)

An information system for managing all interactions with current and potential employees.

Point-of-Sale (POS) system

A computer system that records all transactions at the point of sale (such as a cash register).

Press Release

An official statement to the media from the company about a specific matter.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

U.S. government agency charged with protecting investors by requiring full and truthful financial disclosure by companies.

Semi-structured Data

Data without internal organization or structure but that has tags explaining what the data represents.

Special Journal

An accounting journal where similar transactions can be recorded. For example, a sales journal records all sales for a company.

Structured Data

Highly organized data that fits nicely in a table or in a database. An Excel spreadsheet, or a balance sheet or income statement, is a good example

Subsidiary Ledger

An accounting ledger that details information on specific accounts with common characteristics. Each subsidiary ledger is associated with one and only one general ledger (G/L) account.

Unstructured Data

Data without internal organization (or structure). Blogs and social media and pictures posted in Instagram would both be examples of unstructured data.

Velocity

The speed at which data is generated or data is analyzed.

Veracity

The underlying quality of the data, as to whether the data is true or accurate or clean and is worthy of trust.

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language

The computer-based standard used to define and exchange financial information between disclosing companies (like Nike and Netflix) and financial statement users [like investors, regulators, lenders (banks and bondholders)] and other interested parties.

Audit Data Standards

A tool developed by the AICPA to provide a consistent framework for organizing and reporting financial data. Functions as a data dictionary.

Categorical Data

Data that is represented by words—such as grouping a collection of people by gender (e.g., male, female, nonbinary), or categorizing transaction types (sales vs. returns).

Data Dictionary

A centralized repository of information about data containing a separate record for each field/variable in the database.

Interval Data

(also called numerical, interval data) Numerical data measured along with a scale. Examples include a thermometer or SAT scores.

Metadata

Data about data that describes the characteristics of data to make it easier to find, use, and maintain. Captured in Data Dictionaries and Data Catalogs.

Nominal Data

(also called categorical, nominal data) Categorical data that cannot be ranked. Examples include transaction type (purchase, return).

Numerical Data

Data represented by meaningful numbers, such as transaction amount, age, or the score on an exam.

Ordinal Data

(also called categorical, ordinal data) Categorical data with natural, ranked categories (examples include letter grades [e.g., A, B, C, D, and F] and Olympic medals [e.g., gold, silver, bronze]).

Proportion

The number of observations in one category; that number is then divided by the grand total number of all available observations.

Ranking

A position on a scale.

Ratio Data

(also called numerical, ratio data) Numerical data with an equal and definitive ratio between each data point; absolute “zero” in ratio data is the point of origin.

Ratios

The numerical relation between two variables.

Structured Data

Highly organized data that fits nicely in a table or in a database. A balance sheet or income statement is a good example.

Unstructured Data

Data without internal organization (or structure). Blogs and social media or pictures posted on Instagram would both be examples of unstructured data.

Absolute Reference

A method used in Excel to lock a cell reference into place.

ex. $F$2 or $E$12

Blockchain

A decentralized database that allows users to verify and share information in real-time with an immutable audit trail.

Clean Function

A computer function that cleanses data of nonprintable characters but does not impact white space.

Checksum

A digit representing the sum of the correct digits in a piece of extracted data, used to detect errors in data extraction and transmission

Data Completeness

Occurs when data were extracted fully from their original source.

Data Integrity

Truth in data, or how the data presents the truth of the underlying transactions or events that occurred or events that occurred.

Database

Structured set of data generally held in a computer allowing access by many potential users.

Entity-relationship (ER) Diagram

Graphical representation of an information system, illustrating relationships among people, objects, places, and events within that system.

Fields (or variables)

These are the columns that contain descriptive information about the observations in the table. Specific types of fields are primary keys and foreign keys.

Foreign Key

A column (or group of columns) that exist to create relationships between two tables, linking to the primary key in another table.

Nonprintable Characters

Characters that our eyes can’t see but that the computer interprets as a part of the string. They include white spaces, page breaks, line breaks, and tabs.

NoSQL

A database capable of handling large volumes of diverse datatypes including unstructured and semi-structured data in addition to structured data.

Outlier

An extreme value in a data set.

Primary Key

A column in a relational table/database that serves as a unique identifier.

Records

Each row (or observation) corresponds to a unique instance of what is being described in the table (generally shown as rows in a table).

Relational Database

A means of storing data in order to ensure that the data are complete, not redundant, and to help enforce business rules. Relational databases are made up of tables that are related to one another, and each table contains fields and records. Relational databases also aid in communication and integration of business processes across an organization.

Relational Database Data Dictionary

A data dictionary describing each data field for each table in the relational database.

Relational Database Diagrams

Diagrams that communicate which tables are in the database, which fields are in each table, and how each table is related through primary key/foreign key placement.

Structured Query Language (SQL)

A universal database language that can be used to create, update, and delete records and tables in relational databases.

Tables

Data organized into sets of columns (fields) and rows (records).

Trim Function

A computer function that removes all white space on either side of a cell of text and within a string of text, except for single spaces between words.