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Governments everywhere are concerned about their people struggling financially, saving too little and not having enough money set aside for their older age. There is also insufficient oversight on the use of resources by governments and organizations, so waste and theft occurs. A solution to these issues is widely touted to be financial literacy. Immense sums of money are spent in financial literacy education each year around the world, but there is something missing as this education is clearly not as effective as it should be, as the problems continue. The root cause of financial illiteracy - accounting literacy - is not being addressed, and that's what we do.
Meanwhile, many people preparing for employment or promotion struggle to learn the accounting fundamentals that they need for business acumen. Yet recent education developments mean these can be much easier and faster to learn.
The Accounting Literacy Foundation is the international voice for accounting literacy and does two things with the support of its alliance partners:
Accounting has had a bad rap for a long time. It has been seen as an obscure and boring subject. It's had a reputation for being hard to understand and learn. People in business frequently bluff about their level of understanding of financial information and actively avoid it thereby diminishing the potential effectiveness of their decision-making.
Modern technology and educational developments have recently made learning accounting, and becoming accounting literate, easy, and fast.
One such innovative approach uses a concept map called the Color Accounting BaSIS Framework to explain accounting visually and using plain language. The concept map serves an an interface, much like the Apple Macintosh made it easy for anyone to use a computer, concept mapping makes it easy for anyone to become accounting literate. Visual metaphors and graphics make accounting concepts easier to grasp and use.
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What is accounting literacy?Accounting literacy is the ability to clearly understand and communicate financial situations and events: to tell a financial story and make decisions. It manifests as the ability to read and make sense of financial reports such as balance sheets and income statements. Accounting literate people are able to see and describe financial matters with clarity. They can think clearly about money and resources.
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Modern life is financial life. Whether it is running a household budget, saving for retirement, starting or running a business, paying for education, or investing for the future… managing our lives is in large part managing our finances.
Being accounting literate is being able to clearly see a financial situation for what it is. You may or may not like what you see, but you see it clearly. Knowing where you are situated financially is the first step to changing your financial future. In other words… To get ‘THERE’, I’d better know where's ‘HERE’. Accounting literacy allows you to be with the status quo. Being clear on where you are and what’s come before makes you more powerful to change and control your life. Clarity about the present is the starting point for changing the future. BENEFITS In all communities, accounting literacy is the first step towards financial harmony and a life that supports health, wellbeing and prosperity:
In developing communities, accounting literacy education can offer additional benefits. Accounting skills can lead to employment as a bookkeeper or accountant, and this can mean the difference between life in a shack and middle class prosperity. DIFFERENT FROM FINANCIAL LITERACY Accounting literacy and financial literacy are not the same. Accounting literacy is a precursor and catalyst of financial literacy. Financial literacy is the ability to make sound financial decisions and manage your financial affairs. Financial literacy education typically covers topics such as:
Accounting literacy comes before all of this. It deals with the elements that make up all of these issues. Being accounting literate means being clear about:
Many people’s financial woes are not due to a lack of understanding about investment products and suchlike. Rather, the root cause of people’s financial difficulties is first not being clear about the basic facts of their financial circumstances. Accounting literacy is the foundation upon which financial literacy stands. The Accounting Literacy Foundation believes that a lot of financial literacy education is less effective because it is not built on a foundation of accounting literacy. 
EASY TO ATTAIN
New developments in accounting education have made accounting literacy easy to attain. In particular, the introduction of desktop printing in the 1990s made it possible to present accounting information graphically, using logical color. The BaSIS Framework™ is a representation of the Balance Sheet and Income Statement that makes grasping accounting intuitive. The framework is available for free public use under the BY-NC-ND Creative Commons license. You can download the Framework in PDF form below. 
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Submissions
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November 13, 2020: Financial Accounting Standards Board (USA)
- Comment on the proposed Statement of Financial Concepts [download] |
Get involved
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We invite you to participate and engage with us.
Join the mission to promote accounting literacy education. We welcome your energy, talents, resources, and belief in the power of accounting literacy to set people free. Accounting Literacy Foundation Mark Robilliard, FCA - CEO Noosa, Australia Connect with us by email. Phone: +61 (0)439 836 133 © 2021 Accounting Literacy Foundation™ |