Glossary terms starting with W

W-2 Form

Form W-2, the Wage and Tax Statement, reports an employee's wages and the taxes withheld from them for the year.

W-4 Form

Form W-4, the Employee's Withholding Certificate, is the form an employee completes so that the employer can withhold the correct federal income tax from their pay.

WIP Aging Report

A WIP aging report shows unbilled work in process organized by how long it has remained unbilled, typically in aging buckets like current, 31 to 60 days, 61 to 90 days, and over 90 days.

WIP Report

A WIP report, or work in progress report, shows unbilled time and expenses on active client engagements.

Wire fee

A wire fee is the charge your bank assesses for sending or receiving wire transfers.

Work in Progress (WIP)

In a professional service firm, work in progress is the value of work already performed but not yet billed.

Working capital

Working capital is the difference between your current assets (cash, accounts receivable, inventory) and current liabilities (accounts payable, credit cards, current portion of loans).

Working Capital Adjustment

A working capital adjustment is an M&A mechanism that adjusts the purchase price based on the target company's net working capital at closing, compared to a negotiated target or peg.

Working Capital Management

Working capital management involves optimizing the balance between current assets (cash and receivables) and current liabilities (payables and accrued expenses) to ensure sufficient liquidity for operations while minimizing idle capital.

Write-Down

A write-down reduces the value of unbilled work in process before invoicing the client, typically when billed time exceeds a reasonable value for the deliverable, or when inefficiencies occurred that should not be passed to the client.

Write-Off

A write-off is the accounting action of removing an uncollectible receivable from the books and recognizing it as bad debt expense.

Write-Up Services

Write-up services are accounting services where a bookkeeper or accountant reconstructs financial records from source documents, bank statements, and other data when the client has not maintained current books.