BENFORD'S LAW Definition

BENFORD'S LAW is a mathematical law that applies to any population of numbers derived from other numbers (such as the dollar amount of a sale, found by multiplying the quantity sold times the unit price). It holds that 30% of the time the first non-zero digit of this derived number will be one, and it will be a nine only 4.6% of the time. Benford's law is used by auditors to identify fictitious populations of numbers.

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CONTROLLABLE EXPENSE expenses that can be controlled or restrained by management. Some of the costs of doing business can be postponed or spread out over a longer period of time (e.g., personnel costs, travel & entertainment, marketing expense).

UNIFORM CAPITALIZATION RULES (UNICAP), in the U.S., is a method of valuing inventory for tax purposes that requires capitalization of direct costs, e.g. material and labor, and an allocable portion of indirect costs that benefit or are incurred because of production or resale activities. Certain expenses must be included in the basis of the property or in inventory costs rather than currently deducted. These costs are then recovered through depreciation or amortization or as cost of goods sold.

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