What Is the Address Verification Service (AVS)? The Address Verification Service (AVS) is a tool provided by credit card processors and issuing banks to merchants in order to detect suspicious credit card transactions and prevent credit card fraud. The AVS checks the billing address submitted by the card user with the cardholder’s billing address on
What Is Adequate Disclosure? Adequate disclosure is an accounting concept confirming that all essential information is included in financial statements for an investor or creditor to rely on when analyzing a company. Adequate disclosure refers to the ability for financial statements, footnotes, and supplemental schedules to provide a comprehensive and clear description of a company’s
What Is an Adhesion Contract? An adhesion contract is an agreement where one party has substantially more power than the other in setting the terms of the contract. For a contract of adhesion to exist, the offeror must supply a customer with standard terms and conditions that are identical to those offered to other customers. Those terms
What Is Adhocracy? Adhocracy is a form of business management that emphasizes individual initiative and self-organization in order to accomplish tasks. This is in contrast to bureaucracy which relies on a set of defined rules and set hierarchy in accomplishing organizational goals. The term was popularized by Alvin Toffler in the 1970s. Key Takeaways Adhocracy
What Is an Adjudication? An adjudication is a legal ruling or judgment, usually final, but can also refer to the process of settling a legal case or claim through the court or justice system, such as a decree in the bankruptcy process between the defendant and the creditors. Normally, an adjudication represents the final judgment
What Is an Adjunct Account? An adjunct account is an account in financial reporting that increases the book value of a liability account. An adjunct account is a valuation account from which credit balances are added to another account. The concept of an adjunct account can be contrasted with the concept of a contra account
What Is Adjustable Life Insurance? Adjustable life insurance is a hybrid of term life and whole life insurance that allows policyholders the option to adjust policy features, including the period of protection, face amount, premiums, and length of the premium payment period. Adjustable life policies also incorporate an interest-bearing savings component, known as a “cash
What Is an Adjustable Peg? An adjustable peg is an exchange rate policy in which a currency is pegged or fixed to a major currency such as the U.S. dollar or euro, but which can be readjusted to account for changing market conditions or macroeconomic trends. An example of managed currency or “dirty float”, these periodic adjustments are usually intended to
What Is the Adjusted Closing Price? The adjusted closing price amends a stock’s closing price to reflect that stock’s value after accounting for any corporate actions. It is often used when examining historical returns or doing a detailed analysis of past performance. Key Takeaways The adjusted closing price amends a stock’s closing price to reflect
What Is Adjusted Basis? Adjusted basis refers to a material change to the recorded initial cost of an asset or security after it has already been owned. Updating the original purchase cost by taking into account any increases or decreases to its value is primarily used to compute the capital gain or loss on a
