The Income|Outcome^® Contextuary

This contextuary contains our simple, generic explanations of common corporate financial terminology. Actual meanings can vary widely (and wildly!) from country to country, company to company, even department to department.

one example is Debt; here are 2 different definitions:

1. In published Financial Statements, Debt refers to Interest-bearing liabilities such as Loans. It does not include non-interest bearing liabilities such as Payables and Pensions.
2. In the Debt-to-Equity ratio, Debt refers to the total Liabilities listed on the Balance Sheet . It includes both interest-bearing and non-interest bearing liabilities.

Other definitions are also possible. In order to have the correct internal definition you need to ask your Finance Department, “What do you mean by that?”.