Landed Costs: The total costs involved when importing goods. They include buying, shipping, insuring and associated taxes.

Lapping: A procedure used to conceal the theft of cash by crediting the payment from one customer to another customer's account on a delayed basis.

Lapse: As applied to appropriations, the automatic termination of an appropriation. At the end of this period, any unexpended or unencumbered balance thereof lapses, unless otherwise provided by law.

Ledger: A book of accounts in which data from transactions recorded in journals are posted and thereby classified and summarized.

Lease: A contract that specifies the terms under which the owner of an asset (the lessor) agrees to transfer the right to use the asset to another party (the lessee).

Lessee: The party that is granted the right to use property under the terms of a lease.

Lessor: The owner of property that is rented (leased) to another party.

Leasehold: The right to the use of real estate by virtue of a lease; usually for a specified term of years, for which consideration is paid.

Legal Capital: The amount of contributed capital not available for dividends; usually equal to the par or stated value of outstanding capital stock.

Liabilities: Obligations measurable in monetary terms that represent amounts owed to creditors, governments, employees, and other parties. Liabilities are included on the right hand side of the balance sheet and normally consist of accounts which have a credit balance.

License: The right to perform certain activities, generally granted by a governmental agency.

LIFO (last-in, first-out): An inventory cost flow whereby the last goods purchased are assumed to be the first goods sold so that the ending inventory consists of the first goods purchased.

Limited Liability: The legal protection given stockholders whereby they are responsible for the debts and obligations of a corporation only to the extent of their capital contributions.

Line Item: In budget terminology, a line item is a detail in the budget. It refers to the things to be acquired not the results to be achieved.

Liquidation: The process of dissolving a business by selling the assets, paying the debts, and distributing the remaining equity to the owners.

Liquidity: A company's ability to meet current obligations with cash or other assets that can be quickly converted to cash.

Local Area Network (LAN): LANs allow many computers and computer associated devices (e.g., printers) to be shared and access by a group of people. Often the LAN will have one main computer (sometimes called the server) with many smaller computers accessing applications and data from the main computer.

Long-Term Budget: A budget prepared for a period longer than a fiscal year. Long-term budgets concerned with capital outlay plans and capital improvement programs are referred to as capital budgets.

Long-Term Investment: An expenditure to acquire a non-operating asset that is expected to increase in value or generate income for longer than 1 year.

Long-Term Liabilities (debt): These usually refer to long term loans (e.g. a loan which lasts for more than one year such as a mortgage).

Loss per Share: The amount of net loss related to each share of stock; computed by dividing net loss by a number of shares of common stock outstanding during the period.

Losses: Costs that provide no benefit to an organization.

LCM (lower cost or market): A basis for valuing certain assets at the lower of original cost or current market value.