Editing Stock and flow (section)

==Stocks and flows in accounting==
Thus, a stock refers to the value of an asset at a balance date (or point in time), while a flow refers to the total value of transactions (sales or purchases, incomes or expenditures) during an accounting period. If the flow value of an economic activity is divided by the average stock value during an accounting period, we obtain a measure of the number of turnovers (or rotations) of a stock in that accounting period. Some accounting entries are normally always represented as a flow (e.g. profit or income), while others may be represented both as a stock or as a flow (e.g. capital).

A person or country might have stocks of [[money]], financial [[assets]], [[liability (accounting)|liabilities]], [[Wealth (economics)|wealth]], real [[means of production]], capital, [[inventories]], and [[human capital]] (or [[labor power]]). Flow magnitudes include [[income]], [[expenditure|spending]], [[saving]], debt repayment, [[fixed investment]], [[inventory investment]], and [[labour (economics)|labor]] utilization. These differ in their units of measurement.
Capital is a stock concept which yields a periodic income which is a flow concept.