Together, financial statements communicate how a company is doing over time and against its competitors. The financial statements are used by investors, market analysts, and creditors to evaluate a company’s financial health and earnings potential. The three major financial statement reports are the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows. The balance sheet shows a company’s resources or assets, and it also shows how those assets are financed—whether through debt under liabilities or by issuing equity as shown in shareholder equity.
- The P&L statement reveals the company’s realized profits or losses for the specified period of time by comparing total revenues to the company’s total costs and expenses.
- The date at the top of the balance sheet tells you when the snapshot was taken, which is generally the end of the reporting period.
- Total liabilities is calculated as the sum of all short-term, long-term and other liabilities.
- Financial statements offer a window into the health of a company, which can be difficult to gauge using other means.
- The three main types of financial statements are the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow statement.
- A purchase or sale of an asset, loans made to vendors or received from customers, or any payments related to a merger or acquisition is included in this category.
The balance sheet is one of the key elements in the financial statements, of which the other documents are the income statement and the statement of cash flows. Offering a great deal of transparency on the company’s operating activities, the income statement is also a key driver of the company’s other two financial statements. Net income at the end of a period becomes part of the company’s stockholders’ equity as retained earnings.
Accounts Receivable
The information found on the financial statements of an organization is the foundation of corporate accounting. This data is reviewed by management, investors, and lenders for the purpose of assessing the company’s financial position. Annual reports often incorporate editorial and storytelling in the form of images, infographics, and a letter from the CEO to describe corporate activities, benchmarks, and achievements.
- In general, a liability is classified as current when there is a reasonable expectation that the liability will come due within the next year, or within the operating cycle of the business.
- The CFS allows investors to understand how a company’s operations are running, where its money is coming from, and how money is being spent.
- Some liabilities are considered off the balance sheet, meaning they do not appear on the balance sheet.
- Some of the most common include asset turnover, the quick ratio, receivables turnover, days to sales, debt to assets, and debt to equity.
- In the example below, ExxonMobil has over $2 billion of net unrecognized income.
- A brief review of Apple’s assets shows that their cash on hand decreased, yet their non-current assets increased.
A balance sheet covers a company’s assets as defined by its liabilities and shareholder equity. The balance sheet and the profit and loss (P&L) statement are two of the three financial statements companies issue regularly. Such statements provide an ongoing record of a company’s financial condition what is fund flow investing definitions and are used by creditors, market analysts and investors to evaluate a company’s financial soundness and growth potential. The balance sheet is only one part of a company’s consolidated financial statements. However, it gives you a sense of how healthy a business is at an exact moment in time.
Financial Statement Essentials
In this balance sheet, accounts are listed from least liquid to most liquid (or how quickly they can be converted into cash). Financial statements are also read by comparing the results to competitors or other industry participants. By comparing financial statements to other companies, analysts can get a better sense of which companies are performing the best and which are lagging behind the rest of the industry. When analyzing financial statements, it’s important to compare multiple periods to determine if there are any trends as well as compare the company’s results to its peers in the same industry. Instead, it contains three sections that report cash flow for the various activities for which a company uses its cash.
Shareholder’s Equity/Owner’s Equity
Below is a portion of ExxonMobil Corporation’s (XOM) balance sheet for fiscal year 2021, reported as of Dec. 31, 2021. A balance sheet is a financial document that you should work on calculating regularly. If there are discrepancies, that means you’re missing important information for putting together the balance sheet. This account includes the amortized amount of any bonds the company has issued. This includes leasing agreements for assets such as real estate, equipment or vehicles, which may run for many years. This refers to dividends declared by a company’s board of directors but that haven’t yet been paid to shareholders.
Additional Resources
Pay attention to the balance sheet’s footnotes in order to determine which systems are being used in their accounting and to look out for red flags. Regardless of the size of a company or industry in which it operates, there are many benefits of reading, analyzing, and understanding its balance sheet. A balance sheet is a snapshot in time rather than a representation of long-term fiscal trends. However, comparing your balance sheet with previous ones can help you parse those long-term trends and results as well. Primary expenses are incurred during the process of earning revenue from the primary activity of the business. Expenses include the cost of goods sold (COGS), selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A), depreciation or amortization, and research and development (R&D).
Accounting basics: terms, statements & steps to get started
Financing activities detail cash flow from both debt and equity financing. On the right side, the balance sheet outlines the company’s liabilities and shareholders’ equity. In this way, the balance sheet shows how the resources controlled by the business (assets) are financed by debt (liabilities) or shareholder investments (equity). Investors and creditors generally look at the statement of financial position for insight as to how efficiently a company can use its resources and how effectively it can finance them. You can use a balance sheet to understand your company’s current financial position, make informed decisions, and pinpoint ways you can improve your company’s financial health.
Nonprofit entities use a similar but different set of financial statements. This balance sheet also reports Apple’s liabilities and equity, each with its own section in the lower half of the report. The liabilities section is broken out similarly as the assets section, with current liabilities and non-current liabilities reporting balances by account. The total shareholder’s equity section reports common stock value, retained earnings, and accumulated other comprehensive income.
Although financial statements provide a wealth of information on a company, they do have limitations. The statements are open to interpretation, and as a result, investors often draw vastly different conclusions about a company’s financial performance. The operating activities on the CFS include any sources and uses of cash from running the business and selling its products or services. Cash from operations includes any changes made in cash accounts receivable, depreciation, inventory, and accounts payable. These transactions also include wages, income tax payments, interest payments, rent, and cash receipts from the sale of a product or service. The rules used by U.S. companies is called Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, while the rules often used by international companies is International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
A company’s balance sheet is one of the most important financial statements it produces—typically on a quarterly or even monthly basis (depending on the frequency of reporting). The cash flow statement reconciles the income statement with the balance sheet in three major business activities. Cash from financing activities includes the sources of cash from investors or banks, as well as the uses of cash paid to shareholders. Financing activities include debt issuance, equity issuance, stock repurchases, loans, dividends paid, and repayments of debt. This account includes the total amount of long-term debt (excluding the current portion, if that account is present under current liabilities).
If you are new to HBS Online, you will be required to set up an account before starting an application for the program of your choice. Are you interested in gaining a toolkit for making smarter financial decisions and communicating decisions to key stakeholders? Explore our online finance and accounting courses, and download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals. An annual report is a publication that public corporations are required to publish annually to shareholders to describe their operational and financial conditions. As you can see, the report format is a little bit easier to read and understand.
The format of the balance sheet is not mandated by accounting standards, but rather by customary usage. The vertical format is easier to use when information is being presented for multiple periods. Balance sheets are one of the most critical financial statements, offering a quick snapshot of the financial health of a company.
