Keeping Track of It All: Week Five Responses Discussing the Tools to Judge a Business’ Financial Health
Introduction
Among the tools required for every business to survive and thrive, the ability to maintain a regular self-examination holds an indispensable place. The size of the business in question is almost of no consequence, only the potential complexity of the self-examination changes. A prime tool for such self-examinations is the family of related financial reporting that has become nearly universal in western businesses: the income statement, the balance sheet, and the statement of cash flows. This trio of reports enables management and owners to carefully examine the holdings and liabilities of their business so they may make
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Income statements generally report on a period matching the standard accounting periods of the business, or may cover a specific period as defined for research purposes. At the core, the income statement provides a key measure of the profitability of a business. This differs from the liquidity or cash on hand of a business, but instead examines the business’ ability to bring in revenues that exceed expenses over a given period of time (Hofstrand, 2009). The income statement generally covers standard categories of revenues and expenses, as well as industry specific categories or sub-categories that hold little utility outside the specific business area. Commonly listed major expenses cover a variety of costs common to nearly all businesses functioning in a country with an established government and rule of law. Costs of goods sold account for the cost of manufacturing or acquiring goods to sell. Selling, general, and administrative expenses cover everything from management costs to staffing compensation to the infrastructure required to move goods to a point where consumers may purchase them. This category also includes expenses such as employee training. Interest expense accounts for any interest payments the business must make to satisfy outside financing arrangements, such as servicing previously issued bonds. Tax burdens make up the last commonly found major expense on the income statement, including national, state, and local taxes.
The Balance Sheet: A Moment Out
An income statement, also known as a profit and loss statement shows how much money a company has spent over a period of time. It also shows the costs and expenses that are associated with earning that revenue. It is an important measure of the company’s profitability. The simple building blocks of a net income formula are revenues minus expenses equal net income.
In accounting there is much to be learned, about the financial aspects of a business. In the past five weeks I have learned the importance of financial reports and how they relate to the success of an establishment. These reports may include balance sheets and income statements, which help accountants and the public grasp the overall financial condition of a company. The information in these reports is really significant to, managers, owners, employees, and investors. Managers of a business can take and deduce financial
When you’re looking at the income statement, you can get information about profitability for a particular period. This is also called the profit and loss statement. The income statement is composed of both income and expenses. This statement can be used to deduct expenses from income and report either a net profit or net loss for that period. This statement will deduct all expenses from income and then report your net profit or net loss for that period. This will allow the business owner to determine if the business is bringing in a good amount of revenue to make a profit. The cash flow statement shows the movement in cash and balance over period. The cash flow can vary depending on the operating activities, investing and financing activities. This statement provides one business owner with insight to the company’s liquidity which is vital to the growth of the business. Reinvesting in business is very important, looking at the statement of retained earnings will tell a business owner how much were reinvested in the company. After profitable period, every big business has to give some of its profits to stockholders, and keep the rest amount as retained earnings. Out of all statements, retaining statement is important to companies that sells stocks to the public. This statement can also provide you with assets and liabilities information. These informations can be used to assess the financial health of your business. The results of a balance sheet will help the business owners to show the risk of liquidity and credit. Looking at these information you can measure trends and relationships to show where in the areas you can improve. These can also be compared to similar companies to show how the business measures up to leading competitors (Ali, 2010). In summary, the financial statements can provide a business owner
a.) The income statement, also called the profit & loss account (P & L), is used to illustrate a company’s revenues and expenses over a particular period of time. It shows the net profit and/or loss for the given period (the difference between the business’ total income and its total costs). It also allows shareholders to see the performance of the business and if it has made an acceptable profit.
* An income statement is a report that contains information in regards to an organizations’ assets and financing in order to obtain those assets that is collected over a certain period of time
You can track key business metrics like total and outstanding invoices, email subscribers, online impressions, and total bookings to pinpoint what’s working and what’s not, so you can get the most out of your time.
The purpose of this paper is to define accounting, and identify the four basic financial statements. The paper also explains how the different financial statements are interrelated to each other and why they are useful to managers, investors, creditors, and employees.
The balance sheet (BS) is significant to a business due to its ability to provide a “snapshot” of a company’s assets and liabilities at any given time. This financial document is a cursory representation of a business’s health. The use of comparative BS whether it be yearly, quarterly, or monthly provides the interested parties a tool to observe trends that are positive, negative, or neutral to a company’s financial health (Finkler, Jones, and Koyner,2013) .
Understanding the finances of a company is important but knowing the significance of the financial statements is crucial to the operations as well. Reviewing the statement of financial position, operating statement and statement of cash flows serve as a guidance to management and executives on the day-to-day activities of an organization (Finkler et al., 2013). For example, the statement of financial position (balance sheet) shows the assets and
This Income Statement also known as the Earnings Statements or statement of operation, is one of the four Financial Statement used by accountants, business owner’s, and investors. The Income Statement provides a detailed look into how profitable a business has been over a designated period of time.
According to Hermanson, R., Maher, M., & Edwards, J. by definition an income statement “is a financial statement that shows cases a companies’ profitability during a set period”. How that profitability is measure is by comparing the revenues earned with the expenses incurred to produce these revenues. If the production of these revenues exceed the expenses that they incurred than the company has gained a net income and if the expenses incur were to exceed the revenue than the company has suffered a net loss.
Financial statement users around the globe use financial statements to evaluate the performance of companies (Fundamentals of Financial Accounting, 2006). In order to locate a company’s reported assets, liabilities, expenses and revenues, statement users rely on four types of financial statements. The four financial statements include: Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Statement of Retained Earnings, and Statement of Cash Flows (Fundamentals of Financial Accounting, 2006, p. 6). Each of these reports provides different information to the financial statement user. The Balance Sheet reports at a point in time: a company’s assets (what it owns), liabilities (what it owes) and
The health of any organization or firm is dependent upon the numbers associated with it. These include the firm 's income statement, balance sheet, statement of cash flows, and ratio analysis. For any investor, lender, or owner to have a full picture of the performance of any entity, it is imperative that they have an in depth knowledge of the construction of values associated with individual line items described and detailed in these documents. In addition, the overall health of the organization can be determined by the reflection of said numbers. In short, these documents make up the nutrition label of the specific company (U.S. Security and Exchange Commission, 2007).
The income statement is a rather important financial statement. The income statement shows the revenues and expenses for a company over a period of time (Melicher & Norton, 2013). The main sections of an income statement will include the gross profit, operating income, income before taxes, and net income. The gross profit is the revenue minus the cost of the goods sold. To figure out the operating income, various expenses and possibly depreciation need to be factored in. After interest expenses are taken out to get the income, then taxes need taken out to figure out the net income (Melicher & Norton, 2013). For an annual report (or whatever the frequency is that the firm does i.e. quarterly or semiannually), companies will also include the per-share income as well.
Income statement-: Income statement is the financial statement that measures a company 's financial performance over a specific accounting period. Financial performance is assessed by giving a summary of how the business incurs its revenues and expenses through both operating and non-operating activities.t (Wikipedia2015, May 13)