Financial Statements Paper

The main purpose of the financial statements is to provide creditors and investors with a summary of a business financial activity. All statements are prepared at certain times throughout the year. The balance sheet reports liabilities, assets, and owner equity of the company. The income statement matches incurred expenses during a period of generated revenue. The statement of retained earnings reports retained earnings from net loss and net incomes from

investors, auditors, executives of the business, etc.) an overview of the financial results and condition of the company. The major financial statements that come out of the accounting cycle are income statements, balance sheets, Statement of cash flows and Statement of retained earnings. Income statements are considered the most important of all the financial statements since it presents the operating results of an entity , e.g. revenues, expenses, and profits/losses generated during the reporting period (Bragg, 2017). Balance sheets provide reports of assets, liabilities, and equity of the entity as of the reporting date and can be considered the second most important statement because it provides information/figures about the liquidity, as well as the capitalization of a company (Bragg, 2017). Statement of cash flows exhibits the cash inflows and outflows that occur during a reporting period, which provides a useful comparison to the income statement, particularly when the amount of profit or loss reported does not reflect cash flows encountered by the businesses (Bragg, 2017). Statement of retained earnings is the least used financial statement that provides information regarding changes in equity during the reporting period and can include information such as: sale or repurchase of stock, dividend payments, and changes caused by reported profits or losses. Statements of retained earnings are often

There are four major financial statements that investors, creditors, accountants, CEO’s, and the like study when looking at the 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

* 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

Retained Earnings Statement shows amounts and causes of changes in retained earnings during the period. Time period is the same as that covered by the income statement. Users can evaluate dividend payment practices. This statement shows the changes in the shareholders’ equity account. The first line item is the beginning balance for common stock. The amount of newly issued common stock is added to the

Retained earnings represent the amount a company has left after it has paid all its expenses, taxes, and dividends. A company can return all the cash it has left after it has taken care of its obligations, but that would handicap its efforts to expand operations, make

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.

Each user of the financial statements interprets the information in a different manor. They use the information to determine their interactions with the organization. Management, investors, and employees use the same information from the financial statements but for different purposes. These four basic statements are the fundamentals of accounting which can be much more detail and complex. They do not need to be more complex for the users of the information; these basic statements have all the information needed to make

This essay will begin to look at the main financial statements used by decision makers in businesses today. This essay will go into detail about the income statement and statement of financial position and whether these two statements provide decision makers with their financial information adequately. This essay will also include the various advantages and disadvantages of each financial statement as well as describing whom the decision makers are and why financial statements are important to them. A conclusion will be present at the end of this essay to demonstrate an overall view of whether financial statements are beneficial to decision makers.

The income statement is one of the major financial statements used by accountants and business owners. The income statement is sometimes called profit and loss statement, statement of operations or statement of income. It is important because it shows the profitability of a company during the time interval specified on the heading. The income statement shows revenues, expenses, gains, and losses; it does not show cash receipts nor cash disbursements. People pay attention to the profitability of a company for many reasons, and the income statement helps in doing this in that it helps current lenders and investors, company management, competitors, government agencies, labor union, and others. The expense items located on the income statement appear under five major categories

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.

An income statement can be the first step in organizing a business. The main reason a business maintains and monitors an income statement is to determine the profit and losses the company as occurred during a set period of time. The income statement is vital to any business to make sure there are checks and balances during a set period of time. The income statement is composed of income or revenue that the company as either generated or spent and is an indicator how the company is doing

Financial statements are very important to businesses. These statements show the basic health of the business. We can use the data from the statements to evaluate a company’s track record, present status, and future financial direction. Financial statements are used both internally and externally. Internally, business use these statements to control their finance. Externally, these statements are viewed by investors who want to invest in the business or creditors who might possibly provide the business with financial capital.

The financial statements are very useful to all this group of user. Explain each of them;