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Usefulness of financial statements
Usefulness of financial statements
Chapter 1 introduction to financial statements
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Introduction This test is about an informational presentation to a group of small business owners with no accounting or financial knowledge. It is a report that identify the audiences, purposes, and natures of financial statements and managerial reports. In addition, it will explain the use of financial accounting information in making informed and ethical business decisions. Audiences, Purposes, and Natures of Financial Statements Prior to decide the audience, purpose, and natures of financial statement, it becomes necessary the definition of the words. Financial statements are reports that show where the money is, where it comes from, where it goes, and where is now. It can be divided in four categories: Balance Sheets, Income Statements, Cash Flow Statements, and Statements of Shareholder’s Equity. These reports will be finding in the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and as a public record, if the business is a public business. Private business will send those reports to owners and lenders of that business. The objective of Financial Statement is to give the audience information about a company’s performance and financial position. They need to be reliable, comparable, relevant, and understandable to the audience. The audience must be willing diligently to study the information provided in the statements. Balance sheets provide detailed information about assets, liabilities, and shareholder’s equity of a company. Assets are everything that a company owns that have worth-physical property, trademarks, patents, cash and investments. Liability is everything that the company owes, like rent, loans, money owed to suppliers, payroll, or taxes. Shareholder’s equity is the capital or net worth, or the money left over after the sale of all assets and the payment of all debts. Income Statements are the reports of profits in a specific period, like quarterly, annually or monthly. It is all that rest after subtracted all costs. Managers and board of directors use them to determine the direction of the company. They are internal or external, and the internal is always more detailed and expansive than the external. Managerial accounting prepares internal financial statements to help managers plan, make decisions, and control business functions. Normally, these reports are confidential and not shared outside of the company. Cash flow Statements report operating, which is an analysis of the cash flow from income or losses, investing, that reflect purchase or sales of assets, and financing activities of a company, which shows how monies come into a company, as sale of stocks or bonds, or out, as repayments of loans.
Balance sheet lists assets, liabilities and owner’s equity. The assets listed on the balance sheet are acquired either by debt (liabilities) or equity. “Companies that use more debt than equity to finance assets have a high leverage ratio and an aggressive capital structure. A company that pays for assets with more equity than debt has a low leverage ratio and a conservative capital structure. That said, a high leverage ratio and/or an aggressive capital structure can also lead
The objective of financial reporting/statements is to provide information about the reporting entity’s financial performance and financial position that is useful to a wide range of users for assessing the stewardship of the entity’s management and for making economic decisions.
A strong balance sheet gives an investor an idea of how financially stable the company really is. Many professionals consider the top line, or cash, the most important item on a company’s balance sheet. The big three categories on any balance sheet are “assets, liabilities, and shareholder equity.” Evaluating Barnes & Noble’s assets for the time 2014 at $3,537,449, 2013 at $3,732,536 and 2012 at $3,774,699, the company’s performance summarizes that it is remaining stable. These numbers reflect a steady rate over the three year period. Like assets, liabilities are current or noncurrent. Current liabilities are obligations due within a year. Key investors look for companies with fewer liabilities than assets. Analyzing this type of important information, informs a potential investor that if the company owes more money than they are bringing in that this company is in financial trouble. Assessing the liabilities of the balance sheet, for the same time period, it is also consistent with the assets. The cash flow demonstrates a stable performance in the company’s assets and would be determined that the liabilities of this company are also stable. Equity is equal to assets minus liabilities, and it represents how much the company’s shareholders actually have a claim to. Investors customarily observe closely
Cash flow: The cash flow statement shows in details the sources and uses of cash and classifying them from operating, investing or financing activities. It is useful as it shows how well one is creating liquidity as well as net income. Examples of cash flows may include receiving repayment of money loaned out, repaying money borrowed or using money to buy or sell an asset.
... and managerial accounting is the types of reports prepared. Internal reports are tailored to meet the need of management and may vary from business to business. External reports however, follow certain standards and guidelines and are thus more uniformed among companies. (Albrecht, Stice, Stice, & Skousen, 2002) No government regulator or auditor is going to insist that a company implement a good management accounting system. (Garrison, Noreen, & Brewer, 2010) The choice of how to collect and utilize information in a company is strictly management’s decision and is a part of the company’s competitive strategy.
In other words the cash flow statements informs investors where money is coming as well as going; making sure everything is accounted for. The terminology used in book referred to it as the inflows and outflows. The cash flow statements can be provided yearly or quarterly. After observing an example of a statement, I noticed that cash flow statements are separated by financing, operating, and investing activities. Cash flow statements are very similar to a balance sheet. The only difference is that the cash flow statements displays the variations or fluctuations in the balance sheets between periods. That’s the basic principle of cash flow statements. The change in cash between periods is explained by the changes in all of the other balance sheet accounts, and each balance sheet account is related either to an operating activity, an investing activity, or a financing activity (Fraser & Ormiston, 2012). The four parts of a statement of cash flows are cash, operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities. From my research and studies, cash flow statements characteristics are sales and expenses or inflows and outflows. Some examples of inflows or sales are cash sales and credit sales. Some examples of outflows or expenses are operating costs and
On the other hand, managerial accounting is category of accounting that provides special purpose statements, and it reports to management and other persons inside the
According to the conceptual framework, the potential users of financial statements are investors, creditors, suppliers, employees, customers, governments and agencies, and the general public (Financial Accounting Standards Board, 2006). The primary users are investors, creditors, and those who advise them. It goes on to define the criteria that make up each potential user, as well as, the limitations of financial reporting. The FASB explicitly states that financial reporting is “but one source of information needed by those who make investment, credit, and similar resource allocation decisions. Users also need to consider pertinent information from other sources, and be aware of the characteristics and limitations of the information in them” (Financial Accounting Standards Board, 2006). With this in mind, it is still particularly difficult to determine whom the financials should be catered towards and what level of prudence is necessary for quality judgment.
“A balance sheet is a financial statement that summarizes a company 's assets, liabilities and shareholders ' equity at a specific point in time. These three balance sheet segments give investors
The Purpose of Financial Statements The financial statements of a business are used to provide information about the status of the business, set performance targets and impose restrictions on the managers of the firm as well as provide an easier method for financial planning. The financial statements consist of the Profit and Loss Account, Balance Sheet and the Cash Flow Statement. There are four areas of information, which we can collect from a company's financial statements. They are: Ÿ Profitability - This information comes from the Profit and Loss account. Were we can compare this year's profit with the previous years.
The statement of cash flows reports a firm’s major cash inflows and outflows for a period. This statement provides useful information about a company’s ability to generate cash from operations, maintain and expand its operating capacity, meeting its financial obligations, and pay dividends. There are three types of activities to look at in this statement, which are cash flows from operating activities, investing activities, and financial activities (3, 2005).
The statement of profit or loss is also known as income statement and it’s equation is revenue minus expenses equals profit or loss. The statement of profit or loss summarize the revenues and expenses of a business and also shown the ability of a business to generated business. The total profit or loss that generated in an organization during an accounting period can be seen through the income statement. For example, if the expenses of the company are higher than revenues, the company will get a loss in the business. However, the company will generate a profit when the revenues are greater than the
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.
Cash flow statements provide essential information to company owners, shareholders and investors and provide an overview of the status of cash flow at a given point in time. Cash flow management is an ongoing process that ties the forecasting of cash flow to strategic goals and objectives of an organization. The measurement of cash flow can be used for calculating other parameters that give information on a company 's value, liquidity or solvency, and situation. Without positive cash flow, a company cannot meet its financial obligations.
Owners and managers require financial statements to make important business decisions that affect its continued operations. Financial analysis is then performed on these statements to provide management with a more detailed understanding of the figures. These statements are also used as part of management's annual report to the stockholders.