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Analysis of financial statement
Financial statements
Four basic financial statements quizlet
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Recommended: Analysis of financial statement
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
A financial statement (or financial report) is a formal record of all the financial actions/activities and the position of a business venture, person, or any other entity. Pertinent fiscal information is presented in a very systematic and structured manner and in a form that is easy to comprehend. Data that are recorded in the financial statements are affected by Accounting Principles, Accounting Concepts and Conventions, Recorded facts and Personal Judgments. The essential qualities of any Financial Statements are-
• Relevance
• Understandability
• Reliability and Accuracy
• Comparability
• Completeness
• Timeliness
A typical financial statement includes the following accompanied by a management discussion and analysis.
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Tools for Financial Statement Analysis-
i. Comparative Statement: A comparative statement is a financial document that evaluates and compares a specific financial statement with statements from earlier period or with the same financial information produced by another company or same company. There are two types of comparative statements i.e. comparative income statement analysis and comparative balance sheet analysis. ii. Common Size Statement: Common size statements are financial documents in which individual figures of each item are converted into %ages considering a common base. The %age of each of these individual items show their relation to their respective total. Such type of analysis is also called Vertical Analysis. It is because each of the accounting variables are analyzed vertically. These statements may be prepared for income statements as well as balance sheets. A common size balance sheet is a statement in which the total of liabilities or assets is taken as 100 and all numbers/data is expressed in %age of the
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comparative statements, common size statements and trend analysis. For large corporations, these statements may be complex and may include an extensive set of footnotes to the financial statements and management discussion and analysis. The notes typically describe each item on the balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement in further detail. Notes to financial statements are considered an integral part of the financial statements. In the following project I'll only be taking the taking balance sheet and profit and loss accounts of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. for this
Financial Accounting is ‘Asset valuation, accounting record completeness and accuracy, accounting estimates, reporting transparency, fair value accounting issues, convergence of accounting standards, evolution of accounting standards, audit efficiency and effectiveness’, as suggested by Accounting Dictionary (2014).
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.
Financial statement analysis: theory, application and interpretation / Leopold A Bernstein and John J. Wild 6th edition Mc Graw Hill 1998
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 stockholder’s equity (what is left over for the owners) (Fundamentals of Financial Accounting, 2006, p.7). The Income Statement shows whether a business made a profit (net income) during a specific period of time (Fundamentals of Financial Accounting, 2006, p. 10). The Statement of Retained Earnings illustrates what portions of the company’s earnings was paid to stockholders and retained by the company for future operations (Fundamentals of Financial Accounting, 2006, p.12). Finally, the Statement of Cash Flows reports summarizes how a business’ “operating, investing, and financial activities caused its cash balance to change over a particular range of time” (Fundamentals of Financial Accounting, 2006, p.13).
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.
The collection of these three financial statements identifies the financial position of the corporation to help identify the way forward financially for the company. Once all of the data has been collected for the annual reporting the corporation can analyze the data through the different financial ratios including the liquidity ratio, the asset management ratio, and the profitability ratio.
Assessment of a Statement Niccollo Machiavelli, born on May 3, 1469, lived during a period of
There are four financial statements which are the income statement, statement of owner’s equity, balance sheet, and the statement of cash flows.
Financial accounting is the analysis, classification, and recording of financial transactions and reporting such information to respective users especially external users who use the information to make decisions about their engagements with the entity. In financial accounting general purpose financial statements are used for external reporting. The public by standards imposes the development of the statements through respective national professional bodies, International Accounting Standards Board and respective company Acts for various nations.
According to the common size analysis, for instance in 2015, the cash & cash equivalent is a major component of the balance sheet; since it represents 30.81% of total assets, which influence positively on the liquidity of
Jones, Allen N. "Financial Statements: When Properly Read, They Share a Wealth of Information." Memphis Business Journal. February 5, 1996.
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.
Financial statements provide an overview of a business' financial condition in both short and long term. They help in understanding the past performance of the company and making future predictions about the company. It thus helps us to look beyond the profit figures.
Balance sheets are very important for parties like suppliers, investors, competitors, customers, etc. to know the company’s position, company’s strength and company’s weaknesses. Balance sheets helps to ascertain the amount of capital employed in the business so that we can further calculate different types of ratios. Some important objectives of preparing balance sheets are:
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.