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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
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.
Financial and Managerial accounting are used for making sound financial decisions about an organization. They provide information of past quantitative financial activities and are useful in making future economic decisions. (Albrecht, Stice, Stice, & Skousen, 2002) The same financial data is used to derive reports for each accounting process yet they differ in some ways. Financial accounting primarily provides external reports for external users such as stock holders, creditors, regulating authority and others. (Garrison, Noreen, & Brewer, 2010) On the other hand Managerial accounting is concern with providing information that deals with the internal viability of the organization and is tailored to meet the needs of an individual organization. (Albrecht, Stice, Stice, & Skousen, 2002)
Balance sheet: It is often referred to as the statement of financial condition. It is a snapshot of what you have and what you owe at a given point in time. It lists all assets, liabilities and equity or net worth, with their values. The value of the assets must equal the value of the debt and the
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).
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.
“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
A balance sheet can be given at any point in time but only shows a particular date. There are two other names for a balance sheet, statement of condition or statement of financial position. The main characteristic of for the balance sheet is that it assesses liquidity. Liquidity describes the degree to which an asset or security can be quickly bought or sold in the market without affecting the asset 's price (Investopedia.com). In order to fully understand a balance sheet you must first understand the relationship of every account and the financial statements simultaneously. The balance sheet informs us that asset equals liabilities plus stockholders’ equity. Assets are items possessing service or use potential to owner (Fraser & Ormiston, 2012). Liabilities are lawful dues or obligations that organizations have while doing business. Stockholder’s equity is represents the capital obtained from investors in order to receive stock. There are two main sources that stockholders’ equity comes from and that is money and retained earnings that was accumulated over time
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
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 the financial position is also known as balance sheet has shown the accounting equation, Assests = Liabilities + Equity. The statement of the financial position shows the current assets, liabilities and equity owned by a business during an accounting period.
"The objective of financial statements is to provide information about the financial position, performance and changes in financial position of an enterprise that is useful to a wide range of users in making economic decisions."[Financial statements should be understandable, relevant, reliable and comparable. Reported assets, liabilities and equity are directly related to an organization's financial position. Reported income and expenses are directly related to an organization's financial performance.
Balance sheet-: Balance sheet is a statement at the book value of all of the assets and liabilities of a business or other organization present a particular date such as the end of the financial year. It is known as a balance sheet because it reflection accounting identity the components of the balance sheets. The balance sheet must follow the following formula: