February 21, 2023
What Are Financial Statements?
Financial statements are written records that convey the business activities and the financial performance of a company. Public companies are required by law to ensure that their financial statements are audited by Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), whereas private companies are not required to do so. Audited Financial statements may be requested by lenders, investors, and government agencies.
For-profit primary financial statements include the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flow. Investors and financial analysts rely on financial data to analyze the performance of a company and make predictions about the future direction of the company’s stock price. One of the most important resources of reliable and audited financial data is the annual report, which contains the firm’s financial statements.
Understanding Financial Statements
Investors and financial analysts rely on financial data to analyze the performance of a company and make predictions about the future direction of the company’s stock price. One of the most important resources of reliable and audited financial data is the annual report, which contains the firm’s financial statements.
The financial statements are used by investors, market analysts, and creditors to evaluate a company’s financial health and earnings potential. The three major financial statement reports are the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows.
Balance Sheet
The balance sheet provides an overview of a company’s assets, liabilities, and shareholders’ equity as a snapshot in time. The date at the top of the balance sheet tells you when the snapshot was taken, which is generally the end of the reporting period. Below is a breakdown of the items in a balance sheet.
Assets
- Cash and cash equivalents are liquid assets, which may include Treasury bills and certificates of deposit.
- Accounts receivables are the amount of money owed to the company by its customers for the sale of its product and service.
- Inventory is the goods a company on hand it intends to sell as a course of business. Inventory may include finished goods, work in progress that are not yet finished, or raw materials on hand that have yet to be worked.
- Prepaid expenses are costs that have been paid in advance of when they are due. These expenses are recorded as an asset because the value of them has not yet been recognized; should the benefit not be recognized, the company would theoretically be due a refund.
- Property, plant, and equipment are capital assets owned by a company for its long-term benefit. This includes buildings used for manufacturing, and for heavy machinery used for processing raw materials.
- Investments are assets held for speculative future growth. These aren’t used in operations; they are simply held for capital appreciation.
- Trademarks, patents, goodwill, and other intangible assets can’t physically be touched but have future economic (and often long-term benefits) for the company.
Liabilities
- Accounts payable are the bills due as part of the normal course of operations of a business. This includes the utility bills, rent invoices, and obligations to buy raw materials.
- Wages payable are payments due to staff for time worked.
- Notes payable are recorded debt instruments that record official debt agreements including the payment schedule and amount.
- Dividends payable are dividends that have been declared to be awarded to shareholders but have not yet been paid.
- Long-term debt can include a variety of obligations including sinking bond funds, mortgages, or other loans that are due in their entirety in longer than one year. Note that the short-term portion of this debt is recorded as a current liability if it is paid off within one year or less.
Equity
- Equity is a company’s total assets minus its total liabilities. Equity represents the amount of money that would be returned to owners or shareholders if all of the assets were liquidated and all of the company’s debt was paid off.
- Retained earnings are the accumulated portion of a business’s profits that are not distributed as dividends to shareholders but instead are reinvested back into the business.
Income Statement
Unlike the balance sheet, the income statement covers a range of time, which can be annually, quarterly, or monthly financial statements. The income statement provides an overview of revenues, expenses, net income, and earnings per share.
Revenue
Operating revenue is the revenue earned by selling a company’s products or services. The operating revenue for an auto manufacturer would be realized through the production and sale of autos. Operating revenue is generated from the core business activities of a company.
Non-operating revenue is the income earned from non-core business activities. These revenues fall outside the primary function of the business. Some non-operating revenue examples include:
- Interest earned on cash in the bank
- Rental income from a property
- Income from strategic partnerships like royalty payment receipts
- Income from an advertisement display located on the company’s property
Other income is the revenue earned from other activities. Other income could include gains from the sale of long-term assets such as land, vehicles, or a subsidiary.
Expenses
Primary expenses are incurred during the process of earning revenue from the primary activity of the business. Expenses include the cost of goods sold (COGS), selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A), depreciation or amortization, and research and development (R&D).
Typical expenses include employee wages, sales commissions, and utilities such as electricity and transportation.
Expenses that are linked to secondary activities include interest paid on loans or debt. Losses from the sale of an asset are usually recorded as other expenses.
The main purpose of the income statement is to convey details of profitability and the financial results of business activities; however, it can be very effective in showing whether sales or revenue is increasing when compared over multiple periods.
Investors can also see how well a company’s management is controlling expenses to determine whether a company’s efforts in reducing the cost of sales might boost profits over time.
Cash Flow Statement
The cash flow statement (CFS) measures how well a company generates cash to pay its debt obligations, fund its operating expenses, and fund investments. The cash flow statement complements the balance sheet and income statement.
The CFS allows investors to understand how a company’s operations are running, where its money is coming from, and how money is being spent. The CFS also provides insight as to whether a company is on a solid financial footing.
There is no formula, per se, for calculating a cash flow statement. Instead, it contains three sections that report cash flow for the various activities for which a company uses its cash. Those three components of the CFS are listed below.
Operating Activities
The operating activities on the CFS include any sources and uses of cash from running the business and selling its products or services. Cash from operations includes any changes made in cash accounts receivable, depreciation, inventory, and accounts payable. These transactions also include wages, income tax payments, interest payments, rent, and cash receipts from the sale of a product or service.
Investing Activities
Investing activities include any sources and uses of cash from a company’s investments in the long-term future of the company. The purchase or sale of an asset, loans made to vendors or received from customers, or any payments related to a merger or acquisition is included in this category.
Also, purchases of fixed assets such as property, plant, and equipment (PPE) are included in this section. In short, changes in equipment, assets, or investments relate to cash from investing.
Financing Activities
Cash from financing activities includes the sources of cash from investors or banks, as well as the uses of cash paid to shareholders. Financing activities include debt issuance, equity issuance, stock re-purchased loans, dividends paid, and repayments of debt.
The cash flow statement reconciles the income statement with the balance sheet in three major business activities.
Limitations of Financial Statements
Although financial statements provide a wealth of information on a company, they do have limitations. The statements are open to interpretation, and as a result, investors often draw vastly different conclusions about a company’s financial performance.
A company’s debt level might be fine for one investor while another might have concerns about the level of debt for the company. When analyzing financial statements, it’s important to compare multiple periods to determine if there are any trends as well as compare the company’s results to its peers in the same industry.
Last, financial statements are only as reliable as the information being fed into the reports. Too often, it’s been documented that fraudulent financial activity or poor control oversight have led to misstated financial statements intended to mislead users. Even when analyzing audited financial statements, there is a level of trust that users must place into the validity of the report and the figures being shown.
What Are the Main Items Shown in Financial Statements?
Depending on the business entity and the industry, the line items in a financial statement will differ; however, the most common line items are revenues, costs of goods sold, taxes, cash, marketable securities, inventory, short-term debt, long-term debt, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and cash flows from investing, operating, and financing activities.
What Are the Benefits of Financial Statements?
Financial statements show how a business operates. It provides insight into how much and how a business generates revenues, what the cost of doing business is, how efficiently it manages its cash, and what its assets and liabilities are. Financial statements provide all the details on how well or poorly a company manages itself.
How Do You Read Financial Statements?
Financial statements are read in several different ways. First, financial statements can be compared to prior periods to better understand changes over time. For example, comparative income statements report what a company’s income was last year and what a company’s income is this year. Noting the year-over-year change informs users of the financial statements of a company’s health.
Financial statements are also read by comparing the results to competitors or other industry participants. By comparing financial statements to other companies, analysts can get a better sense of which companies are performing the best and which are lagging the rest of the industry.
What Is GAAP?
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is the set of rules in which United States companies must prepare their financial statements. It is the guidelines that explain how to record transactions, when to recognize revenue, and when expenses must be recognized. International companies may use a similar but different set of rules called International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
The Bottom Line
Financial statements are the ticket to external evaluation of a company’s financial performance. The balance sheet reports a company’s financial health through its liquidity and solvency, while the income statement reports a company’s profitability. A statement of cash flow ties these two together by tracking sources and uses of cash. Together, financial statements communicate how a company is doing over time and against its competitors.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Financial statements are written records that convey the business activities and the financial performance of an entity.
- The balance sheet provides an overview of assets, liabilities, and shareholders’ equity as a snapshot in time.
- The income statement primarily focuses on a company’s revenues and expenses during a particular period. Once expenses are subtracted from revenues, the statement produces a company’s profit figure called net income.
- The cash flow statement (CFS) measures how well a company generates cash to pay its debt obligations, fund its operating expenses, and fund investments.
- The statement of changes in equity records how profits are retained within a company for future growth or distributed to external parties.
