Small businesses have various needs for financial statements. Lenders request them, investors request them, and even you should want to know about the financial position and progress of your business. Properly prepared financial statements can be elusive, if you don’t know what is supposed to go in them in order to meet everyone’s needs. This is where we can help.
INCOME STATEMENT
An income statement, also known as a profit and loss statement, adds an itemized list of all your revenues/sales and subtracts an itemized list of all your expenses to come up with a profit or loss for the period.
BALANCE SHEET
A balance sheet gives you a snapshot of your business’ financial condition at a specific moment in time.
STATEMENT OF RETAINED EARNINGS Retained Earnings refers to the portion of net income that was not distributed to the owners of a company, but was reinvested (retained) by the business. The Statement of Retained Earnings or Statement of Retained Deficit, depending on the business performance, explains the changes in the company’s retained earnings over the reporting period.
STATEMENT OF EQUITY
Somewhat similar to the statement of retained earnings, the statement of Shareholders’, Members’ or Partners’ Equity not only includes retained earnings, but also owner investments into the company. Equity is the residual value in the assets when the debt is paid off to the creditors and when the obligations have been met.
STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS
The statement of cash flows shows the movement of cash into and out of the company. It separates these “cash flows” into three categories…cash flow from operations, cash flow from investing activities, and cash flow from investing activities.