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Importance of the income statement
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Introduction Managers within the firm, as well as the firm’s owners and lenders, keep track of the firm’s performance by reviewing its financial statements - income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows. I will discuss several items regarding these financial statements. Firstly, I will discuss the purpose of the income statement and identify the major types of expenses that are shown on the income statement. Secondly, I will discuss the purpose of the balance sheet and identify the major types of assets, including the claims of creditors and owners shown on the balance sheet. Thirdly, I will discuss the three different accounts that comprise the owners’ equity section on a corporate balance sheet. Finally, I will discuss a statement of cash flows and the three standard sections contained therein. Income Statement The income statement reports the revenues generated and …show more content…
The current assets of a business are exactly that; cash and other assets that can be obtained within a year. This is also called working capital because it can sustain the operations of a business. In addition, this current asset allocation can be in the form of marketable securities and inventories. Accounts receivable can pertain to several types of things, first and foremost it can be from the sale of products, merchandise, or services on credit. Furthermore, it can be in the form of a short-term or long-term loan made by the business owners to employees (Melicher & Norton, 2013, p. 360). Assets can also be physical in nature for a company, such as a plant building and its respective equipment. Additionally, Land is a formidable asset to have. Intangible assets such as goodwill, are considered when a company is bought out or merges with another company, especially if that gaining company has more value than the other (Melicher & Norton, 2013, p. 360). Owner’s Equity
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).
An important part of financial planning for corporations is the annual report. Publically held companies are required to submit an annual report to the SEC and private companies, even though not required, can use an annual report to gauge the performance of the company for the past year and use the report to plan for the future. The financial statements that make up an annual report are the income statement, the balance sheet, and the statement of cash flows. (Melicher, 2014) Once all of the financial information has been compiled and the three statements that make up the annual report have been completed a corporation can then start to analyze the data. There are several different categories of financial ratios
The Assets consists of: Current assets are highly liquid (cash, receivables, and inventories), Fixed assets can be capital-intensive assets which are permanent, and other assets can be intangible (patents, copyrights, and goodwill).
Each one of these reports give a detailed account of how the company is earning money, where the money is flowing, and the net profits the company is earning. These reports are an important part of the annual report and give a base account of earnings for the company along with how much cash is needed to pay off any debts accumulated over time. This analysis of each report goes into detail and gives a summary how money is distributed in the corporation as well as if the company is financially able to pay off accumulated debts (Temte, 2003). This paper will show each of these reports and how they define what decisions will be made in the future of the company in question. It will also determine what problems need to be addressed in order to fix existing problems within the corporate structure along with what plans need to be made to fix them.
This case assignment will discuss managerial accounting and different income statements a business owner may use internal to the company. Divided into two parts, part one will discuss and analyze the difference between managerial and financial accounting, the needs for financial information used for internal purposes. Additionally, it will focus on the managerial accounting profession and how its roles have changed in today’s business. Expanding on the profession, it will comment on the Certified Management Accountant (CMA) certification and how it differs from the CPA certification. Part two of this assignment
The statement displays the relationship of the net income to the changes in the cash balances. It is important to understand that cash balances can wane despite an increase in net revenue (Horngren, 2014, p. 674). The statement also aids in the evaluation of management’s use of cash and management’s generation, defining a company’s capability to pay dividends and interest to pay debts when the time comes to pay them, and forecasting upcoming cash flows (Horngren, 2014, p. 674). The balance sheet displays the status of an entity at a specific time. Contrary to the balance sheet, income statements and cash flows cover periods over time.
In analyzing the common-size balance sheet for Applebee’s, it is noted that the total current assets has jumped from 11% to 14% of the total assets. The total assets for Applebee’s has jumped 6% from 2000 to 2001 driven by increased in the total current assets of 28%. Of those 28% increase, they consisted of 88% increase in the Cash & Equivalents (increased of $10.6 millions) caused by the decreased in the Capital Stock repurchasing in 2001 by Applebee’s. The repurchase of capital stock has decreased by 31% as noted from the year-to-year percentage changes of the Statement of Cash Flow which equivalent to about $11 million dollars. The other current assets increased was from the other Current Assets category; there was an increase of 92% from 2000 to 2001. Due to the higher earnings for Applebee’s, there was an increase in income tax due. A significant component of the increase of other Current Assets was from increased in prepaid income taxes with net deferred income tax asset of $6.7 millions dollars.
In reviewing the company’s balance sheet, the current assets and liabilities were reviewed and liquidity ratios were calculated. The capital structure and the fixed and intangible asset accounting of the company were also reviewed. Off-balance sheet items such as leases and contingent liabilities were reported and noted. All of these aspects of the balance sheet were reviewed in order to do a proper analysis of the company’s balance sheet.
A consolidated financial statement can be defined as the financial statements of a parent and its subsidiaries combined to form a single economic entity (AASB 10, 2011). The entity, which acquires the other entity, is known as the parent and the entity, which has been acquired, is known as the subsidiary. Consolidation financial reports arise when one entity purchases another entity, to then form a group.
The main method used by businesses to classify assets is to split them into tangible assets, which have a separate existence from the business (examples of which would include buildings, land and machinery), and intangibles which do not. Some clear examples of intangibles include goodwill, patents, research and development expenditure and trademarks. Intangible assets are usually created within the organisation over a period of time, by the company itself, rather than acquired from an external source and are rarely sold off individually they can normally only be sold in conjunction with associated tangible assets.
Research on the Sources of Finance for a Business Firms sometimes need to raise finance for Working Capital and Capital Expenditure. Explain what each is and give examples. · Working Capital (or Revenue Expenditure) The working capital is made up of the current assets net of the current liabilities. It is vital to a business to have sufficient working capital to meet all its requirements. Many businesses have gone under, not because they were unprofitable, but because they suffered from shortages of working capital.
Maintaining a company’s financial assets is a daunting task. Cash management techniques and short-term financing provide accounting executives with the tools needed to survive the constant changes within the economy. The combination of these tools and the knowledge of the world economy will assist companies in maintaining current assets and facilitates growth.
Goodwill is an intangible asset, probably the most intangible of all intangible assets, hard to measure and even more difficult to account for. Goodwill today constitutes a much larger part of acquisition prices than it did previously, resulting in a much greater impact on financial statements.
Asset are the resources for running the business work. As a business, if get more assets it means that the business is powerful. Asset also be divided into two categories which is non-current assets and current assets. Non-current assets are long-term use for
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: