What do you call the financial statement which shows the financial performance of the business?

A financial statement isn’t just a single document. All sorts of different statements are needed to define the state of your business’s finances.

What is a financial statement?

A financial statements definition is, in the simplest sense, any document that helps show the financial state of your company. The actual items that meet this financial statements definition are generally much more specific, and each has an important role to play. Each type of financial statement will often have a knock-on effect on another type. As such, you cannot gain a full overview of a company with just one type of statement. You must consolidate the data from one statement with the data from another statement to gain a deeper understanding of your company’s financial health.

The 5 types of financial statements you need to know

There are several crucial financial statement documents that every business needs. It’s not just a matter of compliance or best practice; they are vital tools to staying on top of your figures. Here are the key documents you need to know about:

1. Income statement

Arguably the most important. A business needs to keep a very close eye on profit and money coming in, and that’s precisely what an income statement does. An income statement may also be known as a profit and loss statement, showing your businesses income and outgoings over a set period. The income statement takes revenue, losses, and expenses into account, so it can show whether your company has turned a profit or has missed its mark.

2. Cash flow statement

The cash flow statement shows how money enters and leaves your business, so you can see what you have available as working capital at a particular time. A cash flow statement is essential for showing you how quickly you could source cash if you needed it, as it doesn’t take into account things like raw materials or purchases made – but not yet paid for – on credit.

3. Balance sheet

The balance sheet displays three key things: your assets, your liabilities, and your equity. The balance sheet can show the current value of a business for the period it covers. Looking at your balance sheet can help you understand if you can meet your financial obligations.

4. Note to Financial Statements

This is a requirement of the IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) and gives greater context around the information contained in your other financial statement documents. For example, your assets may be listed in the balance sheet, but your note to financial statements document is where you will explain precisely what those assets are. The information in this document is required to ensure you are compliant with standards and regulations.

5. Statement of change in equity

This document shows the changes made to your company’s share capital, retained earnings, and accumulated reserves. For a sole trader, it shows changes to the owners equity. For a partnership, it shows the changes between both partner’s equity. In the case of a company, then the statement of change in equity shows how equity share has changed among all the shareholders.

What is the order of financial statements?

The usual order of financial statements is as follows:

1. Income statement

2. Cash flow statement

3. Statement of changes in equity

4. Balance sheet

5. Note to financial statements

This is the order in which each document is produced within your business’s accounting cycle to create a complete picture of a company’s finances.

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One of the financial statements is the balance sheet. It shows an entity's assets, liabilities, and stockholders' equity as of the report date. In this report, the total of all assets must match the combined total of all liabilities and equity. The asset information on the balance sheet is subdivided into current and long-term assets. Similarly, the liability information is subdivided into current and long-term liabilities. This stratification is useful for determining the liquidity of a business. Ideally, the total of all current liabilities should exceed the total of all current liabilities, which implies that a business has sufficient assets to pay off its current obligations. The balance sheet is also used to compare debt levels to the amount of equity invested in the business, to see if its leverage level is appropriate.

The Income Statement

Another financial statement is the income statement. It shows the results of an entity's operations and financial activities for the reporting period. It usually contains the results for either the past month or the past year, and may include several periods for comparison purposes. Its general structure is to begin with all revenues generated, from which the cost of goods sold is subtracted, and then all selling, general, and administrative expenses. The result is either a profit or loss, which is net of income taxes. This report is used to discern the ability of a business to generate a profit.

The Statement of Cash Flows

The final financial statement is the statement of cash flows. It shows changes in an entity's cash flows during the reporting period. These cash flows are divided into cash flows from operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities. The bulk of all cash flows are generally listed in the operating activities section, which state the cash inflows and outflows related to the basic operations of the business, such as from changes in receivables, inventory, and payables balances. The investing activities section contains cash flows from the purchase or sale of investment instruments, assets, or other businesses. The financing activities section contains cash flows related to the acquisition or paydown of debt, dividend issuances, stock sales, and so forth. The presented information is useful for determining the sources and uses of cash, and also indicates a firm’s financing situation.

Supplementary Notes

When financial statements are issued to outside parties, then also include supplementary notes. These notes include explanations of various activities, additional detail on some accounts, and other items as mandated by the applicable accounting framework, such as GAAP or IFRS. The level and types of detail provided will depend on the nature of the issuing entity’s business and the types of transactions in which it engaged. A reporting entity only includes the minimum mandated amount in the supplementary notes (which can still be quite extensive), because it can be quite time-consuming to produce the disclosures.

Presentation of the Financial Statements

If a business plans to issue financial statements to outside users (such as investors or lenders), the financial statements should be formatted in accordance with one of the major accounting frameworks. These frameworks allow for some leeway in how financial statements can be structured, so statements issued by different firms even in the same industry are likely to have somewhat different appearances. Financial statements that are being issued to outside parties may be audited to verify their accuracy and fairness of presentation.

If financial statements are issued strictly for internal use, there are no guidelines, other than common usage, for how the statements are to be presented. If so, the controller generally uses a format that approximates the layout used for external reporting, though it may contain some additional detail that would be considered excessive by outsiders. The additional level of detail is used by managers to monitor the business.

At the most minimal level, a business is expected to issue an income statement and balance sheet to document its monthly results and ending financial condition. The full set of financial statements is expected when a business is reporting the results for a full fiscal year, or when a publicly-held business is reporting the results of its fiscal quarters.

The statement of financial position, often called the balance sheet, is a financial statement that reports the assets, liabilities, and equity of a company on a given date. In other words, it lists the resources, obligations, and ownership details of a company on a specific day. You can think of this like a snapshot of what the company looked like at a certain time in history.

This definition is true in the sense that this statement is a historical report. It only shows the items that were present on the day of the report. This is in contrast with other financial reports like the income statement that presents company activities over a period of time. The statement of financial position only records the company account information on the last day of an accounting period.

In this sense, investors and creditors can go back in time to see what the financial position of a company was on a given date by looking at the balance sheet.

Example

Let’s take a look at a statement of financial position example.

As you can see from our example template, each balance sheet account is listed in the accounting equation order. This organization gives investors and creditors a clean and easy view of the company’s resources, debts, and economic position that can be used for financial analysis purposes.

Investors use this information to compare the company’s current performance with past performance to gauge the growth and health of the business. They also compare this information with other companies’ reports to decide where the opportune place is to invest their money.

Creditors, on the other hand, are not typically concerned with comparing companies in the sense of investment decision-making. They are more concerned with the health of a business and the company’s ability to pay its loan payments. Analyzing the leverage ratios, debt levels, and overall risk of the company gives creditors a good understanding of the risk involving in loaning a company money.

Obviously, internal management also uses the financial position statement to track and improve operations over time.

Now that we know what the purpose of this financial statement is, let’s analyze how this report is formatted in a little more detail.

Format

The statement of financial position is formatted like the accounting equation (assets = liabilities + owner’s equity). Thus, the assets are always listed first.

Assets Section

Assets are resources that the company can use to create goods or provide services and generate revenues. There are many ways to format the assets section, but the most common size balance sheet divides the assets into two sub-categories: current and non-current. The current assets include cash, accounts receivable, and inventory. These resources are typically consumed in the current period or within the next 12 months.

The non-current assets section includes resources with useful lives of more than 12 months. In other words, these assets last longer than one year and can be used to benefit the company beyond the current period. The most common non-current assets include property, plant, and equipment.

Liabilities Section

Liabilities are debt obligations that the company owes other companies, individuals, or institutions. These range from commercial loans, personal loans, or mortgages. This section is typically split into two main sub-categories to show the difference between obligations that are due in the next 12 months, current liabilities, and obligations that mature in future years, long-term liabilities.

Current debt usually includes accounts payable and accrued expenses. Both of these types of debts typically become due in less than 12 months. The long-term section includes all other debts that mature more than a year into the future like mortgages and long-term notes.

Equity Section

Equity consists of the ownership of the company. In other words, this measures their stake in the company and how much the shareholders or partners actually own. This section is displayed slightly different depending on the type of entity. For example a corporation would list the common stock, preferred stock, additional paid-in capital, treasury stock, and retained earnings. Meanwhile, a partnership would simply list the members’ capital account balances including the current earnings, contributions, and distributions.

In the world of nonprofit accounting, this section of the statement of financial position is called the net assets section because it shows the assets that the organization actually owns after all the debts have been paid off. It’s easier to understand this concept by going back to an accounting equation example. If we rearrange the accounting equation to state equity = assets – liabilities, we can see that the equity of a non-profit is equal to the assets less any outstanding liabilities.

Does the Balance Sheet always balance?

Notice that the balance sheet is always in balance. Just like the accounting equation, the assets must always equal the sum of the liabilities and owner’s equity. This makes sense when you think about it because the company has only three ways of acquiring new assets.

It can use an asset to purchase and a new one (spend cash for something else). It can also take out a loan for a new purchase (take out a mortgage to purchase a building). Lastly, it can take money from the owners for a purchase (sell stock to raise cash for an expansion). All three of these business events follow the accounting equation and the double entry accounting system where both sides of the equation are always in balance.