Acc280 Week 4 Financial Statement Analysis

630 Words3 Pages
Financial Statements ACC280 Name March 11, 2010 Instructor Financial Statements Accounting is used to track an organization’s funds as well as organize the financial data for users to analyze. Financial statements are the key to understanding an organizations financial well-being. It presents the organization’s historical and potential financial performance that will assist the organization in making informed decisions. The four basic financial statements are in an organization’s annual report. Each of the four statements provides important organizational financial data for any user internal or external to analyze. When preparing financial statements they need to be…show more content…
Those financial statements are income statement, retained earnings statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement (Weygandt, 2008). The income statements show operations results of the revenues, expenses, net profit, or net loss for the accounting period. The information obtained from the retained earnings statement listing the revenue followed by the expenses is used to prepare it. The income statement reflects the organization’s success through its profits. The retained earnings statement reconciles the beginning and ending balances of the retained earnings. Some organizations sometimes combine it with the income statement. The final amount of the retained earnings is the ending balance, which indicates why the earnings may have increased or decreased for that period. If there is a net loss, the loss is deducted from the dividends in the retained earnings (Weygandt, 2008). As for the balance sheet, it shows the assets, liabilities, and stockholder’s equity for a specified date. The balance sheet reflects the organization’s financial position. The total assets within the balance sheet must equal the total liabilities and stockholder equity. The statement of cash flow states the cash inflows as well as outflows from the operating, financing, and investing transactions during a specific period. It reports the organization’s beginning and ending cash, investing and financing
Open Document