Importance of Balance Sheet and Income Statement to External Users

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Accounting is regarded as the language of business. Who are the users of the language and what do they look for and why do they look for these things? “These readers may be credit grantors, such as banks and other creditors, bondholders, and debenture holders, or preferred stockholders, common stockholder, and prospective investors” (Payne, 1933). The preparations of the balance sheet and income statement is an integral part of communicating the business transactions of an organization. “Those versed in accounting knows that both the balance sheet and income statement are needed in order reasonably to appraise the financial condition of an enterprise at any given moment (Tilly, 1948). Analyzing Financial Health Using Ratios Financial statements can be clarified and quantified by computating financial ratios and comparing them to industry averages and trends (Evans, 1993). Liquidity ratios, asset management ratios, debt ratios, profitability ratios and market value ratios gives investors, creditors, and stakeholders informative information on the status and potential of an organization. Liquidity Ratios Liquidity ratios are derived from the financial information from the balance sheet. Current ratio measures the amount of current assets compared to current liabilities. The ideal situation is having a two to one ratio where every dollar in current liability is covered by two dollars in highly liqidable assets. The quick ratio acid test indicates how much of the short term creditors will be covered by current assets less inventory assets. When this ratio shows a trend that is declining, but the current ratio is greater than two to one, that means that the asset has less liquid assets like inventory than previous years. Using liquidity ratios, external users can measure if an organization has the capability to cover operational costs in the near future.

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