What is a balance sheet?

What is a balance sheet?

A balance sheet is a snapshot showing the company’s finances at a moment in time. The balance sheet is made up of: assets (things the business owns), liabilities (debts), and shareholders’ equity. It adheres to the accounting principle of Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders’ equity. Assets are listed in order of most liquid to least. (liquidity- is the level of ease an asset can be converted to cash). Assets are then broken up into short-term and long-term assets (cash vs land). 

 

Liabilities are the outstanding balances a company owes to a third party. Similar to assets, liabilities are also separate into the current and long-term. Current liabilities due within one year are listed in order of their due date while long-term liabilities are ones that are due beyond one year. An example of current liabilities are wages payable, interest payable, and insurance payable. Examples of long-term liabilities are pension fund liabilities and long-term debt.

 

Shareholder's Equity (SE) is the money associated with the company’s owners, also known as its shareholders. The retained earnings portion of SE is the net earning a company reinvests or uses to pay off debt. What remains is distributed to shareholders (dividends). 

For more information on this topic, check out this article from our friends at Investopedia.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/balancesheet.asp