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Financial Statements

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Submitted By zuzana
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Financial Statement Differentiation Paper
Introduction
Whether someone is running a business or wants to invest it is crucial to know how to use financial statements, how each statement impacts the other. Financial statements users can see how the company allocates its resources and can also compare one company to another. The four main prepared according to GAAP financial statements are: 1. the income statement, 2. the balance sheet, 3. the statement of cash flow and 4. the retained earnings statement. Accurate, reliable, and timely statements are used for internal and external purposes.
Income Statement An income statement shows how much revenue any business earned over a certain period, such as a year or a quarter, and the costs, and expenses associated with it. The financial statement users can see if the business were profitable or lost money. It is most likely the most used financial statement because it has helpful information like interest and insurance expenses, tax payments, etc. Investors are interested in this statement because it calculates net income, an important indicator of current and future profitability. They can see how effectively management is controlling expenses and investing their money. Creditors also need information about the future earnings because their loans need to be repaid. And if they did not think it would be repaid, they would not loan the money to company (Kimmel, 2009). On this statement, managers compare sales and expenses from one period to previous and that helps them to identify potential problem areas. They can investigate and determine what caused the changes. Management can also see where expenses can be cut to reach higher income.
Balance Sheet The statement, which shows what the company owns (assets) and what it owes (liabilities and net worth) at a certain

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