Welcome to the SmallBusiness.com WIKI
The free sourcebook of small business knowledge from SmallBusiness.com
Currently with 29,735 entries and growing.

WIKI Welcome Page
Local | Glossaries | How-to's | Guides | Start-up | Links | Technology | All Hubs
About · Help Hub · Register to Edit · Editing Help
Twitter: @smallbusiness | Facebook | Pinterest | Google+

SmallBusiness-com-logo.jpeg

In addition to the information found on the SmallBusiness.com/WIKI,
you may find more information and help on a topic
by clicking over to SmallBusiness.com and searching there.


Note | Editorial privileges have been turned off temporarily.
You can still use the Wiki but cannot edit existing posts or add new posts.
You can e-mail us at info@smallbusiness.com.


Balance Sheet

SmallBusiness.com: The free small business resource
Jump to: navigation, search

Balance Sheet is a statement of the book value of all of the assets and liabilities (including equity) of a business or other organization or person at a particular date, at the end of a period such as a "fiscal year," as distinct from an income statement.

A balance sheet is often described as a "snapshot" of the company's financial condition on a given date. Of the four basic financial statements, the balance sheet is the only statement which applies to a single point in time, instead of a period of time.

A modern balance sheet usually has three parts: assets, liabilities and shareholders' equity. The main categories of assets are usually listed first and are followed by the liabilities. The difference between the assets and the liabilities is known as the 'net assets' or the 'net worth' of the company. The net assets shown by the balance sheet equals the third part of the balance sheet, which is known as the shareholders' equity. Formally, shareholders' equity is part of the company's liabilities: they are funds "owing" to shareholders (after payment of all other liabilities); usually, however, "liabilities" is used in the more restrictive sense of liabilities excluding shareholders' equity. The balance of assets and liabilities (including shareholders' equity) is not a coincidence. Records of the values of each account in the balance sheet are maintained using a system of accounting known as double-entry bookkeeping. In this sense, shareholders' equity by construction must equal assets minus liabilities, and are a residual.

Source

Wiki25.jpg
This entry includes content from the following Wikipedia article:Balance sheet

See Also

SB glossary new.jpg
This term or phrase is currently an entry in The SmallBusiness.com Business Glossary WIKI. Please help expand this entry into a more detailed description.
Wrench-small.jpg
This is a SmallBusiness.com stub: This page has been started by a user, but it needs more information and formatting to be considered an entry. If you can help, please add information that will make this entry helpful. See: How to edit an entry.