Understanding a Balance Sheet With Examples and Video

By Rutul Patel — In Bookkeeping — July 30, 2020

This document gives detailed information about the assets and liabilities for a given time. By analysing balance sheet, company owners can keep their business on a good financial footing. The asset section is organized from current to non-current and broken down into two or three subcategories.

  1. This may refer to payroll expenses, rent and utility payments, debt payments, money owed to suppliers, taxes, or bonds payable.
  2. It uses formulas to obtain insights into a company and its operations.
  3. Adding total liabilities to shareholders’ equity should give you the same sum as your assets.

Fundamental Balance Sheet Equation

Since they own the company, this amount is intuitively based on the accounting equation—whatever assets are left over after the liabilities have been accounted for must be owned by the owners, by equity. These are listed at the bottom of the balance sheet because the owners are paid back after all liabilities have been paid. All assets that are not listed as current assets, are grouped as non-current assets. A common characteristic of such assets is that they continue providing benefit for a long period of time – usually more than one year. Examples of such assets include long-term investments, equipment, plant and machinery, land and buildings, and intangible assets.

Part 2: Your Current Nest Egg

There are two formats of presenting assets, liabilities and owners’ equity in the balance sheet – account format and report format. In account format, the balance sheet is divided into left and right sides like a T account. The assets are listed on the left hand side whereas both liabilities and owners’ equity are listed on the right hand side of the balance sheet. If all the elements of the balance sheet are correctly listed, the total of asset side (i.e., left side) must be equal to the total of liabilities and owners’ equity side (i.e., right side). One thing to note is that just like in the accounting equation, total assets equals total liabilities and equity. If you are preparing a balance sheet for one of your accounting homework problems and it doesn’t balance, something was input incorrectly.

What is the Shareholders Equity Section of the Balance Sheet?

As the founder of Business Accounting Basics, she offers a wealth of free advice and practical tips to small business owners and entrepreneurs dealing with business finance complexities. When a company makes a profit, the amount of profit is added to shareholders’ equity. When a company loses money, the loss is subtracted from shareholders’ equity. Inventory stock includes all items a business possesses with the intention of selling, including products currently in stock. Various techniques, such as the first in, first out (FIFO) and last in, first out (LIFO) methods, are used for calculating stock levels.

Free Balance Sheet Templates

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