Chapter 1 stressed the importance of financial statements in helping investors and creditors predict future cash flows. The balance sheet, along with accompanying disclosures, provides relevant information useful in helping investors and creditors not only to predict future cash flows, but also to make the related assessments of liquidity and long-term solvency. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the balance sheet and financial disclosures and to explore how this information is used by decision makers. | The Balance Sheet and Financial Disclosures Chapter 3 Chapter 3: The Balance Sheet and Financial Disclosures Chapter 1 stressed the importance of financial statements in helping investors and creditors predict future cash flows. The balance sheet, along with accompanying disclosures, provides relevant information useful in helping investors and creditors not only to predict future cash flows, but also to make the related assessments of liquidity and long-term solvency. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the balance sheet and financial disclosures and to explore how this information is used by decision makers. The Balance Sheet Limitations: The balance sheet does not portray the market value of the entity as a going concern nor its liquidation value. Resources such as employee skills and reputation are not recorded in the balance sheet. Usefulness: The balance sheet describes many of the resources a company has for generating future cash flows. It provides liquidity information useful in assessing a company’s ability to pay its current obligations. It provides long-term solvency information relating to the riskiness of a company with regard to the amount of liabilities in its capital structure. Reports a company’s financial position on a particular date. The purpose of the balance sheet, sometimes referred to as the statement of financial position, is to report a company’s financial position on a particular date. It is a freeze-frame or snapshot of financial position at the end of a particular day marking the end of an accounting period. A limitation of the balance sheet is that assets minus liabilities, measured according to GAAP, is not likely to be representative of the market value of the entity. Many assets, like land and buildings, are measured at their historical costs rather than their market values. Relatedly, many company resources including its trained employees, its experienced management team, and its reputation are not recorded as | The Balance Sheet and Financial Disclosures Chapter 3 Chapter 3: The Balance Sheet and Financial Disclosures Chapter 1 stressed the importance of financial statements in helping investors and creditors predict future cash flows. The balance sheet, along with accompanying disclosures, provides relevant information useful in helping investors and creditors not only to predict future cash flows, but also to make the related assessments of liquidity and long-term solvency. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the balance sheet and financial disclosures and to explore how this information is used by decision makers. The Balance Sheet Limitations: The balance sheet does not portray the market value of the entity as a going concern nor its liquidation value. Resources such as employee skills and reputation are not recorded in the balance sheet. Usefulness: The balance sheet describes many of the resources a company has for generating future cash flows. It provides .
