Week 1: Introduction to Financial Statements – Discussion
Financial Statements (graded)
One key concept for week 1 is that financial statements are comprised of 4 statements: 1) Income Statement, 2) Balance Sheet, 3) Cash Flows Statement, and 4) Statement of Retained Earnings.
External users of financial statements, such as investors or banks, review the financial statements to perform analysis on the company. For example, to determine if s/he wants to buy the stock of a company, the investor may review how much profit the company has generated during the past two years. Or, to determine if a bank should provide a loan to the company, the loan officer may review the company’s cash balance from the previous two years.
Which financial statement do you believe provides the best information to determine if a company is performing well financially and/or is financially stable? Why?