Financial: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Balance Sheet Essay

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1. “Financial statements”: what does that mean ?
Financial statements are a way to report financial information about a business or organization. The information in financial statements can be used by people within a company, such as managers and employees, and by people outside the organization including vendors, invertors, and bankers.

Also a report which quantitatively describes the financial health of a company. And manage proactively, you should plan to generate financial statements on a monthly basis.

2. What reports are included in the financial statements?
This includes an income statement and a balance sheet, and often also includes a cash flow statement. Financial statements are usually compiled on a quarterly and annual basis.

Income Statement
Simply put, the income statement measures all your revenue sources vs. business expenses for a given time period. To help explain things easily, let's consider an apparel manufacturer as an example in outlining the major components of the income statement:
Sales. This is the gross revenue generated from the sale of clothing less returns (cancellations) and allowances (reduction in price for discounts taken by customers).
Cost of goods sold. This is the direct cost associated with manufacturing the clothing. These costs include materials used, direct labor, plant manager salaries, freight and other costs associated with operating a plant (for example, utilities, equipment repairs, etc.).
Gross profit. The gross profit represents the amount of direct profit associated with the actual manufacturing of the clothing. It's calculated as sales less the cost of goods sold.
Operating expenses. These are the selling, general and administrative expenses that are necessary to run the business. Examples include office salaries, insurance, advertising, sales commissions and rent.
Depreciation. Depreciation expense is usually included in operating expenses and/or cost of goods sold, but it is worthy of special mention due to its unusual nature. Depreciation results when a company purchases a fixed asset and expenses it over the entire period of its planned use, not just in the year purchased. The IRS requires certain depreciation schedules to be followed for tax reasons. Depreciation is a noncash expense in that the cash flows out when the asset is purchased, but the cost is taken over a period of years depending on the type of asset.
Whether depreciation is included in cost of goods sold or in operating expenses depends on the type of asset being depreciated. Depreciation is listed with cost of goods sold if the expense associated with the fixed asset is used in the direct production of inventory. Examples include the purchase of production equipment and machinery and a building that houses a production plant.
Depreciation is listed with operating expenses if the cost is associated with fixed assets used for selling, general and administrative purposes. Examples include vehicles for salespeople or an office computer and phone system.
Operating profit. This is the amount of profit earned during the normal course of operations. It is computed by subtracting the operating expenses from the gross profit.
Other income and expenses. Other income and expenses are those items that don't occur during the normal course of business operation. For instance, a clothing maker doesn't normally earn income from rental property or interest on investments, so these income sources are accounted for separately. Interest expense on debt is also included in this category. A net figure is computed by subtracting other expenses from other income.
Net profit before taxes. This figure represents the amount of income earned by the business before paying taxes. The number is computed by adding other income (or subtracting if other expenses exceed other income) to the operating profit.
Income taxes. This is the total amount of state and federal income taxes paid.
Net profit after taxes.
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