How to Read & Prepare a Balance Sheet | QuickBooks (2024)

FAQs

How do you read a balance sheet for beginners? ›

The balance sheet is broken into two main areas. Assets are on the top or left, and below them or to the right are the company's liabilities and shareholders' equity. A balance sheet is also always in balance, where the value of the assets equals the combined value of the liabilities and shareholders' equity.

The balance sheet is based on the fundamental equation: Assets = Liabilities + Equity.

A balance sheet is a financial statement that reports a company's assets, liabilities, and shareholder equity. The balance sheet is one of the three core financial statements that are used to evaluate a business.

A balance sheet should show you all the assets acquired since the company was born, as well as all the liabilities. It is based on a double-entry accounting system, which ensures that equals the sum of liabilities and equity. In a healthy company, assets will be larger than liabilities, and you will have equity.

More liquid items like cash and accounts receivable go first, whereas illiquid assets like inventory will go last. After listing a current asset, you'll then need to include your non-current (long-term) ones.

A business Balance Sheet has 3 components: assets, liabilities, and net worth or equity. The Balance Sheet is like a scale. Assets and liabilities (business debts) are by themselves normally out of balance until you add the business's net worth.

Income Statement Evaluation

Analyzing the Income Statement helps evaluate a company's profitability, growth, and ability to generate consistent earnings. Positive net income and increasing revenues are signs of a financially healthy company.

While the P&L statement gives us information about the company's profitability, the balance sheet gives us information about the assets, liabilities, and shareholders equity. The P&L statement, as you understood, discusses the profitability for the financial year under consideration.

How to interpret a balance sheet? ›

The basic equation underlying the balance sheet is Assets = Liabilities + Equity. Analysts should be aware that different types of assets and liabilities may be measured differently. For example, some items are measured at historical cost or a variation thereof and others at fair value.

The balance sheet (also referred to as the statement of financial position) discloses what an entity owns (assets) and what it owes (liabilities) at a specific point in time. Equity is the owners' residual interest in the assets of a company, net of its liabilities.

A balance sheet is a financial statement that contains details of a company's assets or liabilities at a specific point in time. It is one of the three core financial statements (income statement and cash flow statement being the other two) used for evaluating the performance of a business.

The Bottom Line

Depending on what an analyst or investor is trying to glean, different parts of a balance sheet will provide a different insight. That being said, some of the most important areas to pay attention to are cash, accounts receivables, marketable securities, and short-term and long-term debt obligations.