We have already seen that the assets tell us how the company uses its resources.

Assets in turn are broken down into current and non-current assets. Current assets
are those that are expected to be sold, converted to cash, or consumed within the
next year. Everything else is a non-current asset. Example of current assets are
cash and cash equivalents, inventories, and receivables.
Examples of non-current assets are plant, property, and equipment, typically
denoted by PP&E.

we will use Amazon.com, Incorporated financial state points from December 2015 and
rare necessary also from December 2014 to better illustrate and understand the
various items that form each financial statement. The financial statements are from
Amazon.com 's annual report for the year ending 2015. Let's stake a detailed look
at the various items that constitute current assets. The first item under current
assets is cash and cash equivalents. It includes currency, coins, checks received
but not yet deposited, checking accounts, petty cash, savings accounts, money
market accounts, and short-term highly liquid investments with the majority of
three months or less at the time of purchase. At the end of December, 2015, Amazon
had cash and cash equivalents worth $15.89 billion on hand.

The next item on the current assets are marketable securities. These include
investments in various types of financial securities like stocks, bonds, etcetera.
They are not as liquid as cash and cash equivalents, but may be converted to cash
easy. Amazon had marketable securities worth $3.92 billion at the end of 2015. Cash
and cash equivalents and marketable securities make up
the investments part of current assets.

The other two items that constitute current assets are related to the company’s
operations. These are inventories and account receivables.

Inventories include all raw materials that the company has bought. All work in
progress products as well as all finished goods. Not all these sub-items may be
relevant to all companies. For example, companies in the services industry are
unlikely to have a large inventory of finished goods or even work in progress.
Almost all of its inventory may be the cost of supplies that the company has bought
Which will be used in the delivery of its services. For Amazon inventories stood at
$10.24 billion at the end of 2015. Books, consumer electronics, and other consumer
goods that it sells through its website is likely to make up a large fraction of
this $10.24 million.

The final item on the current assets part of the balance sheet is accounts
receivable. This includes all the money of the company's clients when company sell
their products, and services, they will not always insist on cash payment as soon
as the product, or services delivered. The client or customer may be given a few
days to a few months to pay. In other words, the client has extended credit for a
fixed period of time. While the company waits for the customer to pay, the value of
the sale is recorded as an account receivable. This signifies that the company has
delivered its product or service to the client or customer, but it is yet to be
paid. The client has an obligation to the company and hence it is an asset for the
company. Amazon had account receivable of $6.423 billion at the end of 2015. And
its annual report, Amazon note that most of this amount is due from its customers,
vendors, and sellers. Adding all four components gives the company's current
assets. This represents cash, as well as assets, that will be converted to cash
within one year. Amazon's current assets add up to $36.47 billion at the end of
2015. Turning our attention to non-current assets the largest and most important
contribution to non-current assets is planned property and equipment. PP&E this
includes all land, buildings, machinery, office equipment, vehicles, furniture, and
fixtures, that a company uses to run its business. Amazon had $2.84 billion in PP&E
in the end of 2015. Amazon's annual report for 2015 notes that this includes
buildings and land that they own along with property that they have acquired under
build to suit, financing and capital lease arrangements. That equipment includes
assets such as furniture and fixtures, heavy equipment, servers and networking
equipment, and internal use software and web site development. The other major part
of non-current assets is intangible assets, which includes non-physical assets such
as patents, trademarks, copyright, goodwill and brand recognition. These intangible
asserts add to a company's future worth and in time will be more valuable than
tangible assets. Amazon had goodwill worth $3.76 billion under non-current assets
at the end of 2015. Additionally, it had some miscellaneous other assets worth
$3.37 billion. PP&E, goodwill, and other assets totaled up to $28.97 billion in
non-current assets at the end of 2015. Given current assets worth $36.47 billion
and non-current assets worth $28.97 billion, Amazon had total assets worth $65.44
billion at the end of 2015. Remember, asserts represent how a company uses its
resources. But where do the $36.47 billion in resources come from? This is what the
liabilities and shareholders’ equity part of the balance sheet tells us. We will
look at a detailed breakdown of a company's liabilities next time.