Golis University

Faculty of business and economics

Chapter Six
Balance sheet
 BALANCE SHEET
• The balance sheet, sometimes referred to as
the statement of financial position, reports
the assets, liabilities, and stockholders’ equity
of a business enterprise at a specific date.
 Usefulness of the Balance Sheet
• analysts use the balance sheet to assess a company’s
liquidity, solvency, and financial flexibility.
• Liquidity describes “the amount of time that is expected
to elapse until an asset is realized or otherwise converted
into cash or until a liability has to be paid.” Creditors are
interested in short-term liquidity ratios, such as the ratio
of cash (or near cash) to short-term liabilities.
• These ratios indicate whether a company, like
Amazon.com, will have the resources to pay its current
and maturing obligations.
• Similarly, stockholders assess liquidity to evaluate the
possibility of future cash dividends or the buyback of
shares.
• Solvency : Refers to the ability of a company to pay its
debts as they mature.
• For example, when a company carries a high level of
long-term debt relative to assets, it has lower solvency
than a similar company with a low level of long-term
debt.
• Companies with higher debt are relatively more risky
because they will need more of their assets to meet their
fixed obligations (interest and principal payments).
• Liquidity and solvency affect a company’s
financial flexibility, which measures the
“ability of an enterprise to take effective
actions to alter the amounts and timing of cash
flows so it can respond to unexpected needs
and opportunities.”
• For example, a company may become so
loaded with debt—so financially inflexible—
that it has little or no sources of cash to finance
expansion or to pay off maturing debt.
 Limitations of the Balance Sheet
• Most assets and liabilities are reported at historical cost. As a
result, the information provided in the balance sheet is often
criticized for not reporting a more relevant fair value.
• Companies use judgments and estimates to determine many
of the items reported in the balance sheet. For example, in its
balance sheet, Dell estimates the amount of receivables that it
will collect, the useful life of its warehouses, and the number
of computers that will be returned under warranty.
• The balance sheet necessarily omits many items that are of
financial value but that a company cannot record objectively.
 Continue ….
• A company with a high degree of financial
flexibility is better able to survive bad times, to
recover from unexpected setbacks, and to take
advantage of profitable and unexpected
investment opportunities.
ELEMENTS OF THE BALANCE SHEET

• ASSETS: Probable future economic benefits obtained or

controlled by a particular entity as a result of past
transactions or events.
• LIABILITIES: Probable future sacrifices of economic
benefits arising from present obligations of a particular
entity to transfer assets or provide services to other entities
in the future as a result of past transactions or events.
• EQUITY: Residual interest in the assets of an entity that
remains after deducting its liabilities. In a business
enterprise, the equity is the ownership interest.
• Companies then further divide these items into
several sub-classifications. Illustration 5-1
indicates the general format of balance sheet
presentation.
 Current Assets
• Current assets are cash and other assets a company expects to
convert into cash, sell, or consume either in one year or in the
operating cycle, whichever is longer. The cycle operates from
cash through inventory, production, receivables, and back to cash.
• Receivables. A company should clearly identify any anticipated
(predicted) loss due to uncollectibles, the amount and nature of any
nontrade receivables, and any receivables used as collateral.
• Major categories of receivables should be shown in the balance
sheet or the related notes.
• For receivables arising from unusual transactions (such as sale of
property) companies should separately classify these as long-term,
unless collection is expected within one year.
• Inventories. To present inventories properly, a
company discloses the basis of valuation (e.g.,
lower-of-cost-or-market) and the cost flow
assumption used (e.g., FIFO or LIFO).
• Prepaid Expenses. A company includes prepaid
expenses in current assets if it will receive benefits
(usually services) within one year or the operating
cycle, whichever is longer. As we discussed
earlier, these items are current assets because if
they had not already been paid, they would require
the use of cash during the next year or the
operating cycle.
 Noncurrent Assets
• Property, Plant, and Equipment. Property, plant, and
equipment are tangible long lived assets used in the regular
operations of the business. These assets consist of physical
property such as land, buildings, machinery, furniture,
tools, and wasting resources (timberland, minerals).
• Intangible Assets. Intangible assets lack physical substance
and are not financial instruments (see page 238 for the
definition of a financial instrument). They include patents,
copyrights, franchises, goodwill, trademarks, trade names,
and customer lists. A company writes off (amortizes)
limited-life intangible assets over their useful lives.
 Other Assets.
• The items included in the section “Other assets”
vary widely in practice.
• Some include items such as long-term prepaid
expenses, prepaid pension cost, and noncurrent
receivables.
• Other items that might be included are assets in
special funds, deferred income taxes, property
held for sale, and restricted cash.
 Liabilities
• Current Liabilities. are the obligations that a
company reasonably expects to liquidate either
through the use of current assets or the creation
of other current liabilities.
• Long-Term Liabilities. are obligations that a
company does not reasonably expect to
liquidate within the normal operating cycle.
Instead, it expects to pay them at some date
beyond that time.
 Owners’ Equity
• Owners' equity is the total assets of an entity,
minus its total liabilities. This represents the
capital theoretically available for distribution
to the owner of a sole proprietorship.
• From a company liquidation perspective,
owners' equity can be considered the residual
claim on the assets of a business to which
shareholders are entitled, after liabilities have
been paid.
 STATEMENT OF CASH
FLOWS
Purpose of the Statement of Cash Flows
• The primary purpose of a statement of cash flows is to
provide relevant information about the cash receipts and
cash payments of an enterprise during a period. To
achieve this purpose, the statement of cash flows reports
the following:
1. the cash effects of operations during a period,
2. investing transactions,
3. financing transactions, and
4. the net increase or decrease in cash during the period.
 Content and Format of the Statement of
Cash Flows
• Operating activities: involve the cash effects of transactions
that enter into the determination of net income.
• Investing activities: include making and collecting loans and
acquiring and disposing of investments (both debt and equity)
and property, plant, and equipment.
• Financing activities: involve liability and owners’ equity
items. They include
a. obtaining resources from owners and providing them with a
return on their investment, and
b. borrowing money from creditors and repaying the amounts
borrowed.
Basic Format of Cash
Flow Statement
Cash Inflows and Outflows
Statement of Cash Flows