Research Paper on Financial Statements

An income statement, also known as a profit and loss statement shows how much money a company has spent over a period of time. It also shows the costs and expenses that are associated with earning that revenue. It is an important measure of the company’s profitability. The simple building blocks of a net income formula are revenues minus expenses equal net income.

When you’re looking at the income statement, you can get information about profitability for a particular period. This is also called the profit and loss statement. The income statement is composed of both income and expenses. This statement can be used to deduct expenses from income and report either a net profit or net loss for that period. This statement will deduct all expenses from income and then report your net profit or net loss for that period. This will allow the business owner to determine if the business is bringing in a good amount of revenue to make a profit. The cash flow statement shows the movement in cash and balance over period. The cash flow can vary depending on the operating activities, investing and financing activities. This statement provides one business owner with insight to the company’s liquidity which is vital to the growth of the business. Reinvesting in business is very important, looking at the statement of retained earnings will tell a business owner how much were reinvested in the company. After profitable period, every big business has to give some of its profits to stockholders, and keep the rest amount as retained earnings. Out of all statements, retaining statement is important to companies that sells stocks to the public. This statement can also provide you with assets and liabilities information. These informations can be used to assess the financial health of your business. The results of a balance sheet will help the business owners to show the risk of liquidity and credit. Looking at these information you can measure trends and relationships to show where in the areas you can improve. These can also be compared to similar companies to show how the business measures up to leading competitors (Ali, 2010). In summary, the financial statements can provide a business owner

a.) The income statement, also called the profit & loss account (P & L), is used to illustrate a company’s revenues and expenses over a particular period of time. It shows the net profit and/or loss for the given period (the difference between the business’ total income and its total costs). It also allows shareholders to see the performance of the business and if it has made an acceptable profit.

* An income statement is a report that contains information in regards to an organizations’ assets and financing in order to obtain those assets that is collected over a certain period of time

(Ohara, 2007) Most financial statements are made public for the benefit of stakeholders and potential investors. The bottom-line is that financial statements are the main source for analyzing how well a company is operating. The income (or profit and loss) statement is simply a report card of how much activity (revenue) was performed in the period, how profitable that activity was (gross profit/loss), and what it cost the contractor to run the business (overhead). (Murphy, 2006)

The income statement (IS) also known as the profit & loss statement provides the net gain or net loss of a business entity. The importance of the income statement is to evaluate profitability of a company (Finkler, Jones, and Koyner, 2013). The best use of the IS,

Reports revenues and expenses for a specific period of time. A firm's revenues, gains, expenses and losses are listed on the income statement. Revenue is money earned from a company’s

Income statements generally report on a period matching the standard accounting periods of the business, or may cover a specific period as defined for research purposes. At the core, the income statement provides a key measure of the profitability of a business. This differs from the liquidity or cash on hand of a business, but instead examines the business’ ability to bring in revenues that exceed expenses over a given period of time (Hofstrand, 2009).

According to Hermanson, R., Maher, M., & Edwards, J. by definition an income statement “is a financial statement that shows cases a companies’ profitability during a set period”. How that profitability is measure is by comparing the revenues earned with the expenses incurred to produce these revenues. If the production of these revenues exceed the expenses that they incurred than the company has gained a net income and if the expenses incur were to exceed the revenue than the company has suffered a net loss.

The income statement is one of three financial statements that stock investors need to become familiar with (the other two are balance sheet and cash flow statement) (Loth, 2017). The income statement is created of four sections: sales or revenue, cost of goods or services sold, expenses, and net profit/loses. “Sales/revenues is how much revenue the company brought in by selling its products or services. Cost of goods/services sold is how much the company spent to purchase or produce the products or services it sold. Expenses is how much the company spent to keep the doors of the business open. Essentially, this includes all expenses except those spent specifically on the cost of goods or services sold. Net Profit or Loss: the "bottom line" that tells whether the company made a profit or operated at a loss” (Epstein,2014). This might lead you to the question of what the purpose of the income statement is? Once you understand the income statement you will understand how well a company is doing or not doing. In this paper, it will analyze the income statement of Ford Motor company from December 2010-2012.

Landry’s Debt to Asset ratio also increased from year 2002 to 2003. In 2002 Landry had a debt to asset ratio of 0.39. In 2003 Landry’s debt to asset ratio increased to 0.45. While both numbers are acceptable and considerably low, the increase from 2002 to 2003 could influence potential investors to not invest in Landry’s stock. This increase also suggests that Landry’s debt also increased from 2002 to 2003. Overall, while there was a slight increase from 2002 to 2003 Landry’s still had a good debt to asset ratio. We think that a contributing factor to the debt

The first of the financial statements is the income statement. The income statement states the revenues and expenses in an understandable way that shows a clear picture of net income or net loss for the

deducted from the list of liabilities plus the amount of capital. The positive difference is the net

It is important for every business to carry out financial statement analysis in order to gain an understanding of their current financial status. There are two main types of financial statements that businesses commonly use when it comes to financial analysis. These are known as the Profit and Loss Account and the Statement of Financial Position. A profit and loss account consists of a list of expenses incurred by the company, against their revenues over a certain period of time. It shows whether the organisation

Financial Statements basically show the historical performance or record of the company at some previous point of time. By the time when financial statements are made public, changes are many economical areas such as market conditions, currency exchange rate and inflations can change the values of assets and liabilities. In this case there often exist discrepancies between book value of assets and their market values.