Balance Sheet

• Balance sheet is one of the most frequently referenced financial statements in accounting when analyzing a company's financial condition. A balance sheet is a complete list of a company's assets, liabilities and shareholders' equity with their respective account balances at the end of an accounting period. Thus, a balance sheet shows the strength or weakness of a company's financial position at a given point in time. However, a balance sheet doesn't discuss how a company's financial condition may have evolved since its last balance sheet issuance. Other statements in accounting focus on performance changes.
  
  

Income Statement

• Income statement is a summary of a company's financial performance during an accounting period. An income statement reports all revenues a company has earned and expenses incurred, plus any gains and losses realized during the period. Information in an income statement effectively covers financial results from all aspects of a company's business, including continuing and discontinued operations, core and secondary activities, and any unusual and extraordinary business items. Unlike a balance sheet, an income statement is not presented on a continuous basis and must start anew for the next period.
  
  

Statement of Cash Flows

• Companies use the statement of cash flows to report their cash positions. A statement of cash flows shows a company's cash balance at the beginning of a period, any cash inflows and outflows during the period, and cash balance at the end of the period. Cash flows come from three sources of business activities: operating activities, investing activities and financing activities. Operating cash flows include all cash from operations regardless of whether cash received is recognized as revenue or cash paid as expense. Investing cash flows include cash inflows from sales of investments and cash outflows from purchases of investments. Financing cash flows include cash inflows from issuing debt or equity and cash outflows from repayments on any financing-related obligations.
  
  

Statement of Shareholders' Equity

• Similar to the statement of cash flows, a statement of shareholders' equity reports any changes in the balance of shareholders' equity during a period. Thus, a statement of shareholders' equity often has a beginning balance and an ending balance. The statement not only reports the balances and changes in the total amount of shareholders' equity, it also offers details on individual accounts within the shareholders' equity section. For example, any stock issuance and share buyback, and net income for the year and dividends distributed are added to and subtracted from the beginning balance to arrive at the ending balance of total shareholders' equity.