The health of any business is indicated by its financial statements. The Balance Sheet shows the business solvency and the worth of its assets and liabilities at a point in time. The Income statements show the income, expenses and the resultant profit over a period of time and reflect the profitability or viability of the business.
Assets are resources owned by the business, even with future monetary value and also include those costs the benefits of which are still accruing. These should be recorded on the date acquired at the cost acquired, inclusive of procurement costs till it is put to use. This article explains the treatment and recording of assets in the Balance Sheets and Income statements.
STEP 1:
Plant, property and machinery. These include all the fixed assets used in the day-to-day operation of the business and have a long life. These assets are recorded at their original cost with the depreciation being subtracted from each asset value. There are different methods of spreading the cost of the asset over its estimated useful life and all will record the same total depreciation over the life of the asset with variations in the amount recorded in any one year.
STEP 2:
Intangible assets. These include trademarks; patents and goodwill are shown as the purchase cost or developing cost. Goodwill is normally when it has been valued during the purchase of the business.
STEP 3:
The Income Statement. This shows the net result of operations over a period and records:
- Revenue from business, income from rent, interest
- Cost of goods sold is the cost of goods purchased (during the accounting period & includes transportation cost) plus inventory at the beginning and minus the inventory at the end of the period.
- Gross margin is the difference between income from operations and cost of goods sold and covers operating expenses, taxes, and profit.
- Operating expenses (like expenses for utilities, wages, insurance etc or other using up of assets during the accounting period) are subtracted from the Gross margin to arrive at Net Income (before income taxes).
As a final word, the above are overall norms and it is the country organisation's standards with the international accounting standards, which serve as the ultimate guideline for all financial records.
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