The balance sheet, along with the income statement is prepared at the end of the financial year. It shows the value of a business’ assets and liabilities at a particular time. It is also known as ‘statement of financial position’.
Assets are those items of value owned by the business.
- Fixed/non-current assets (buildings, vehicles, equipment etc.) are assets that remain in the business for more than a year – their values fall over time in a process called depreciation every year.
- Short-term/current assets (inventory, trade receivables (debts from customers), cash etc) are owned only for a very short time.
- There can also intangible (cannot be touched or felt) non-current assets like copyrights and patents that add value to the business.
Liabilities are the debts owed by the business to its creditors.
- Long-term/non-current liabilities (loans, debentures etc.)- they do not have to be repaid within a year.
- Short-term/current liabilities (trade payables (to suppliers), overdraft etc.)- these need to be repaid within a year.
CURRENT ASSETS – CURRENT LIABILITIES = WORKING CAPITAL
This is because the liquid cash a company has with them will be the liquid (short-term) assets they own less the short-term debts they have to pay.
Shareholder’s Equityis the total amount of money invested in the company by shareholders. This will include both the share capital (invested directly by shareholders) and reserves (retained earnings reserve, general reserve etc.).
Shareholders can see if their stake in the business has risen or fallen by looking at the total equity figure on the balance sheet.
Check whether the equations on the right are satisfied in this balance sheet!
SHAREHOLDERS EQUITY= TOTAL ASSETS – TOTAL LIABILITIES
TOTAL ASSETS = TOTAL LIABILITIES + SHAREHOLDERS EQUITY
CAPITAL EMPLOYED = SHAREHOLDERS EQUITY + NON-CURRENT LIABILITIES
This is because non-current liabilities like loans are also used for permanent investment in the company.
Uses of a statement of financial position
- When the current assets subtotal is compared to the current liabilities subtotal, investors can estimate whether a firm has access to sufficient funds in the short term to pay off its short-term obligations i.e., whether it is liquid
- One can also compare the total amount of debt (liabilities) to the total amount of equity listed on the balance sheet, to see if the resulting debt-equity ratio indicates a dangerously high level of borrowing. This information is especially useful for lenders and creditors, (especially banks) who want to know if the firm will be able to pay back its debt
- Investors like to examine the amount of cash on the balance sheet to see if there is enough available to pay them a dividend
- Managers can examine its balance sheet to see if there are any assets that could potentially be sold off without harming the underlying business. For example, they can compare the reported inventory assets to the sales to derive an inventory turnover level, which can indicate the presence of excess inventory, so they will sell off the excess inventory to raise finance
Notes submitted by Lintha
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i only wish y’all did this for bio, physics and chem cause i really fricked those up, the other notes are so confusing>> (i didn’t take coordinated science that’s why)
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you can use savemyexams.com to revise for STEM subjects, I think this site is strongly focused on Business/Economics.
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See AlsoHow Do You Read a Balance Sheet?Reply
the only reason i did somewhat okay on my business paper 1 (actual igcse, m/j 2022) is because i read these notes on the way to school (it’s a 2 hour long bus ride)
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Any tips ( i suck at bs including paper 1 and 2)
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Hey, coming from someone who gets an A star , I strongly recommend that you use mind maps, don’t try reading every chapter individually try connecting all the chapters and forming a bigger picture, ensure that you know all the key terms very well and that your analysis and application game is mad strong, evaluation too but its only 15 percent of ur grade, anyways good luck, I hope you do well!
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Really focus on connecting all the chapters and forming a bigger picture of the subject busines studies as a whole, don’t read them individually, and apply your answers to the case study wherever possible, best of luck, I hope you do well!
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