What Is a Financial Statement? Definition and Guide - Shopify (2024)

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What Is a Financial Statement? Definition and Guide - Shopify (1)

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A financial statement is the combination of the three major reports on a business. It will contain the cash flow statement, the income statement and the balance sheet of the business. All three together produce an overall picture of the health of the business.

by Shopify Staff

What Is a Financial Statement? Definition and Guide - Shopify (4)

A financial statement is the combination of the three major reports on a business. It will contain the cash flow statement, the income statement and the balance sheet of the business. All three together produce an overall picture of the health of the business.

Why is a financial statement important?

The answer to this question is in the definition; it is the complete report on the health of the business taking in cash flow, income and the balance sheet. The financial statement determines if a business has to ability to repay loans, if it has the cash flow to meet bills and purchase stock. It will also tell from where the business is generating cash and where the cash goes.

The financial statement tells if the business is profitable, if it will stay profitable and if there are any large problems looming, such as a continuous drop in sales over time. Reading the financial statement will give an overall view of the condition of the business and if there are any warnings signs of possible future problems.

A bank or other such institution will look to the financial statement as the first indicator of how the business is performing and if there is a need for further investigation.

When will a company prepare a financial statement?

Every business will ready a financial statement to go with their end of year results, to give interested parties the overview of how the business is functioning. If a business is looking to increase credit facilities with a bank or trying to raise capital for an expansion, it will produce a financial statement for the end of a fiscal quarter or the most recent month.

When preparing a financial statement for such purposes the best practice is to use general accountancy language, understood by all parties. A financial statement that may accompany an end of year report and read just by employees, is often in terms familiar to just those involved.

Often a government body may request a financial statement for tax purposes and the company will need to produce one of high quality using generally accepted guidelines. A bank or investors may also request a financial statement without warning, if they are concerned about the profitability or otherwise of the company. For these reason alone it is vital for any business to keep good and current records so that a financial statement is easy and quick to produce.

Financial Statement FAQ

What is a financial statement simple definition?

A financial statement is a document that summarizes an individual or business's financial position, including assets, liabilities, and net worth. It is used to assess the financial health of an individual or business.

What are the 4 types of financial statements?

  • Balance Sheet: A statement of a company's financial position at a particular point in time, showing assets, liabilities, and net worth.
  • Income Statement: A statement of a company's financial performance over a period of time, showing revenue, expenses, gains, and losses.
  • Cash Flow Statement: A statement of a company's inflows and outflows of cash from operations, investments, and financing activities over a period of time.
  • Statement of Stockholders' Equity: A statement of the changes in a company's stockholders' equity over a period of time, showing contributions, distributions, and other changes.

by Shopify Staff

Last updated Nov 10, 2022

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What Is a Financial Statement? Definition and Guide - Shopify (2024)

FAQs

What Is a Financial Statement? Definition and Guide - Shopify? ›

A financial statement is a document that summarizes an individual or business's financial position, including assets, liabilities, and net worth.

What is the definition of a financial statement? ›

A financial statement is a report that shows the financial activities and performance of a business. It is used by lenders and investors to check a business's financial health and earnings potential.

Does Shopify provide financial statements? ›

You can access a list of finances reports on the Reports page by filtering by Category > Finances. In the list of reports, you can access the Summary report page, and other key reports.

What is my financial statement? ›

A personal financial statement is a spreadsheet that details the assets and liabilities of an individual, couple, or business at a specific point in time. Typically, the spreadsheet consists of two columns, with assets listed on the left and liabilities on the right.

What are the 5 components of the financial statements? ›

Typically, a set of accounts consists of five elements:
  • Statement of financial position (balance sheet);
  • Statement of income and expense (profit and loss account);
  • Statement of cash flows (cash flow statement);
  • Statement of changes in equity; and.
  • Notes to the accounts.

What best describes financial statements? ›

Answer and Explanation: C) Financial statements are documents that report on a business in monetary terms, providing information to help people make informed business decisions.

What is the purpose of financial statements? ›

"The objective of financial statements is to provide information about the financial position, performance and changes in financial position of an enterprise that is useful to a wide range of users in making economic decisions." Financial statements should be understandable, relevant, reliable and comparable.

Does Shopify report you to IRS? ›

Does Shopify directly report my sales to the IRS? No, Shopify itself does not report your sales directly to the IRS. However, the payment processors integrated with Shopify, like Shopify Payments, PayPal, or Stripe, are required to report your sales to the IRS if they exceed certain thresholds.

Where is Finance in Shopify? ›

You can view financial information provided by Shopify in a structured way. From your Shopify homepage, go to Analytics > Reports. In the Finances section, click Finances summary.

How to get a Shopify statement? ›

From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Billing. In the Statement of charges section, click View summary. In the Statement of charges page, select a time frame using the date range drop-down menu to view all charges within that time frame. Data is available only for the last 90 days.

What is an example of a financial statement? ›

The income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows are required financial statements.

What counts as a financial statement? ›

The three main types of financial statements are the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow statement. These three statements together show the assets and liabilities of a business, revenues, and costs, as well as its cash flows from operating, investing, and financing activities.

What do you put in a financial statement? ›

The line items in a financial statement will vary from one corporation to the next, but the most common among them are revenues, costs of goods sold, taxes, cash, marketable securities, inventory, short-term debt, long-term debt, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and cash flows from investing, operating, and ...

What 7 items must financial statements consist of? ›

The major elements of the financial statements (i.e., assets, liabilities, fund balance/net assets, revenues, expenditures, and expenses) are discussed below, including the proper accounting treatments and disclosure requirements.

What is the most important financial statement? ›

The income statement will be the most important if you want to evaluate a business's performance or ascertain your tax liability. The income statement (Profit and loss account) measures and reports how much profit a business has generated over time. It is, therefore, an essential financial statement for many users.

What are the 4 key financial statements? ›

There are four basic types of financial statements used to do this: income statements, balance sheets, statements of cash flow, and statements of owner equity.

What is the definition of basic financial statements? ›

Financial statements are documents that convey a company's business activities and financial performance. As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) succinctly put it, “They show you where a company's money came from, where it went, and where it is now.”

What is a financial statement in layman's terms? ›

Financial statements are written records that illustrates the business activities and the financial performance of a company. In most cases they are audited to ensure accuracy for tax, financing, or investing purposes.

What are the 3 types of financial statements? ›

The income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows are required financial statements. These three statements are informative tools that traders can use to analyze a company's financial strength and provide a quick picture of a company's financial health and underlying value.

What is a simple definition of statement of financial position? ›

The statement of financial position for a company is often referred to as the balance sheet. It is used to report the assets, liabilities, and equity of a business on a given date – a summary, or snapshot, of its overall value at a certain point in time.

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