Elements of Financial Reporting
Financial Statement Preparation:
Prepare the necessary financial statements, including:
- income statements
- balance sheets
- and cash flow statements.
Ensure that the financial statements comply with applicable accounting standards and accurately represent the organization’s financial performance, position, and cash flow.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Identification:
Identify and define key performance indicators (KPIs) that are relevant to the organization’s financial goals and objectives. These may include metrics such as revenue growth, profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, and efficiency ratios.
Report Generation:
Generate comprehensive finance reports that provide a clear overview of the organization’s financial performance. Include the financial statements, KPIs, and other relevant information in a format that is easily understandable by stakeholders, such as management, investors, and regulatory authorities.
Distribution and Presentation:
Distribute the finance reports to the intended recipients in a timely manner. This may involve presenting the reports during management meetings, board meetings, or investor presentations. Clearly communicate the key findings, trends, and insights from the finance reports to facilitate decision-making and transparency.
Financial Statements
Financial statements — standard summaries of a company’s financial profile — are the most essential component of financial reporting. Each financial statement has its own importance.
The financial statements are used by investors, market analysts, and creditors to evaluate a company’s financial health and earnings potential.
Here we’ve outlined the most important ones to consider;
1. Income statement:
The income statement reports revenue, expenses, and net income/(loss) for a fiscal period.
2. Balance Sheet
A balance sheet shows the company’s financial position at a certain time. It lists the company’s assets, liabilities, and equity in accordance with the accounting equation: Assets = Liabilities + Equity.
3. Cash flow statement
The cash flow statement presents a summary of how a company received and disbursed cash over a stated period.
Financial Reporting Use Cases
Perhaps you need financial reporting for your accountant or tax purposes, but did you know financial reporting can also be used by;
- By potential investors who are considering buying stock in a company.
- For banks’ analyses of credit applications for loans, lines of credit and letters of credit for overseas activity.
- By credit card issuers evaluating a corporate or business credit card application.
- For potential merger or acquisition activity.
- For bargaining with labor unions.
- For senior management, to analyze profitability at all levels: consolidated, by subsidiary, by location and by product.
- To identify, analyze and manage cash flow.
- To build budgets, projections and forecasts.
- To support decisions regarding business expansion or reduction.
